Ohio State vs. Arkansas

I am picking Ohio State to win the Sugar Bowl against the Razorbacks. Not only because I am a huge Buckeye fan, but because I feel the Buckeyes defense will have their best performance of the season. Their defense has stepped it up in the big games, the only game they did not step it up was against Wisconsin.  Last year, in the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes and Pryor, played great. In the big games, the Buckeyes play great. Pryor will define his career again with a victory over Arkansas and next year the Buckeyes will be a highly ranked team with national championship hopes.

Arkansas

The Arkansas Razorbacks are #8 in the nation and will be facing a tough Buckeye team.  They are 10-2 and their only 2 losses come from SEC powerhouse schools Auburn and Alabama. The Razorbacks are led by quarterback Ryan Mallet. Mallet is a transfer from Michigan. Consequently, Mallet used to be a Michigan Wolverine, a rival of Ohio State. He will get his chance to beat his former rival when the Razorbacks play the Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl. Mallet has passed for 3592 yards and 30 td's so his passing will definitely be a threat to Ohio State's defense.

Ohio State Buckeyes

Overall, the Buckeyes had a very successful season leading up to their bowl game. They went 11-1 with their only loss to Rose Bowl bound Wisconsin Badgers. The Buckeyes now look forward to playing Arkansas in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. This is a great bowl for the Buckeyes to be in and another BCS birth under Jim Tressel.  Arkansas is 10-2 and is ranked 8th in the polls while Ohio State is sixth. This bowl game will feature many star athletes and will be a defensive game.

Tournament Style playoffs vs. BCS

The top 10 BCS standings were released this evening and Ohio State is ranked #6. A discussion has come up between my roommate and myself on how we would feel if the BCS was eliminated and a 10-16 team college football playoff would be played in order to find a national champion. We figured out that if Ohio State were to play in a playoff game, the first round would be played against Wisconsin, which would be a rematch from earlier this season. I think a tournament style playoff would be awesome because it would bring more business to Columbus and it would also expand fan interest.  College football needs a playoff in order to select a national champion.

Buckeyes are #6

Currently, the Ohio State Buckeyes are #6 in the nation and are predicted to get an at large bid to the Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes have been in a BCS bowl game every season since 2004, including two national championship seasons. Tonight, the Buckeyes will see who they will be matched up against in the first week of the BCS bowl prediction show.  As of now, it looks like we will be playing Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. We are most likely going to play an SEC team in the Sugar Bowl.

BUCKEYES TAKE DOWN MICHIGAN

It has now been 2,562 days since Michigan has beaten the Ohio State Buckeyes in football. This is an extrodinary stat that Ohio State has been working on since Jim Tressell has been coaching the Buckeyes. Tressell is now 9-1 against Michigan and has won 7 straight games in the rivalry. Ohio State played Michigan yesterday and the game ended in a shellacking 37-7 victory for the #8 Buckeyes. This win put the Buckeyes at 10-1 for the season and they are wating to see what plays out the last two weeks of college football to see what bowl they will be in.
Jordan Hall had a huge kick return touchdown that started the shellacking of the Wolverines.  It was the spark that ignited not only the Buckeye crowd, but the team as well.
Terrelle Pryor passed the ball for 220 yards and the Buckeyes rushed for over 250 yards. It was an overall great game on both sides of the ball. The defense only gave up 7 points against a highly ranked offense.
Jim Tressell just has a waiting game to see what bowl his Buckeyes will get into.

Ohio State beats Penn State

After a big first half, Ohio State came back from a 14-3 deficit to beat Penn State 38-14. The Buckeyes defense stepped up their play in the second half, shutting out the Nittany Lions. The defense had two interception returns for touchdowns. The offense still played conservatively but scored on a couple of their drives. The Buckeyes look forward to a huge game against Iowa, who lost today to Northwestern. If the Buckeyes can win out, against Iowa next week and Michigan in the final week of their season, they will receive a share of the Big Ten Title. The Buckeyes have a lot to work on in order to keep their Rose Bowl and Big Ten hopes alive.

osu-penn st. halftime report

Ohio State now has their hands full in the second half. The Buckeyes find themselves down 14-3 at the end of the first half.  The Buckeyes defense have not played well against the pass, giving up two passing touchdowns. The first and only two touchdowns ever given up by Ohio State against Penn St. in Columbus since Joe Paterno started coaching at Penn St. Also,  Ohio State needs to improve their passing game as well. Pryor has not had very good field vision throughout the game and he needs to look downfield more. Another note for the game so far is that Jim Tressel has been calling a very conservative game again. Well see if this all changes the second half of the game.

osu vs. penn st.

