OSU at Illinois Game Thread

[FUDU]

This season is in jeopardy this afternoon, make no mistake about it.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Bauserman=Boeckman.

No.

Boeckman had an arm.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

These are the worst annaouncers in the history of the world.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

What a terrible call.

[danwismar]

I guess JT is content to sit on a 4-point lead....at least till he gets the wind back in the 4th. Right now the wind doesn't seem like a huge factor.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

I guess JT is content to sit on a 4-point lead....at least till he gets the wind back in the 4th. Right now the wind doesn't seem like a huge factor.

Are you at the game, Dan?

[danwismar]

I'm here.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Saine turned a gain into a freaking loss. Why is he getting the damn ball?

[FUDU]

WTF is that Saine?

"He doesn't have the shiftiness to make people miss, and then he becomes a pussy"

[FUDU]

Herron did not get it.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

They can't overturn this call.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Yeahhhhhhhhhh!

[Cerebral_DownTime]

I like this drive, call me crazy. I like grinding them down.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Jesus. No excuse for a delay there.

[FUDU]

Pryor is a mess right now, a total mess.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Pryor is a mess right now, a total mess.

Oh STFU.

Drama queen.

Would you rather him force a throw or get what he can for his kicker?

[danwismar]

Thanks to the Illini for a couple of crucial penalties to help OSU wrap it up.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Herron running hard.

RB depth chart.

1. Herrorn
2. Hall/Berry
3. Hyde

Saine only as a pass catching RB and on special teams as a gunner.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Whew! not a pretty game, but i'll take it everytime.

[FUDU]

Pryor is a mess right now, a total mess.

Oh STFU.

Drama queen.

Would you rather him force a throw or get what he can for his kicker?

No you could see it a mile away, he was very unsure of himself in the pocket, he didn't even feel comfortable of when to run, sidestep the rush or step up in the pocket, then he threw a couple of short passes to guys blanketed by coverage. He was shaky after the injury, shaky in the head.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Pryor is a mess right now, a total mess.

Oh STFU.

Drama queen.

Would you rather him force a throw or get what he can for his kicker?

No you could see it a mile away, he was very unsure of himself in the pocket, he didn't even feel comfortable of when to run, sidestep the rush or step up in the pocket, then he threw a couple of short passes to guys blanketed by coverage. He was shaky after the injury, shaky in the head.

Who cares? We won, he threw more TDs than picks and got us a 100+ on the ground. It could've been better, but it's nothing to fret over.

[hermanfontenot]

William F. Buckley thought JT's gameplan was "a little too conservative." But a win is a win.

[FUDU]

Pryor is a mess right now, a total mess.

Oh STFU.

Drama queen.

Would you rather him force a throw or get what he can for his kicker?

No you could see it a mile away, he was very unsure of himself in the pocket, he didn't even feel comfortable of when to run, sidestep the rush or step up in the pocket, then he threw a couple of short passes to guys blanketed by coverage. He was shaky after the injury, shaky in the head.

Who cares? We won, he threw more TDs than picks and got us a 100+ on the ground. It could've been better, but it's nothing to fret over.

Huh? It isn't about stats. It's about winning and getting better. We(he) won, that is good, but he looked very shaken when back on the field, that is not so good. Yeah he was not a 100%, physically, but mentally that is no excuse to get shaky. He needs to be past that part of progression. It exposes the Buckeye offense quite a bit IMO and JT and the boys need to get to work in case there are spots along the way in which TP cannot be on the field.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Listen, he still has alot of work to do, but it's not that bad. Just keep working, keep coaching him up. I expect him to bounce back.

[danwismar]

Back upstairs now after postgame interviews. (BTW, I've been in closets bigger than the room where Tressel had his postgame media session...player sessions were outside...not a great venue here for that sort of thing)

Pryor said afterwards he "felt something pop" in his thigh when he went down, but he said he's be ready to go next week. Not too much else that was terribly interesting in the interview sessions, but guys said they knew it would be tough, and no one expected a walkover today. Defensive guys like Larimore and Rolle said they decided once the Bucks got the lead, they were just not going to let the Illini score again.

