Deconstructing Ohio State's loss

[1987alum]

Linky

I'll admit that I never read Chris Brown's stuff before. But I know I'll make a point of it moving forward. He takes the emotion out of analyzing a football game (gee, we just got bad breaks, etc.) and digs into the nuts and bolts of it all.

The link above is a pretty succint analysis that concludes Ohio State simply got outcoached. Now, we hear that phrase pretty often, but Brown explains exactly HOW they got outcoached. After reading this piece, I was compelled to read several others, including a great analysis of why Steve Spurrier has failed to make the Gamecocks a winner.

This guy is a football geek's football geek.

[h2oville rocket]

Linky

I'll admit that I never read Chris Brown's stuff before. But I know I'll make a point of it moving forward. He takes the emotion out of analyzing a football game (gee, we just got bad breaks, etc.) and digs into the nuts and bolts of it all.

The link above is a pretty succint analysis that concludes Ohio State simply got outcoached. Now, we hear that phrase pretty often, but Brown explains exactly HOW they got outcoached. After reading this piece, I was compelled to read several others, including a great analysis of why Steve Spurrier has failed to make the Gamecocks a winner.

This guy is a football geek's football geek.

He is a much better analyst than writer. After reading that OSU was "disgusting", "insane" and "ridiculous" and that he didn't follow either team (but knew every nuance of their offense) I kinda lost the thread. But then I'm a much better writer than analyst and know very little about football from a strategy standpoint.

[tekekini]

I am sorry but it does not take any kind of genius to figure out that they were out coached for the 5th time in a row in a big game.

The only game that coaching didn't matter was Florida cos they just got killed but from LSU on, coaching has been terrible.

If it takes a genius to figure this out then every OSU fan is a genius because that is all that has been talked about on the message boards and the radio stations. No one blamed the players or this play and that play. Everyone blames the coaches for not putting the players (who played their asses off) in the best position to play.

They let the players down. simple.

The D will never play a game at that level again. They had a great plan to stop USC and they executed it beautifully.

[tekekini]

The Buckeyes' first 10 points were set up by good throws by Pryor that were only possible because of egregious errors by USC's safeties. On the first, safety Taylor Mays made a bonheaded play trying to get in position for a killshot on a slot receiver

From that article was this bonehead sentence though.

So it is lucky when Pryor takes advantage of the defense mistakes and makes a good play. This means they are lucky to have 10 points?

But there is no mention that USC was lucky to have 7 points off a terribly pass by Pryor?

And how they were lucky that no one caught the fact that USC never crossed the goal line on 4th and 1 after that INT?

by the way this photo is not from a Buckeye fan...it is from a Yahoo sports writer

[h2oville rocket]

No way to know from a still. Ball could have crossed earlier and certainly not clear if his knee is down from that shot. USC stunk up the joint today, though.

[tekekini]

No way to know from a still. Ball could have crossed earlier and certainly not clear if his knee is down from that shot. USC stunk up the joint today, though.

you can tell the knee is down. Perhaps the ball may have crossed earlier but there is no one there in front of him for a push back. He was taken down from behind.

at any rate, TD or not we dont know how the game would have gone if he didn't score and perhaps it wouldn't have changed anything.

My only problem with this thread is the claim that the author of the article that was linked is a fair unbiased realistic observationist. Clearly he is not very realistic or unbiased and is actually quite dumb when he says how OSU was lucky to have 15 points but fails to mention how USC was lucky that OSU GAVE them 10 of theirs and they may or may not have scored 7 of those 10 gift points. I dont think itis luck that USC defenders made bad plays to allow OSU to get down the field to score 10 points. The job of the offensive scheme is to get defenders out of position and your guys in position to make a play. OSU did their job. They had nothing gift wrapped. USC had all of the luck. Their guy was not in position to make an INT. Pryor threw a horrible pass way behind the receiver and their guy just happened to be far enough behind him. That was not by design for USC. Yet according to the author, everything OSU did was luck and USC was all skill and planning and design.

Author is clearly an idiot or not a football person. Either way, he should not be writing articles about football games.

I stopped reading when I read that part. All credibility went out the window with those two sentences that I quoted earlier.

[kdog27]

I think OSU s**t the bed in that game. A case of not being able to get the monkey off their back. USC is not very good this year. They didn't look good in that game or obviously in their game this week. I am not sure if OSU is very good either but I do think they are better than USC.

