TOSU v. Arkansas- The Sugar Bowl

[Toxicadam]

If Arky won that game, the punter should have been the MVP. That dude was killing OSU all day.


Kind of a fitting way to end this season. A win that didn't feel like a win.

[Loo]

I heard there were Mark May chants after the game--if anyone can find a video of this, I'd appreciate it because I missed it.

[Bayou Tribe]

Congrats guys, that was a crazy game indeed. I don't get into all of the conference pride bullshit, and to be honest I love seeing that prick Petrino getting it handed to him anytime I can. And rack all the praise for Ironhead's kid, would love to see him in the black and gold next year.

[gotribe31]

Great job by Tres and the kids, terrible coaching job by Bobby Petrino. I know Arkansas was running the ball well in the 2nd half, but tOSU was stretched so thin in the secondary, they could have thrown the ball more and caught up in a hurry. Mallet was much better throwing deep outside than intermediate over the middle. By my highly non-scientific assessment, he was like 5-6 with a couple of TD's on fade routes. The only incompletion I remember is the one he threw OB. And why the Ark kid who fell on the blocked punt didn't try to scoop-score, I'll never know. Well-coached players don't make mistakes like that.

The safety was an awful, awful call. That play is spotted down at the 1 yardline 100 times out of 100. The linesman on the far side of the field was spotting it correctly, but the HL d-bag on the near-side apparently took Ark and the points.

For anyone still bitching about TSV...just stop.

[motherscratcher]

The "Mark May" sucks chants in postgame on sportscenter were epic, never had I see a human being just wanting to high tail it out of there at that given moment

He's still talking shit on the air too..dude was humbled though, ain't nothing like dane telling rece davis on the air what a dohce may is, and rece davis laughing it up.

Holy Hell, is there a link to that anywhere? I missed all of that.

[FUDU]

Great job by Tres and the kids, terrible coaching job by Bobby Petrino. I know Arkansas was running the ball well in the 2nd half, but tOSU was stretched so thin in the secondary, they could have thrown the ball more and caught up in a hurry. Mallet was much better throwing deep outside than intermediate over the middle. By my highly non-scientific assessment, he was like 5-6 with a couple of TD's on fade routes. The only incompletion I remember is the one he threw OB. And why the Ark kid who fell on the blocked punt didn't try to scoop-score, I'll never know. Well-coached players don't make mistakes like that.

The safety was an awful, awful call. That play is spotted down at the 1 yardline 100 times out of 100. The linesman on the far side of the field was spotting it correctly, but the HL d-bag on the near-side apparently took Ark and the points.

For anyone still bitching about TSV...just stop.

There is enough room to criticize JT, he went into the often expected shell in the second half. I just watched the game replay this morning, SSDD with his approach with a lead. He had zero trust in TP throwing the ball, after TP had a solid first half doing so.

I expected OSU to dominate a significant portion of this game, and they did, I did not expect them to go into panic mode when Ark regained momentum (as I expected they would find 7-8 minutes of their own domination), but yet OSU did.

JT does deserve props for the win and a really good first half approach.

[ole uncle charle]

The "Mark May" sucks chants in postgame on sportscenter were epic, never had I see a human being just wanting to high tail it out of there at that given moment

He's still talking shit on the air too..dude was humbled though, ain't nothing like dane telling rece davis on the air what a dohce may is, and rece davis laughing it up.

Holy Hell, is there a link to that anywhere? I missed all of that.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5990721

best I could do

[pup]

Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl wins in back to back years taint so bad.

No. It certainly taint.

And Pup, Dude, I hope B. Miller is the greatest QB of all time, but I doubt he does what Pryor did tonight.

Like fumble a ball into the endzone for a TD?
Like throw up a couple of punts that his receivers saved his ass on?
Like ducking out of bounds 1/2 yard before the marker on a critical third down?

Very good win. Team played hard. Wish Tress would have gone midway into the 3rd before going with the turtle offense, but won't argue with the result.

[mattvan1]

Great job by Tres and the kids, terrible coaching job by Bobby Petrino. I know Arkansas was running the ball well in the 2nd half, but tOSU was stretched so thin in the secondary, they could have thrown the ball more and caught up in a hurry. Mallet was much better throwing deep outside than intermediate over the middle. By my highly non-scientific assessment, he was like 5-6 with a couple of TD's on fade routes. The only incompletion I remember is the one he threw OB. And why the Ark kid who fell on the blocked punt didn't try to scoop-score, I'll never know. Well-coached players don't make mistakes like that.