[FUDU]

To be fair to all on the field wind was a factor that could not be measure from the comfort of our homes today, from what I have heard anyway.

[furls]

Some observations watching the game on TV today while drinking roughly 25% of a keg of Sam Adams Oktoberfest....

Brandon Saine has been fired, Boom is now the guy... the most significant part is that it now makes us 1 player away from making Hall or Berry the guy. It is progress.

The defense was excellent, after the 1st qtr.

Terrelle Pryor getting hurt nearly ended the OSU season, that should make you think about how bad the rest of the team has been on offense.

The WR's are not getting open against Illinois, that does not bode well for the future.

Bauserman looked horrid in relief, I wish they would have gone Tommy Frazier 'option' with Guiton.l

Brandon Saine makes me want to kill myself when he has the ball, stop doing it. Please!

Devon Torrence needs to start looking for the ball.

John Simon is a fucking animal.

Nathan Williams needs another year before trying his hand in the draft

Terrelle Pryor needs another year before trying his hand in the draft

Devier posey needs another year before trying his hand in the draft

Mike Adams needs another year before trying his hand in the draft

Mike Brewster needs another year before trying his hand in the draft

Basically, it looks like 2012 is the year for this team, which means that, I don't like what i see for 2011. Do I think this team "sucks?" No. It is a good/great team, not an elite team. Not until they find the RBs to balance the offense. FWIW the defense is championship caliber even with all the freshmen getting play time. (nice job today Christian Bryant)

[Cerebral_DownTime]

4-0, #2 in the country, and 2012 is supposed to be "the year".

lol.

[JCoz]

Some observations watching the game on TV today while drinking roughly 25% of a keg of Sam Adams Oktoberfest....

Brandon Saine has been fired, Boom is now the guy... the most significant part is that it now makes us 1 player away from making Hall or Berry the guy. It is progress.

The defense was excellent, after the 1st qtr.

Terrelle Pryor getting hurt nearly ended the OSU season, that should make you think about how bad the rest of the team has been on offense.

The WR's are not getting open against Illinois, that does not bode well for the future.

Bauserman looked horrid in relief, I wish they would have gone Tommy Frazier 'option' with Guiton.l

Brandon Saine makes me want to kill myself when he has the ball, stop doing it. Please!
\

I'm thinking you need to submit a Version 2.0 after you stop drinking Furls.....

[Cerebral_DownTime]

He did pound a 1/4th of a keg, which makes his spelling really impressive.

[hermanfontenot]

Guys were getting open. The pass-pro early on just was not good. And DeVier Posey might as well have been Parker Posey for the first three quarters the way he was gator-arming it out there.

[motherscratcher]

Saine only had 8 carries. It felt like 28.

For 14 yards.

Step into my office Brandon.

[jack_tors]

4-0, #2 in the country, and 2012 is supposed to be "the year".

lol.

After watching Alabama tonight, you think this OSU team can roll with them? I sure as hell dont. Furls is pretty spot on with his takes. Games vs Wisc where we never play well and Michigan St have me quite worried. The Vest needs to make some changes on the offensive side of the ball as we cant expect the defense with a beat up secondary to carry the load they did today in the coming weeks.

And not to defend Saine but the line did him no favors today. They didnt seem to get much of a push. Would love to see how that grades out.

[Erie Warrior]

And DeVier Posey might as well have been Parker Posey for the first three quarters the way he was gator-arming it out there.

Lick me, all of you.


Oh, and Saine/ Herron blow.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

4-0, #2 in the country, and 2012 is supposed to be "the year".

lol.

After watching Alabama tonight, you think this OSU team can roll with them? I sure as hell dont. Furls is pretty spot on with his takes. Games vs Wisc where we never play well and Michigan St have me quite worried. The Vest needs to make some changes on the offensive side of the ball as we cant expect the defense with a beat up secondary to carry the load they did today in the coming weeks.

And not to defend Saine but the line did him no favors today. They didnt seem to get much of a push. Would love to see how that grades out.

Yeah, I think we can roll with Alabama. They're really really good, no question. But I like our team, especially the defense.

I agree we need some changes in the backfield, i'd like to see Berry and Hall get more time and I think it's gonna happen sooner rather than later.

