The Ohio State Buckeyes struggled offensively against the Akron Zips,but a totally dominant defense controlled the Zips all game as the Buckeyes pulled away with two second half touchdowns for a 20-2 win.
Akron scored their 2 points in the first quarter as Chris Wells was tackled in t
he end zone and that pretty much concluded the Akron scoring and the offense from the invaders from the Rubber City.Ryan Pretorius kicked a 37 yard field goal in the second quarter to give the Bucks a surprisingly small 3-2 halftime lead.
Pretorius booted another field goal from 34 in the 3rd to lengthen the lead,before a Todd Boeckman screen pass to Brandon Saine from the Akron 6 produced the first Buckeye TD.
I think that Saine is going to be really special,if he is able to stay healthy.
Tremendous speed and moves make this guy potentially the next OSU great,
Boeckman completed the scoring in the 4th with a 13 yard strike to Brian Robiskie.
Boeckman was intercepted twice and the offense fumbled 3 times as well.
Not a good sign,but Chris Wells was able to get untracked after his uninspired effort against Youngstown,as Wells finished with 143 yards on 20 carries.
Frankly,I am more worried about this coming weeks games against Washington in Seattle than I was a week ago.
The Huskies are coming in off a victory over Boise State and could be better than expected.
Between the game being on the road and a struggling offense-I am concerned about this game next week.
Speaking of Seattle-The Seahawks were able to wear down the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers and post a 20-6 victory.
Tampa used two first half field goals to lead for most of the half before a Josh Brown field goal and a Shaun Alexander 1 yard TD run in the last 3 minutes gave the Seahawks
the 10-6 lead at the half.Alexander finished with 105 yards on the ground for the day.
The Seahawks showed some new found aggressiveness on defense as the Buccaneers watched as both starting QB Jeff Garcia and star runner Cadillac Williams were knocked from the game with injuries.
This forced the already offensively challenged Buccaneers to use Luke McCown at QB and use journeymen Michael Pittman and Earnest Graham as the backs.
Seattle added the clinchers in the 4th quarter with a 46 yard field goal by Brown early in the period before Matt Hasselbeck hit a streaking Maurice Morris on a fly pattern on a 34 yard pass to complete the scoring.
I would liked to see the offense start a little faster,but loved what I saw from the defense.
All and all-a good first outing.
The Seahawks travel to Arizona for the first road trip of the year to take on the Cardinals next week.
Sadly,the Seahawks had to salvage the day for me as the Cleveland Browns looked about as bad as I could have thought as the Pittsburgh Steelers pasted them 34-7.
Charlie Frye looked confused as the Steelers blitzed all during his quarter and a half sacked him 5 times and intercepted him once.
His successor ,Derek Anderson, didn't fare much better as he was intercepted once and with only one exception was unable to muster anything offensively.
Anderson's third quarter 1 yard pass action flip to fullback Lawrence Vickers did avoid a shutout,but little else could be taken from this game as a positive.
I know it is just 1 game and the time is there for a turnaround,but after watching this-it is very hard to look at things positively.
I am not calling for any head to roll yet,but if these types of efforts continue- it will not be long.
The Bengals roll into Cleveland next week and they are superior (offensively) to the Steelers.
That does not bode well for the North Coasters.
Meanwhile our Pirates took 2 out of 3 from the Cubs over the weekend,as they attempt to become the dreambusters of the Central race.
Friday-Tom Gorzelanny won his 14th game of the season with a dominating 7 innings in the Pirates 6-1 win.
The Cubs could just scratch out 6 hits vs Gorzelanny,who won for the 5th time in his last 6 starts.
Jack Wilson hit his 9th homer in the victory.
The Cubs bounced back on Saturday with a 5-1 win over Ian Snell (9-12).
Snell allowed 4 runs in his seven innings of pitching.
Jack Wilson had the only RBI with a 7th inning sacrifice fly to score Adam LaRoche.
Yesterday,the Pirates pounced early with a bases loaded triple by Freddy Sanchez in the second inning and cruised to a 10-5 win.
Sanchez added another RBI later in the games to finish the game with four.
Nyjer Morgan had a great game as well,as he knocked in 2 runs and robbed Aramis Ramirez of extra bases with a spectacular catch in center field.
Matt Morris was the winner and improved to 9-9 on the year.
The Pirates now try to dim the Brewers light in a three game series in Milwaukee.
Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh: Tony Armas (3-5) at Milwaukee: Carlos Villanueva (7-3) 7:05
Bullpen Notes
I know that the Dave Littlefield retro has been MIA and it is coming soon.
Football has gobbled up some time,but trust me-I have not forgotten about our goodbye to the Captain.
Jack Wilson was named the National League Player of the week last week for his 600+ hitting.
Kudos to our good friends in michigan for their impressive comebac
k vs Oregon.38-7,sure glad that Mike Hart was able to get his teammates ready to play that week.
This week-Mike guarantees a win vs Notre Dame.
I cannot stand Notre Dame,but that would be hilarious if the weak Irish went into the "big outhouse" and took yet another home game from michigan.
In the grasping for silver lining column-at least the Browns should not have to worry about drafting Mike Hart since they foolishly peddled their number 1 pick next year.
Having one michigan loudmouth on the team already is more than enough,I do not think that I could stand two of them making foolhardy predictions every week.
Back tomorrow with news from the minors over the weekend and on the signing front!
Photo Credits
Wells-Shari Lewis-Columbus Dispatch
Tatupu-Otto Greule Jr-Getty Images
Browns Fan-Mark Duncan-AP Photo
Hart-Tony Ding-AP Photo
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