Today, the #9 Ohio State Buckeyes play the unranked Penn State Nittany Lions in a Big Ten battle to keep Ohio State's Rose Bowl hopes alive. They will defintiely be tested because they play the best football coach to ever know the game, Joe Paterno. Last week, Paterno won is 400th football game. A record that might never be broken. Ohio State has its back up against the wall, needed to win all 3 of their remaining games to head to the Rose Bowl.  Penn State is an aggressive team with weapons all over the field and Ohio State cannot take them lightly. The Nittany Lions defense will definitely give the OSU offense a game. Although this is a crucial factor in the game, Terelle Pryor, OSU qb, will be on top of his game ready to prove himself, once again, as one of the top quarterbacks in the nation.

Ohio State- Bye Week

Ohio State goes into their bye week as the #11 ranked team in the country according to the BCS computer polls. This is a good spot for Ohio State to be even with 1 loss on the season. The 8-1,Buckeyes played a great first half of a season excluding their loss to Wisconsin, who is now ranked in the top 10 in the BCS computer rankings. 

Terrelle Pryor has had a quietly stellar year, passing for 1,997 yards and rushing for 463 yards. The number standing out here is his passing yards. He has been known to be a scrambling quarterback but recently, the Ohio State offense has transformed Pryor into a more complete quarterback. Pryor has thrown for 20 touchdowns already this season.


Other notable player for the Buckeyes who have had a good season so far are : Boom Herron, DeVere Posey, and Brandon Saine.

Buckeyes Roll Past Purdue

Ohio State made a statement on Saturday by beating Purdue 49-0. After a tough road loss in Wisconsin, Ohio State needed a game like this in order to get their confidence back in check. A strong performance by running back Boom Herron and quarterback Terrelle Pryor, boosted the Buckeyes offensive attack. The Buckeyes scored on their first drive and didn't look back from there. 

The Buckeyes defense, which struggled the previous week against Wisconsin, shut Purdue's offense out and played an overall, solid game. 

Special Teams for the Buckeyes looked much better although I still believe this is still their weakest part of the Buckeyes game. 

Overall, this was an awesome game by the Buckeyes and they still have their national championships hopes open.

Ohio State Beats Purdue 49-0

http://search.espn.go.com/ohio-state-football/videos/6

Buckeyes lose to Wisconsin

Terrelle Pryor's freshman year he lead a game winning drive against Wisconsin to secure the Buckeyes victory over their Big Ten opponent. Could it happen again last Saturday? If you ask a Buckeye fan, you would hear almost 100% of the time, yes, Pryor will lead a drive down the field to score and the Buckeyes defense will step up to win the game. 

The answer to this question is "No." The Buckeyes could not hold off the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday. Unfortunately, Ohio State's special teams and defense was lousy, and not even apparent. In my last post, I made it clear if the Buckeyes could hold off the Badgers with their special teams, the game would be in the Buckeyes grasp. This did not happen. The opening kickoff resulted in a kick return touchdown for the Badgers, who fed off the Wisconsin crowd the rest of the game, specifically because off that play. This play sparked the Badgers and beat the Buckeyes. 

The offense did not look like it showed up and Jim Tressell went back to his conservative play calling. 

Good bye National Championship hopes. I guess we will settle for a BCS game again, let's hope.

College Gameday

College Gameday is headed to Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday when the Ohio State Buckeyes travel there to face the Wisconsin Badgers. This is the game of the week and will give a good outlook on what team will be a Big Ten power for the remainder of the season. Wisconsin is ranked #18 in the nation while Ohio State is #1. This is going to be a defensive battle. Whatever team wins on defense will be the team to win the game. Ohio State needs to improve their special teams play when it comes to punting and kicking. Last week they had the worst net yardage when it came to special teams relating to punting. If the Buckeyes can improve their special teams I feel they will not have a problem with beating the Badgers. Up to this point in the season, this is the most important game for the Buckeyes and if they even start thinking about national championship hopes, they need to make a statement in this game.