[FUDU]

In general it is rare that I feel Furls is far off, now is no different. While I like our chances and feel the B10 is better than most feel, I still think that right now, objectively, it is Bama and everyone else, with OSU a probably leader of the following pack. Our inconsistency at standout RB and our lack of a dominant WR are things that will be issues against the top notch teams we will face, regardless of in the conference or in the NCG if we were to get there. Plenty of time to iron out some details but everyone else including Bama has that same amount of time to iron out their own.

[hermanfontenot]

It's easy to make snap judgements based on one day of football in which Ohio State didn't play particularly well and Alabama did. The Tide are going to have days where they don't look overwhelming against inferior comp (like last season against Tennessee) and the Bucks are going to look very good against quality comp (like last season against Penn State.) That's the nature of a long season.

Obviously the Bucks have some problems at running back. But DeVier Posey, despite playing poorly yesterday, is a playmaker. Wasn't he a five-star coming out of HS, ranked with guys like A.J. Green and Michael Floyd? Now he can't get open against a quality secondary?

BTW, I wasn't impressed with Florida going into last night.

[furls]

I still stand pretty much by what I said yesterday. I am not saying this team sucks, I said they were good/great, just not elite. I don't have any confidence that this team could score with Oregon or on 'Bama. OSU is a top 5 team this year, but it is a weird year in college football where everyone seems to have warts (except bama).

I don't understand how you could watch the OSU offense struggle with an average Illinois defense and feel any difference. The fightin zooks held the Bucks to 77 yards of Pass offense, Holy shit, 77 yards of passing offense. Say that one more time, 77 yards of passing offense. They held the OSU running backs, for whatever reason you want to blame, to 109 yards on 33 carries. That is really the second best team in the country? You know we all make fun of scUMs offense because, "There is no way that Drob will last long enough as the primary ball carrier to save DRod's job," well the Bucks are pretty much in the same boat.

Through 5 weeks (and the Bucks easiest games against the biggest creme puffs) Buckeye running backs are averaging 4.3 ypc (boom and zoom). Alabama has played a better schedule and they have 3 backs averaging 6.8-7.9ypc. As a team, Alabama RBs are averaging 6.8 ypc. I like the OSU defense a little more than 'Bamas, but I am not sure that really matters because 'Bama's defense only has to be good enough to shut the Buckeyes offense down and if Illinois can do it, well, 'Bama can really do it.

So in the end, I think the Bucks could and probably should win the league this year, can they beat 'Bama and make 2011, "The Year." I am not optimistic. After watching 'Bama destroy the 'Gators yesterday I am reasonably sure that they will win the SEC and go to the NCG. Who do you have 'Bama losing to? SoCarolina? Auburn? LSU? Really? USC and LSU are road games, but I just don't see it.

Which of those guys that I said needs another year before entering the draft do you think has played themselves into the first through third rounds? Pryor would go that high for sure, but I think he is smart enough to realize that he makes a lot more by coming back as a senior and working out some more bugs. The rest? Maybe Brewster could go in the top 3 rounds, other than that, I am not sure the others would get drafted.

it's easy to make snap judgements based on one day of football in which Ohio State didn't play particularly well and Alabama did. The Tide are going to have days where they don't look overwhelming against inferior comp (like last season against Tennessee) and the Bucks are going to look very good against quality comp (like last season against Penn State.) That's the nature of a long season.

Herm, I wouldn't exactly call this a snap judgment. Most of the observations that have been made have been problems through the early part of the season; particularly the RB play and questions about the O-Line play. Like I said, I think the Buckeyes warts are sufficient to get through the B10 (probably) although not as comfortably as I thought a couple of weeks ago. Against top shelf teams, we should be concerned.

[motherscratcher]

I'm definitely concerned after yesterday. I'm just not in panic mode. I think I'm with Herm on this one. Every year, for most teams, there is at least one game where they shit the bed for some reason. Last year it was Purdue.

This year, hopefully it was Illinois. The difference being that this year we actually won the game where we shit the bed. Maybe this will be a bit of a wakeup call.

I agree that it seems right now to be Bama and then everyone else, with tOSU, Oregon, and Boise heading up the second group. Bama is the team without warts right now.

