Well..., the sun did come up...

[76-1]

Show of (virtual) hands... How many of you believed we'd be playing the worthless nuts for right to play in the Big Ten Championship Game in November, at their place, last August?

How many of you believed we had any chance at all of beating o-h-i-o $tate at their place back at the start of the season?

So..., the good news is we Won 10 straight going into to that game and the bad news is we're now 10-1..., with a great shot at bringing the Bucket back home, going 11-1, and being in the Playoff conversation... I can live with it...

The reality is that if we played that team with this Team 9 more times in a row we'd probably lose the next 9 by between 1 to 10 points every time... Unfortunately, they have that much more NFL talent... I don't like to admit it but it's a reality I can deal with... If they don't win the National Championship it'll be completely because Day f---'d up.

If our only regular season loss is to the most talented team in the country I'll grit my teeth and acknowledge it.

Let's focus on Bringing the Bucket Back and see where we stand this time next week...

 

[Crossblock]

Let's look at some of the positives from yesterday.
1. We had control of the game early. A 3 and out for osu on their first series followed by our Touchdown Drive. And then the turning point for the Defense. We let Them out of a 2nd and 35 from around midfield and let Them convert a 4th and 10. Even though We held Them on downs without a score, that is the sequence that turned the field position in favor of Ohio State.
2. We started the next drive from the One Yard Line, got two first downs and had the ball around the 35 with 3rd and One. That's the play where Bomba got called for illegal procedure, We lost 5 yards, and the Offense never recovered. pick up that first down without the Penalty and Who knows.
3. The punt unit gave Ohio State 2 Touchdowns - one following the dropped snap and the other on the Punt Return. The first one right before the half, the second following a 3 and out by Us to start the 2nd half on the punt return. two Touchdowns given up in less than 3 minutes of clock time. Ouch.
4. The Defense gave up yardage in the Second Half but didn't play terribly. In fact the biggest chunk of Yardage came on that run by Henderson following the onside kick when the game was decided. If You ignore that final junk TD scored by Ohio State , and attribute 2 TDs to the Punt Team mistakes, the Defense gave up up 17 points.
5. Concern for the Defense. After the first 2 OSU Offensive Series, They never got consistent pressure on Howard and He completed a huge percentage of passes. Concern for the Offense. For the second game in a row, the Opponents Defense figured out how to disrupt our pass protection schemes and nullify our passing game.

 

[mushroomgod_1]

Let's look at some of the positives from yesterday.
1. We had control of the game early. A 3 and out for osu on their first series followed by our Touchdown Drive. And then the turning point for the Defense. We let Them out of a 2nd and 35 from around midfield and let Them convert a 4th and 10. Even though We held Them on downs without a score, that is the sequence that turned the field position in favor of Ohio State.
2. We started the next drive from the One Yard Line, got two first downs and had the ball around the 35 with 3rd and One. That's the play where Bomba got called for illegal procedure, We lost 5 yards, and the Offense never recovered. pick up that first down without the Penalty and Who knows.
3. The punt unit gave Ohio State 2 Touchdowns - one following the dropped snap and the other on the Punt Return. The first one right before the half, the second following a 3 and out by Us to start the 2nd half on the punt return. two Touchdowns given up in less than 3 minutes of clock time. Ouch.
4. The Defense gave up yardage in the Second Half but didn't play terribly. In fact the biggest chunk of Yardage came on that run by Henderson following the onside kick when the game was decided. If You ignore that final junk TD scored by Ohio State , and attribute 2 TDs to the Punt Team mistakes, the Defense gave up up 17 points.
5. Concern for the Defense. After the first 2 OSU Offensive Series, They never got consistent pressure on Howard and He completed a huge percentage of passes. Concern for the Offense. For the second game in a row, the Opponents Defense figured out how to disrupt our pass protection schemes and nullify our passing game.

We also had 3 costly pass drops.......unfortunately, that is starting to look like a trend. The WRs haven't showed up for the last 2 games.