The safety was an awful, awful call. That play is spotted down at the 1 yardline 100 times out of 100. The linesman on the far side of the field was spotting it correctly, but the HL d-bag on the near-side apparently took Ark and the points.

For anyone still bitching about TSV...just stop.

There is enough room to criticize JT, he went into the often expected shell in the second half. I just watched the game replay this morning, SSDD with his approach with a lead. He had zero trust in TP throwing the ball, after TP had a solid first half doing so.

I expected OSU to dominate a significant portion of this game, and they did, I did not expect them to go into panic mode when Ark regained momentum (as I expected they would find 7-8 minutes of their own domination), but yet OSU did.

JT does deserve props for the win and a really good first half approach.

Overlooked due to Herron's fumble was the out of character 4th and inches call from the OSU 37 with about 6 minutes left. Ballsy as hell. Loved that call.

[googleeph2]

As a Cleveland Indians, Browns and Cavaliers fan, and OSU and Big Ten fan, all I can say is God Bless Jim Tressel.

[FUDU]

Great job by Tres and the kids, terrible coaching job by Bobby Petrino. I know Arkansas was running the ball well in the 2nd half, but tOSU was stretched so thin in the secondary, they could have thrown the ball more and caught up in a hurry. Mallet was much better throwing deep outside than intermediate over the middle. By my highly non-scientific assessment, he was like 5-6 with a couple of TD's on fade routes. The only incompletion I remember is the one he threw OB. And why the Ark kid who fell on the blocked punt didn't try to scoop-score, I'll never know. Well-coached players don't make mistakes like that.

The safety was an awful, awful call. That play is spotted down at the 1 yardline 100 times out of 100. The linesman on the far side of the field was spotting it correctly, but the HL d-bag on the near-side apparently took Ark and the points.

For anyone still bitching about TSV...just stop.

There is enough room to criticize JT, he went into the often expected shell in the second half. I just watched the game replay this morning, SSDD with his approach with a lead. He had zero trust in TP throwing the ball, after TP had a solid first half doing so.

I expected OSU to dominate a significant portion of this game, and they did, I did not expect them to go into panic mode when Ark regained momentum (as I expected they would find 7-8 minutes of their own domination), but yet OSU did.

JT does deserve props for the win and a really good first half approach.

Overlooked due to Herron's fumble was the out of character 4th and inches call from the OSU 37 with about 6 minutes left. Ballsy as hell. Loved that call.

Agreed, thanks for reminding me. A shame a call like that from JT gets ruined forever by the end result, especially from Boom who fumbles how often 2x a year.

Funny listening to Hammer on KNR this morning playing the Luckeye card, by claiming surviving a punt block with the INT was luck, the dropped passes were luck, the Sanz fumble recovery was luck...he makes no mention of how lucky one could say Ark was with a terrible safety call, getting a punt block (not nearly an every game occurrence) and getting a fumble (after the first down was achieved) from a RB who rarely ever fumbles. Exactly why Hammer is such a bum.

[peeker643]

Pretty sure that was Boom's first lost fumble in his OSU career (fwiw).

[neoleo]

Pretty sure that was Boom's first lost fumble in his OSU career (fwiw).

It was. He entered the game with 475 career carries without a fumble. In fact, Ohio State's only two lost fumbles all year were by 5th string running back Carlos Hyde and 3rd string TE Ricky Crawford.

The team as a whole just didn't fumble. They only fumbled 7 times all year, three of which were bad snaps and one was a bad pitch from Pryor on an option.

That means only three caused fumbles all year, two of which were recovered by the other team, and they were both by backups in mopup duty.

Here's a good article from before the game that summarizes all of these stats.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sp ... tween.html

[neoleo]

Wish Tress would have gone midway into the 3rd before going with the turtle offense, but won't argue with the result.

This brings up a point that I believe is getting overlooked.

Tressel came out in the 2nd half in conservative mode with his play calling. We didn't see any of the innovative plays that we had so much success with in the 1st half and we ran almost exclusively iso plays out of the I-formation.

I don't even necessarily have a problem with that. The problem that I have is he was still utilizing the no huddle-hurry up offense throughout the 3rd quarter.