But the last time there was a year that one team was clearly head and shoulders above everyone else (like Bama this year) was the Troy Smith Buckeyes. There seemed to be nobody close to that team.

So I'm going to enjoy the ride this year. I still think we have a hell of a chance.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Well it's obvious, Bama is the best and can't be beat, especially by an only "good" team like us. If we get there we should just forfeit, since they're clearly SO much better than us. Might as well pack it up and call it a season, just hunker down and prepare for 2012.

I seem to remember a season several years ago in which an OSU team was a "year early", winning games by smaller margins than they should, and were set to play an unstoppable opponent......

Beating Arkansas and Florida don't impress me none, neither of those teams have any business being in the top 10 to start with. The SEC is overblown this year. LSU is a top 10 team..... LSU!

One crap game doesn't worry me.

[dmiles]

Is Bama susceptible to the mid-range pass attack? I guess we can see how Spurrier and crew make out. Is the team without a 100 yd. rusher against them in 28 games going to suddenly roll over because it's the Bama backs? Does McElroy respond well to being hit hard?

I would think Bama would have to change tendencies on offense to beat OSU. Julio Jones and company are talented but if McElroy has to win via the pass attack can he get it done?

Sure Bama is favored in this game but I wouldn't call them invincible just yet. As we see with Texas sans' Colt McCoy I have a hard time saying Bama wins the sausage without Colt getting knocked out early.

Now to be sure I am just being a little devils' advocate-ish.... I want to see some improvement on this squad before I go annointing them. Franky and I mean this as no disrespect to the anti-BSU noise...I'd have my concerns about playing Boise. Namely they do run a lot of quick-hit passes and unlike many teams I watch they seem to stick with it. Oregon has a bit of that in their attack and someone would tacked for a 4-5 yard loss effectively killing the drive. I don't see BSU do that as much, and I don't think we'd blow them out at all. I don't know if they could stop us either, but that style of offense isn't exactly the best matchup.

Whereas at least Nick Saban runs an attack the Bucks are more accustomed to seeing in the B10.

[dmiles]

Courtesy of Texas dropping out (162) the Buckeyes now own the longest consecutive streak appearing in the AP Top 25 at 90. Florida is second with 87. I don't think Florida will drop out unless they lay an egg with LSU next week.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5644349

[tired]

We won by 11 blame the wind.Illi had an xtra week to prepare. Bama shoulda got beat by Ark. Moeller loss for the year hurts bad. I worry Pryor get's hurt. Wisky exposed. Could Sparty go undefeated ? I didn't realize we have 25 seniors this year including walk ons. This has got to be our year.

[furls]

There are times when a game is not as close as it seems, this weekends game was closer than that 11 point spread. I was primarily disturbed with a couple of key points, things that I think we still need some resolution on:

1. OSU backs really looked very average running the ball, by average I mean not so much so. BS carries are way down and that is an encouraging sign, but Illinois is not a team that you should be happy with a 4ypc finish from your backs.

2. OSU WRs were not getting open (or TP wasn't throwing to them when they were) against a very bad pass defense.

3. Secondary play is becoming scary and it makes you wonder how the Bucks will match up now with better passing teams.

4. Gameplan was very vanilla, I am sure that the wind had something to do with that, but I still hate seeing the bucks sitting on the ball with a 4pt lead. If Illinois does not go out of there way to give away the game with dumb penalties we could have had some trouble there. They really helped us out with the 15 yarders.

5. Some of the guys that we were expecting big games and seasons from have been largely absent so far on both sides of the ball. Posey has looked below average. Nathan Williams has looked pretty poor. Solomon Thomas has been terrible, and now Tyler Moeller out complicates this as he was the best blitzer on the team and the only real pass rush from the edge.

6. Pryor has played his best with field spread, but we have no WR depth to really spread the field.... quick name the #3 WR. He still hasn't emerged (let alone a 4th or a 5th).

These are not things that were unique to this game, these are early season trends that we need to see improve if this really is going to be the year. Next week is going to be a serious test of the secondary. This is not the typical Hoosiers team.

