Ohio State thread

[Flipper]

You want to be one of the big boys...play a big boy schedule. You want to fund D1 football in 2016? You're going to have to play two money games....or start drawing 30k a game and charging double.

So far as Watson's suspension goes...for all we know it was a settled issue prior to the game, but not announced until then. Just because we found out about it five minutes before the game, that doesn't mean it was decided five minutes before the game

[Siborg]

Tough loss to stomach but if we win this Saturday, we'll be 1-1. That's what any sane human expected anyways. This first game blowout loss routine is getting old.

I absolutely do not want to give up playing P5 teams. I'm an avid watcher of MAC vs P5 games, more so than conference games. The top echelon teams can pummel us especially when we are very young and playing top 10 teams. When we have Jr/Sr dominated teams, we tend to compete a little better. Of the 60 players listed in the participation chart, the vast majority were either taking their 1st snap in IA football or have a very small amount of experience. No excuse to lose by 67, but it will be interesting to see how they bounce back.

[Flipper]

From the Blade re Watson....

Some of the Falcons’ defensive problems stemmed from the NCAA-imposed suspension of Will Watson, a senior who was expected to start at cornerback. While BG coaches refused to talk about the suspension after the game, it must have come as a shock to them because Watson spent considerable time practicing with the first team during fall drills leading up to the opener.

So there you have it...the National Communists Against Athletes are at it again

I found this interesting as well re the offense...

“They made a lot of plays you don’t see teams make very often,” Jinks said of the Buckeyes. “But they did blow some coverages to give us guys running wide open, and we didn’t take advantage of them.


If Knapke struggles this Saturday will we see a change like Clawson pulled with MJH and Schilz?

[jpfalcon09]

From the Blade re Watson....

Some of the Falcons’ defensive problems stemmed from the NCAA-imposed suspension of Will Watson, a senior who was expected to start at cornerback. While BG coaches refused to talk about the suspension after the game, it must have come as a shock to them because Watson spent considerable time practicing with the first team during fall drills leading up to the opener.

So there you have it...the National Communists Against Athletes are at it again

I found this interesting as well re the offense...

“They made a lot of plays you don’t see teams make very often,” Jinks said of the Buckeyes. “But they did blow some coverages to give us guys running wide open, and we didn’t take advantage of them.


If Knapke struggles this Saturday will we see a change like Clawson pulled with MJH and Schilz?

Jinks' comment speaks to a concern I have about Knapke which is locking onto one guy too often and not going through his progressions. He was hit and miss on Saturday, made some good throws into tight windows but also made poor decisions, like throwing into double coverage on the first INT. I'm not sure we'll see much of Morgan this year unless Knapke gets hurt or the team ends up being much worse than expected and the coaches plan on seeing what they have for next year.

[hammb]

“They made a lot of plays you don’t see teams make very often,” Jinks said of the Buckeyes. “But they did blow some coverages to give us guys running wide open, and we didn’t take advantage of them.


If Knapke struggles this Saturday will we see a change like Clawson pulled with MJH and Schilz?

This will be Jinks's first test as head coach. You've got a glorified regular season scrimmage and your starting QB played pretty poorly in week 1. By the coach's own admission he was missing "guys running wide open."

If I had ANY question whatsoever about the QB depth chart I'd be giving both guys meaningful reps against ND. But there is a downside to that...do you risk hurting Knapke's confidence by playing both guys? Buckeye fans saw it firsthand last year when 2 good QBs played like garbage most of the year because neither had the confidence of knowing he was "the man".

Hopefully one of the guys shows up and takes away any doubt about the starting QB for the rest of the year.

[Redwingtom]

I know it's only one game against a great opponent, but I saw the same things that I did not like about Knapke as I did two years ago.

- No feel for the pocket or the impending rush.
- Making ill-advised throws.
- Missing open receivers.
- Throwing behind receivers and not leading them properly.

