Thursday, November 18, 2010

Reviewing the tape-Second half Stampede

Truth be told,I missed the first half of Ohio State's showdown with Penn State.
Other than the Minnesota game that was televised nowhere locally,it was the first Buckeye game that I had missed in years,but I had good reason (A terrific Ham and Oyster dinner) and I made it home for the second half and that was far more pleasurable to watch as the Buckeyes scored 35 of the 38 points that they scored then and allowed the Nittany Lions to score none in a 38-14 romp over Penn State.
Ohio State continues to be one of the three teams (Wisconsin and Michigan State) tied for the Big Ten title and will attempt to stay that way after this Saturday's trip to Iowa City and the Hawkeyes.

Buckeye Leaves

1) Nice to see Penn State passer Matt McGloin fire two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns this week after his behavior about comments by ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit.
Like it or not (often I think commentators go way over the line),commentators in the studio are asked for their opinion and they give it-that is the nature of the job.
It is one thing to use these things as fuel,another to fire back publicly.
To do so makes you seem immature and unable to handle the pressure of various issues that high profile athletes must control.

2) Ohio State made big plays happen in the second half,both skillful and lucky.
The Devon Torrence pick six was very skillful as he tipped the ball himself multiple times before finally grabbing it and racing to the end zone.
Tremendous hand-eye coordination by Torrence...

3) The long pass to Dane Sanzenbacher was lucky as Penn State had perfect double coverage on the play and these things cannot be blamed on the PSU secondary,but Sanzenbacher gets tons of credit for hustle as he continued his route and put him in position to make the play that broke the game open...

4) Player of the game goes to Boom Herron.
I have never been totally sold on Herron as a feature back,but he seems to be rounding into the best choice for now as he rumbled for 190 yards over the tattered Lions defense.
Herron is the difference maker in this offense as when he gets rolling,things become opened up for the rest of the offense....

5) I didn't think Terrelle Pryor played well or poorly,but I do think that the pressure for playing against Penn State works against him at times.
There has to be tons of behind the scenes things going on during the week and that cannot help anyone play their best.

6) Fox will have the Big Ten title game starting next season and the following five beyond that.
I have nothing against Fox coverage,but I do think that networks that don't show the regular games and then jump in for post season contests usually come off far less smooth than the networks that show the games every week.

Photo Credit-Marvin Fong-Cleveland Plain Dealer

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