[danwismar]

Pretty much agree with Furls' sober take on this OSU team, with a couple of exceptions. (Edit: By "sober" of course, I mean serious and dispassionate...nothing about blood alcohol level. Sorry about any implication to the contrary, Mike...you've got a reputation to uphold)

It's hard to look at this team after five games and still think they'll go unbeaten. Last week I was still thinking they might, but after Illinois, I think I might have been kidding myself.

If Pryor is significantly limited by this quad injury, they're in trouble. Of course, that's the biggest downer coming out of this game. He was hurting in the second half when he came back. No way could he have run the ball at all, and he said just dropping back was hurting.

Illinois got the better of the offensive line for OSU by doing a lot of slanting to the play side with their D-line and shooting linebackers and safeties behind the slants. Brewster (among others, like Boren) was very candid after the game about how poorly he thought the Bucks adjusted and coped with what Illinois was doing to them. Said the only positive was that they didn't quit, and that they were able to run it when they really needed to in the 4th quarter.

Not sure why JT allowed himself to be thrown out of his short to intermediate passing game by a little wind....and it was a little wind...not anything like what they have experienced there in Champaign in November. We were down on the field for the last five minutes or so of the game, and unless it had tapered off since the early part of the game, it really wasn't that bad.

Losing Moeller hurts, but they have so much depth it's ridiculous. Only a few programs can lose a guy like that and replace him with a stud like Christian Bryant, who I thought played a great game...it looked even better watching the game a second time last night. He will only get better...the kid reminded me of Winfield...such a strong tackler, big hitter...and strong for a relatively small kid. I had a chance to talk with him after the game...he was so excited...said getting a few good shots in during his first few plays on the field helped a lot with the butterflies. Very pleasant, humble young man. He had five solo tackles in this game...no one had more solos. Very promising player.

Not sure what Nate Williams you've been watching, Furls...but I think he has played very well...especially Saturday, when I thought he had an outstanding game. He was as disruptive as any of the d-linemen. He had a big icepack on his knee afterward...hope he didn't re-aggravate it, and it's just a routine postgame thing for him.

(Edit: Williams line for the Illinois game: 9 tackles (3 solo, 6 assisted) 2 TFL for 14 yds in losses, 1 pass break up, 1.5 sacks)

Love the contribution they've been getting from Hankins up front. That kid is a beast.

Illinois is a good rushing team, and OSU really shut them down, until Leshoure got one longer gain in their last scoring drive. Leshoure was averaging almost seven yards a carry, and OSU held him to about 4...and really three until that one long gainer helped the average at the end. He is an NFL-quality back, and Ford might be as well. Illinois will win some Big Ten games this year...they are improved with their two new coordinators.

[JCoz]

Well I have a mixed bag as far as agreeing and disagreeing.

With A healthy Pryor this team should and will go undefeated and is legitimately the #2 team in the country.

I disagree with Furls that this game was closer that the 11 point spread. Also disagree with Wiz on the wind being mild....all you need to see is that FG attempt by illinios that was stopped DEAD by a HUGE gust of wind.

I don't recall seeing a FG look perfect and then suddenly 10 yards from the posts it stops like it hit a brick wall.

They made a decision not to pass against the wind. There were only 16 pass attempts in the game.

Illinios had a good gameplan that it took OSU's defense all of 10-12 minutes to solve.

Reading about what the Offense is trying to do in the preseason and all season long, I don't see how anyone should be surprised at what happened when we lost pryor's legs. That is the outside run game, pryor. This offense is deadly with a healthy Pryor, and lost without him because it is SOOOOOOOO Pryor centric. This offense is truly tailored to what he brings to the offense, just like the Beokman/Beanie years offenses were centered around Beanie.

1st road game with 25-30 mph gusting winds, the franchise goes down and then returned in appearance only, tressel defaulted straight into tressel ball safe mode and won a rough game.

It is what it is.

Big picture, the Meoller loss is huge, and Pryors Quad is huge.

Considering those injuries along with the season as a whole so far, I see OSU as top ten team. I see Oregon and Alabama as better teams right now.

With a Healthy pryor no one should doubt this teams ability to win the whole damn thing.