#1 in the country

the buckeyes are finally #1 in the country. I feel as if this is not a good thing. I know that when a team is ranked #1, they are the bulls-eye to all the other teams. everyone is out to get them. although i do feel we deserve the #1 ranking, it is going to take a lot of guts to stay #1. the buckeyes know from experience what a #1 ranking does to players heads. it makes certain players get cocky and think they can do whatever they want and still be a winner. it is up to ohio state to stay humble and beat teams without their heads getting bigger. this week will be true test to see if they are the #1 team in the nation when the go to wisconsin. this is a huge hump the buckeyes need to get over before they can actually start thinking about playing in the national championship game in january.

Buckeyes Looking Ahead to Inidana

This link takes you to Ohio State University's Football website. It has some videos that have different Buckeye football players talking about their upcoming game against the Indiana Hoosiers.

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=10408&DB_OEM_ID=17300

Looking forward to Indiana

Ohio State played a very conservative game against Illinois in week 5. It was a hard fought game that relied on defense for both teams. The Buckeyes prevailed 24-17 under the leadership of Terrelle Pryor and their defense.

This week the Buckeyes face the Indiana Hoosiers. The Hoosiers had a heartbreaking loss to the up-and-coming Michigan Wolvierines. It was a shootout that ended with a Michigan touchdown with close to 20 seconds left in the game. The final was 42-35. This was a game that each team's offense dominated.

With the Indiana offense putting up over 450 passing yards and 88 rushing yards, the question is, Can Ohio State's defense shut down the high powered Indiana offense led by quarterback Ben Chappell and wide reciever, Tandon Doss?

My answer is yes. Indiana played Michigan, whose defense averages over 430 yards a game. Indiana will see a completely opposite defense when they step into Ohio Stadium against the Buckeyes on Saturday. Although Chappell and Doss are a very experienced qb, wide reciever combination, Ohio State has just as much, if not, more experience on their defense.

Indiana's defense gave up 42 points to Michigan, whose qb did most of the work putting in over 200 rushing yards and passing yards. With the Ohio State offense coming off of a less-than-solid performance against Illinois, they will be ready to run and pass all over the Hoosier defense. The only factor holding Ohio State back is Terrelle Pryor's leg injury. He said it was not a serious injury but we will see if  he favors his leg in this Big Ten matchup.

Other notes for this game:

ESPN plans on televising this game on their new 3D network.

If Jim Tressel and his Buckeyes win this game, Tressel would become the third-fastest coach to win 100 games at a Big Ten school.

Ohio State currently has the all-time series record vs. Indiana: 66-12-5

Buckeyes 5 games into the Season

I have a few questions about the Ohio State football game this weekend against Illinois.....
  Why was our defense struggling early on against the Illini offense
  Why did Jim Tressel play so conservatively after Terrell Pryor returned to the game after his injury?


I have been a lifelong Buckeye fan and have no reason to ever change that but in games like this, where we have a stellar defense and a Heisman hopeful at quarterback, Terrell Pryor, Why do we tend to play down to our opponents caliber? It has been a question in my head ever since Jim Tressel has come over from Youngstown State early in the 2000's. Tressel is a spectacular coach and obviously has done the right things for the Buckeye football program but he definitely leaves us fans at the edge of our seats every game, hoping we will grind out another hard fought victory. Where is all the entertainment with all the weapons we have on our team?

When it comes down to it, when we play a top 5 or 10 team in the nation, recently, we never play up to our opponents caliber (excluding the Rose Bowl win over Oregon), we just play "Tressel Ball," which is we score a couple times on offense, then later on in the game rely on three-and-outs, punt the ball, and rely on our defense all the time. 


As a fan, I understand why Tressel chooses this strategy, but with all the weapons we have on offense, why not pass more and score more every game? 

1 more question....
What is wrong with our Special Teams so far this year?


These are all questions that I have through the first 5 games of the season.