Category: OSU Football (Page 36 of 42)

That was a beatdown against Minnesota. I’m a little surprised that the defense gave up 31 points, especially that early in the game (aside from the garbage time TD, most of it was in the first 20 minutes of the game), but I guess you can’t shut everybody down completely. The team that won today is probably what Tressel had in mind when he went with Troy Smith at QB. And Ted Ginn appears to be back, for real, too.

Didn’t look much like Ohio State football, though, did it? Big play here, big play there, huge chunks of offense in rapid succession. Too bad this wasn’t on the field against Texas and Penn State.

Dominated a lesser team, 41-10. Troy Smith was maddening. Is it against the rules to just have him run the option?

I can see why they stick with the kid…he can throw the rock. Problem is he needs to learn the position of QB, specifically the part where you actually move your head from side to side in order see more than one receiver. I guess we’re stuck with him.

Buckeyes got lucky today with a bunch of Michigan State mistakes. Troy Smith still looks like a guy who doesn’t really know how to play QB. I loved how Gary Danielson kept saying stuff like, “Smith’s problem is mechanics…Smith’s problem is fundamentals…” Why is a guy who’s problems are mechanics and fundamentals starting for the Ohio State Buckeyes at QB?

Troy Smith, that’s what. All this handwringing about Ted Ginn…gimme a break. This team’s problems start and END with the QB.

I gotta be honest, it gets harder and harder to give a damn about OSU football once they get 2 losses. Especially when the team keeps sleepwalking through the obvious problems, i.e., QB. They lose this game to Michigan State Saturday, I’m gonna start calling my OSU posts something like “Futility Update”.

So the Buckeyes’ national championship hopes are over with last night’s loss to Penn State. Oddly, I feel like it’s time for a post mortem…and they’re only 3-2!! The verdict? Jim Tressel probably deserves the blame for this 3-2 start, the consequence of being out of national title contention, and it all starts at QB.

It isn’t QB Troy Smith’s fault that he stinks. Smith’s performance last night versus Penn State alternated between average and outright terrible. The kid is not a passer, period. He’s an option QB, and not a very good one at that. For some reason, Tressel put all his eggs in Troy Smith’s basket, despite the plain truth that the offense’s most precise and dominating performance of the season was with Justin Zwick at QB against Miami (OH).

The loss to Texas will be the perfect microcosm of this season. You knew it while you were watching it. The moronic QB carousel, the strange commitment to an inferior passer when your team’s best weapons are at wideout. The Penn State game is merely the full manifestation of a flawed theory, Tressel alternating between dropping Smith back to pass and running the option, as if he can’t even decide how to use Smith after he’s decided to use him in the first place.

It’s really a shame, because this team is talented. They should be national title contenders, but they aren’t, because of the terrible management and execution of the most important position on the field.