But we don't have that anymore and it makes that big a difference. Pryor's leg needs to be in decent shape for us to go undefeated probably, but we can button up and win games ugly if need be. Get us through the year squeaking by, that would be fine by me.

Pryor gets 30+ days rest and I'll be bullish on a bucks team that won't likely be getting allot of love.

The reality is that Oregon will jump the bucks if we have to win ugly for most of this season, so we'll need them to lose. We cannot lose, at all most likely.

Bottom line is that with a healthy pryor this is an elite team, not a perfect team, but an elite one just the same.

With a hobbled Pryor we just a very good one. This defense is really really good, but has been hit with injuries and is not elite enough to the point where you can have a punt/FG offense and still win.

I think what you will see is changes in the backfield if Pryor's outlook is dim. What Saine DOES bring to the table is totally negated without Pryor in there. I mean more carries for #3 and #4 as well as #2.

[JCoz]

I don't understand how you could watch the OSU offense struggle with an average Illinois defense and feel any difference. The fightin zooks held the Bucks to 77 yards of Pass offense, Holy shit, 77 yards of passing offense. Say that one more time, 77 yards of passing offense. They held the OSU running backs, for whatever reason you want to blame, to 109 yards on 33 carries. That is really the second best team in the country? You know we all make fun of scUMs offense because, "There is no way that Drob will last long enough as the primary ball carrier to save DRod's job," well the Bucks are pretty much in the same boat.

We don't run Pryor 30 times a game.

Pryor is not the primary ball carrier in the rushing game, not in terms of carries.

Pryor has accounted for 25% of OSU's rushing attempts this season, to Denards 43%.

98 rushes to TP's 54. That's roughly 44 more hits he's taken through 5 games and projected out it would be about 114 additional hits including the bowl game.

Every team with a Dynamic Player like Pryor or Robinson would be in trouble if they lost him.

The 07/0809 FLA teams would have been a mess without Tebow. Oregon maybe wins the NC if Dixon didn't shred his knee.

It's not hypocritical for bucks fans to look at having a 190lb QB with 250 rushing attempts as a house of cards vs our 240lb QB rush 140 times in a season.

Both QB's are critical to their teams success, but the offensive strategies clearly put one player in harms way more often than the other.

[danwismar]

disagree with Wiz on the wind being mild....all you need to see is that FG attempt by illinios that was stopped DEAD by a HUGE gust of wind.

I don't recall seeing a FG look perfect and then suddenly 10 yards from the posts it stops like it hit a brick wall.

They made a decision not to pass against the wind. There were only 16 pass attempts in the game.

Of course it's easier to make an observation about the wind than it is to throw the ball successfully into it. Yes, they clearly made the decision not to pass into the wind, even if that meant running off tackle on 3rd and 13...even before Pryor got hurt.

Yes, the field goal try was knocked down some by the wind. I'll stick with my observation from being there on the field and feeling it. I still think the talk of it was (sorry) overblown.

[JCoz]

disagree with Wiz on the wind being mild....all you need to see is that FG attempt by illinios that was stopped DEAD by a HUGE gust of wind.

I don't recall seeing a FG look perfect and then suddenly 10 yards from the posts it stops like it hit a brick wall.

They made a decision not to pass against the wind. There were only 16 pass attempts in the game.

Of course it's easier to make an observation about the wind than it is to throw the ball successfully into it. Yes, they clearly made the decision not to pass into the wind, even if that meant running off tackle on 3rd and 13...even before Pryor got hurt.

Yes, the field goal try was knocked down some by the wind. I'll stick with my observation from being there on the field and feeling it. I still think the talk of it was (sorry) overblown.

Maybe Wiz, and I wasn't there so i can't speak for feeling it myself.

But I remember what every punt and kick against the wind looked like...possibly the wind at the level (height or whatever) we were passing at was over blown, so I will cede that, but the affect at Kicking heights was readily apparent throughout that game.

Perhaps that has given me a false impression of the wind overall.

[danwismar]

Don't think our disagreement on the wind is anything much, Coz. It was certainly a factor affecting punting and placekicking. Champaign is flatter than a pancake, and it's always going to be an issue there. So much so that it gets exaggerated as a factor by coaches at times, and I just think this was one of those times.