If you're going to go conservative, then go fully conservative and at least milk the clock while you're going three-and-out. Don't to be in a rush to gain one yard on 1st and 2nd down and then throw incomplete on on 3rd.

OR, if you're going to stay in the no huddle-hurry up offense, then run the same damn plays that scored you 28 points in the first half and actually make an attempt to put some points on the board.

I felt like they tried to do both and they couldn't figure out exactly what they were doing and it took them out of their rhythm and almost cost them the game.

If they milked the clock during the 3rd quarter instead of running the no huddle, then Arkansas runs out of plays at the end and we probably never even see the blocked punt and Tressel-ball works to perfection.

OR, if we actually try to score some points and we continue to run our O from the 1st half, then we probably add another score or two and the blocked punt doesn't even matter at the end, even if they scoop and score.

[StewieG]

Didn't they rule that Ohio State had recovered the fumble, but that it was short of the 1st down? Does that still count as a lost fumble?

[peeker643]

Didn't they rule that Ohio State had recovered the fumble, but that it was short of the 1st down? Does that still count as a lost fumble?

True. Good point.

Didn't look at Ryan's article link but how many 'fumbles' altogether has Boom had?

[peeker643]

Didn't they rule that Ohio State had recovered the fumble, but that it was short of the 1st down? Does that still count as a lost fumble?

True. Good point.

Didn't look at Ryan's article link but how many 'fumbles' altogether has Boom had?

The answer after I looked it up is 'Zero' fumbles before last night and 'Zero' fumbles lost (obviously).

So that was the first time he'd EVER fumbled in a game.

Odd.

[neoleo]

Didn't they rule that Ohio State had recovered the fumble, but that it was short of the 1st down? Does that still count as a lost fumble?

Good point. So even with the two caused fumbles in this game, OSU still only lost two all year.

While we're on the topic of fumbles, in the 2nd half when Devon Torrence ripped the ball out of the hands of the Arkansas receiver, I was sure that Donovan Clarke recovered for OSU while standing and then fell to the ground while lying on the ball. To me, the play should have been blown dead at that point. Even if Arkansas came up with the ball at the bottom of the pile, which they did, the play could have been reviewed because Clarke had possession before he hit the ground. This wasn't your normal bottom of the pile fumble recovery. This was OSU possession that was ripped out of his hands after he was down by contact. The next play went for an Arkansas TD. I thought this was another break for Arkansas, along with the safety and a couple of bad spots.

[danwismar]

Like ducking out of bounds 1/2 yard before the marker on a critical third down?

This.

Sure would be nice to see the guy go Cam Newton once in his life and drop his shoulder and take a hit when it matters.

[danwismar]

The fumble stat for the Buckeyes is remarkable, but not coincidental.

If you fumble, you don't play...one reason Herron plays over more talented running backs.

BTW, Saine had one fumble in his 4-year career.

[trsteve1]

This game was...

Just, wow.

Heart pumping wow.

I do wish that when Tressell decides to go conservative, that he wouldn't go completely predictable, you can still run the clock down and use a little bit of creativity (whether it be with motion, counters, QB quick read options).. but he just locks down and goes, "we're gonna run to the left until we can't run to the left anymore.. then we will run right"

Admittedly, I think regardless of vanilla Offense, Arkansas came out fired up for the 2nd half, and would have made it close no matter what.. Even when Pryor went back to pass in the 3/4 quarters he ended up doing no better than being able to scramble, mind you these were in times of OBVIOUS pass, and the D played it accordingly.

Once again, our D stepped up considerably, and I bet the only regret Tressell has is not going Max Protect on that final punt.

Arkansas made a lot of mistakes, whether it be the undisciplined rushes of Pryor, the dropped passes of their WRs or not picking up the blocked punt and walking in for a TD. The Buckeyes made 1 mistake, and the gods smiled on them and turned into a TD anyway (Pryor's fumble). Hate him or love him, that's Tressell's way, and overall, it's successful.


I've heard some chatter around talking down the weapons at Pryor's disposal, that he doesn't have talent around him, particularly at the WR position, and yes, he may not have a singularly elite WR.. but I'll take the OSU receivers over Arkansas' any day. Did an OSU receiver even drop a catchable pass?

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Did an OSU receiver even drop a catchable pass?

I didn't see any. The only one that was really even close was Corey Brown down the sideline which could've been called PI (legs tangled) and it would've been a SICK catch.

They did a good job all night, in the run game too.