CLEVELAND TEAMS

Lebron James and many of the Cavs were on the sidelines as the Buckeyes beat Michigan . . . again! The clip above shows them dancing and celebrating after Malik Hooker’s pick 6 to put Ohio State on the board.

Here’s a great shot of the team on the sidelines.

Squad. #GoBucks (via @brutus_buckeye)

A photo posted by Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) on Nov 26, 2016 at 10:44am PST

Well, we knew the Buckeyes were talented this year, but it remained to be seen how the youngest team in college football would play early in the season. Bowling Green had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of a 77-10 thumping as Ohio State unleashed waves of talented players on both sides of the ball.

The offense moved the ball at will. JT Barrett got off to a slow start with an ugly pick-six, but quickly rebounded on his way to 349 yards and six touchdowns. Curtis Samuel flashed as expected with three TDs, including a 79-yarder off a slant. New starting running back Mike Weber ran for 136 yards on 19 carries, while Dontre Wilson chipped in two touchdowns.

Overall the offense generated a staggering 350 yards rushing and 416 yards passing for a school record 776 total yards. Meanwhile, the defense had a great day as well, holding Bowling Green to just 3 points.

This should be a fun year in Columbus, as the Buckeyes aren’t up against huge expectations like last year’s team that was loaded with senior talent and coming off a National Championship season. This Ohio State team is probably just as talented, and now it’s just a question of how fast it grows up. They took some giant first steps today.

Last season was pretty amazing for the Cavaliers. They managed to do the unthinkable. Rarely who believed that they could manage to do what they did. Even now, when the new season is about to begin, people, especially Cavs’ fans can’t stop talking about that amazing Game 7. For most players it will probably be the best game of their lives and they’ll keep going back to it.

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Redshirt sophomore Malik Hooker is off to a great start with three interceptions after two games as the Buckeyes head to Norman this week to face the Oklahoma Sooners. You can see Hooker’s pick-six from the Tulsa game in the video above as the young safety read the play perfectly.

Hooker gives Ohio State a real ball hawk in the secondary as he seems to have the instincts of a great safety like Ed Reed.

Now lets see how Hooker and the young defense handles Oklahoma this week.

It was a wild game, and the Buckeyes made things interesting with four frustrating turnovers, but Ohio State steamrolled Oregon on its way to the National Championship in the inaugural College Football Playoff season. With a day to let things sink in, here are some observations:

– Many will justifiably cite Ezekiel Elliott and the offensive line when explaining the physical domination Ohio State inflicted on Oregon, but as Urban Meyer stressed after the game the defense was just as impressive. The bottom line is that Oregon hadn’t faced a defense as this physical and fast all year long. We heard a ton about Oregon’s tempo, but this team relies on yards after the catch along with Marcus Mariota using his speed along with his arm. But with Ohio State’s front seven along with defensive backs who can tackle, Oregon wasn’t able to get those easy yards after catch that they got against less talented teams. We’ve seen Ohio State’s defense grow before our eyes, and youngsters like Joey Bosa and Darron Lee were too much for Oregon. The result was an Oregon offense that was frustrated all night long. They couldn’t gain much yardage on first down, and thus ended up with a miserable third down conversation rate as they rarely had third and short. Also, Mariota wasn’t able to break any long runs, and he often got pummeled when he tried to run.

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