I continue to be unimpressed with Terelle Pryor. I thought he was better last year. Yeah he made Toledo look stupid but a good team is going to exploit his mistakes. He makes a lot of stupid passes and holds onto to the ball forever sometimes. I don't know if it is himself or the coaching staff that is holding him back but he could be used so much better than he is. I know he wants to be MR stud NFL QB, but lets face it, he isn't right now. He needs to perfect what he is already good at and than start working on being a better passer.

[tekekini]

I think OSU s**t the bed in that game. A case of not being able to get the monkey off their back. USC is not very good this year. They didn't look good in that game or obviously in their game this week. I am not sure if OSU is very good either but I do think they are better than USC.

I continue to be unimpressed with Terelle Pryor. I thought he was better last year. Yeah he made Toledo look stupid but a good team is going to exploit his mistakes. He makes a lot of stupid passes and holds onto to the ball forever sometimes. I don't know if it is himself or the coaching staff that is holding him back but he could be used so much better than he is. I know he wants to be MR stud NFL QB, but lets face it, he isn't right now. He needs to perfect what he is already good at and than start working on being a better passer.

Yup...he pretty much sucks right now. He does have a different QB coach than last year so maybe that slowed down is improvement..I dont know. He needs to get better. Braxton Miller is coming next year. Would hate to have to see TP get replaced by the next hyped frosh phenom, since he replaced a national title participating QB in Boeckman the year before.

[bgsukid]

Yup...he pretty much sucks right now. He does have a different QB coach than last year so maybe that slowed down is improvement..I dont know. He needs to get better. Braxton Miller is coming next year. Would hate to have to see TP get replaced by the next hyped frosh phenom, since he replaced a national title participating QB in Boeckman the year before.

For one, Braxton Miller hasn't even committed anywhere yet (although popular belief is that he probably will end up at OSU) and two, Miller's only a junior so he won't be at OSU or any other college next year. If he does end up at OSU it won't be till Pryor is a senior and a true freshman won't be replacing a senior who's already started for three years. Let's not forget Pryor is still only a true soph, Vince Young was third string at this point in his career at Texas and didn't really become the dynamic player he was until his redshirt Junior season.

[moneymaker02]

I'm really failing to see the hype behind pryor. His throwing motion is GOD awful. It's almost on the same level as being vince young bad. ya he may end up being a great college qb one of these days but thats all he will ever be if he doesnt change his throwing motion. with the spread offense qb's dont have to bee that accurate because of the wr's sitting in the zones. At this point jacory harris is light years ahead of pryor and they're both true sophmores. That pains me to say because I hate the U being a lifelong FSU fan, but harris is the truth and is extremely accurate.

[1987alum]

If the analysis is correct, and as a student of the game, I believe it is, you cannot pin this on Pryor. It is a failure of the system. If Pryor is coached to run the fake bootleg on each power run, that sets up the bootleg and/or at least holds the backside end for a moment.

And the bubble screen point is key. That's got to be an automatic read. You see that coverage, you throw the quick pop screen. Maybe it only nets 5 yards, but if you can get a near-automatic 5 yards on a certain defense, you've got something. More likely, USC would have adjusted its coverage, exposing a different weakness to exploit.

I'm not saying Pryor is overhyped or underhyped or whatever. I have no strong opinion on the guy, but it's clear that Ohio State had a systematic failure on offense. Interestingly, the same analyst looked at the defense and found that the Buckeyes were extremely creative on defense and caused the Trojans no shortage of problems because of that.

[h2oville rocket]

it's clear that Ohio State had a systematic failure on offense.

I think its endemic to coaches who wear sweatervests.

[bgsukid]

it's clear that Ohio State had a systematic failure on offense.

I think its endemic to coaches who wear sweatervests.

Agreed.

[h2oville rocket]

Thanks for doing my job for me. Except you are supposed to wait until a BG fan comes on and says "I think people in sweatervests should be shot!" THEN you post the picture! Worked great over on our board. At least Beckman, for all his homage to Tressle, isn't wearing a sweatervest. Yet.

[Lord_Byron]

it's clear that Ohio State had a systematic failure on offense.

I think its endemic to coaches who wear sweatervests.

Agreed.

Sweet!! I gotta get me one of those when I'm in town!