I also realize that this is the third offensive system he's seen, but the law two aren't really that dissimilar. And if he's making the same exact kinds of mistakes, I don't think you can put that on unfamiliarity with the system.

While Morgan played against the non-first team defense for O$U, he sure looked the part way more than Knapke.

If the game announcers were correct in their report on Morgan, that he has the tools but just not the mental capacity to game manage yet, I'd treat the ND game as a competition. I'd give each guy a half and award the start in Game 3 to the winner. I think you'd see who is ready to be the leader of this team.

If we don't get consistent play from our QB in this type of offensive system, we're not going to win much this year...even against the piss poor MAC East!

[factman]

I have been to 3-4 practices, and from what I've seen, Morgan seems to be much more accurate than Knapke. It is hard to judge the leadership and other things, just watching them throw in skeleton drills, but Morgan sure seems to win that category.

[jpfalcon09]

I have been to 3-4 practices, and from what I've seen, Morgan seems to be much more accurate than Knapke. It is hard to judge the leadership and other things, just watching them throw in skeleton drills, but Morgan sure seems to win that category.

Like I said in 2014, Knapke is a slightly better version of Matt Schilz and the stats back that up. A 5th year senior QB should be able to accurately throw the ball with consistency, regardless of what offense the team is running. If the weather is decent Saturday I'll be very curious to see how he performs.

[Schadenfreude]

Earlier in this thread, I posted that I thought Knapke had made some good throws. At that point in the game, he had. But in the second half he had a couple of clear misses. Others watching the game questioned the degree to which Knapke arced a couple of this throws rather than zipping them in there.

I thought Morgan looked good in mop up duty.

Bottom line: I'd be interested to see both play Saturday.

I dislike fan-driven quarterback controversies. I tend to trust the coaches on this sort of thing, since they see so much more than we do. But here we are. If we only see Knapke, I can accept that. But I admit that I'm curious about Morgan. He seems to have a heck of an arm and some touch.

[MarkL]

Morgan looked sharp and connected well with Zimmerman but remember that the only defense Morgan faced was a prevent defense so soft it made Kim McCloud's defensive schemes look aggressive. So let's not get too carried away. He likely has a lot to learn.

[Beaker]

A lot of good points made here. I have no idea how this season will play out in terms of the quarterback situation, but after seeing Morgan in limited action, it's enough to make me optimistic for the next couple of years. Assuming he stays healthy and progresses and matures the way you'd expect, I think we may have us a pretty good QB in the making.

[kdog27]

Morgan played? You guys must enjoy train wrecks. One half was all I could stomach.

[jpfalcon09]

Morgan played? You guys must enjoy train wrecks. One half was all I could stomach.

Yeah, I didn't see him play either, I was already flipped over to The U to see the boat rowers take down NW. There's no doubt the kid has raw talent and if the biggest part that needs improving is his mental game then him seeing action can only help remedy that. Hopefully he gets to see some snaps on Saturday.

[Falconfreak90]

Morgan looked sharp but he did throw the pick six. In his defense, JM tried chasing down the osu player to tackle him, all the way to the end zone. Most guys would have given up on the play but Morgan didn't. I thought that spoke volumes. Even down 70-10, he went after the osu player. That is all effort.

[Siborg]

Morgan looked sharp but he did throw the pick six. In his defense, JM tried chasing down the osu player to tackle him, all the way to the end zone. Most guys would have given up on the play but Morgan didn't. I thought that spoke volumes. Even down 70-10, he went after the osu player. That is all effort.

Yes, I saw that hustle too. He had a couple good throws. One to Folkertsma and another to Zimmerman on one of the final plays. The others were just simple throws.

I'd like BG to do what Louisville did many years ago with LeFors and Brahm. LeFors was the starter, no doubt, but each game they would let the backup run a series or two late first qtr or early second qtr. No controversy, no hurt feelings but it gave Brahm practical experience and did not disrupt the team chemistry.