Buckeyes win and Jack Wilson says his goodbyes to Pittsburgh

The Terrelle Pryor era began yesterday as Pryor started and led the Buckeyes to a workmanlike 28-10 win over the visitors from Alabama in the Troy Trojans.

Shawn's Thoughts

1: Pryor played well,but don't be overly impressed with his four TD passes.
Other than a 38 yard blazer to Brian Robiskie,most of his completions were shorter "catch and run" passes.
The jury is still out on his long passing touch.

2: I realize that Jim Tressel wants to break Pryor in slowly and that makes sense,but this team is going to face eight man fronts at the line of scrimmage soon in Big Ten Play,so he needs to let Pryor loose on long passes.
Brian Robiskie is one of the best pass catchers in the country and when teams stack the line against Chris Wells and Pryor,the Buckeyes will need to show the long pass.

3: Poor Buckeye tackling on the lone Troy TD,Battlin Bob and I counted five missed tackles on the play.
After watching similar miscues against "The other" Trojans,maybe the defensive needs to practice wrapping up before Minnesota next week.

4: Full Credit to two players for terrific plays.
Tight end Rory Nicol's leaping TD in the first half gave Pryor a TD that would have fallen incomplete without the excellent play by the senior.
Safety Kurt Coleman picked off two Troy passes and one ended a Troy scoring drive.
The threat ender was on an high passes that Coleman snared after a huge jump and tackled himself as his foot was caught on James Laurinatis' shoulder pad.

5: Give some kudos to punter A.J.Trapasso as well.
The booter stopped three punts inside Troy's seven yard line and helped provide valuable field position.

In a game so insignificant that Yahoo didnt even bother to do a post game recap and was not televised on either the Houston or Pittsburgh networks,The Bucs scrapped out a rare 6-4 win.
The Pirates scored five in the first and another in the second and that was enough for the win.
Jason Davis earned the win in relief (2-4) and Matt Capps grabbed save number 20.

Shawn's Thoughts

1: Jimmy Barthmaier allowed two runs in three innings to lower his ERA 12 runs,which showed you how far it had to go!
But seriously-This looks to be Barthmaier's last start of the year and even if it isnt,he would have just one more,so why not (considering the big lead) allow him to get through two more innings and get big league win 1?

2: Time to acknowledge Ryan Doumit for a great year after a 3 RBI night.
Doumit is hitting .322 and pretty much has pushed the Ronny Paulino supporters aside.

3: Jack Wilson has been killing himself to be able to play this weekend despite his damaged finger,so he can make a final appearance before the Pirate faithful at home.
Wilson was able to make a pinch hitting appearance and flied to center.
Wilson is convinced that today is his last home game at PNC.

4: So am I

5: Nice job by the bullpen as five of the six pitchers that appeared out of the pen allowed no hits.
Only Tyler Yates allowed runs and hits of the bunch.

Bonus Round:
Good luck in doing anything against the seemingly overwhelming Roy Oswalt.
Oswalt has been nearly unhittable in the last two months with the exception of allowing five runs to the Marlins in his start and even then Oswalt fanned ten Marlins.

Pitching Matchup
Houston:Roy Oswalt (15-10 3.66 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Ross Ohlendorf (1-3 6.79 ERA) 1:35

Two big games for the Browns and Seahawks today as both 0-2 teams cannot afford to go to 0-3 considering the opponents.

The Browns travel to Baltimore to play the 1-0 Ravens.
As disappointing as the Browns have been thus far,I am surprised the Ravens are the favorite in this one.
Why,Because they beat the Bengals?
Whoo Hoo.
Cleveland will have to stop the Baltimore running game of Willis McGahee,Ray Rice and Le'ron McClain as they will have rookie Joe Flacco throw the ball as little as possible if they have their way.
Meanwhile,the Browns will likely try to use Jamal Lewis as their main weapon along with short passes to Kellen Winslow to keep them honest.
Braylon Edwards is questionable for this game and may not play.
And tell me how this would be different from the first games?

The Seahawks host the worst team in football in the St.Louis Rams.
I want to hear no excuses on this,if they lose.
Should be lots of sacks for the Hawks as the Rams have struggled protecting Marc Bulger.

Our Predictions-2008 record 2-2
Browns over Ravens 20-13
Seahawks over Rams 34-17

On the side with the links and stuff,Blogger has added a followers gadget.
If you click on that,you will be considered a follower here,will be listed as such and the more of those that we get,the more exclusive features we are eligible for in the future..

Photo Credits
Pryor:Courtney Hergesheimer-Columbus Dispatch
Nicol:Jonathan Quilter-Columbus Dispatch
Helmets;Helmet Project