Sunday, October 26, 2014

Ohio State slinks out of Happy Valley with 2 OT win 31-24

The Ohio State Buckeyes rolled over the Penn State Nittany Lions in the first half to the tune of 17-0 and quieted the white out crowd in Happy Valley.
The problem was that in the second half,the Buckeyes just rolled over and with a few seconds to go in the second half,Penn State kicked a field goal to tie the game and send it to overtime in front of a suddenly aroused crowd.

However,the Buckeyes managed to awaken from their slumber long enough to score both times that they had the ball in overtime and Joey Bosa personally ended the game in overtime with a play that had to be seen to be believed as Ohio State escaped with a 31-24 two overtime win.
Ezekiel Elliott rushed for over 100 yards and a score,while J.T.Barrett threw for a touchdown and rushed for both of the OSU scores in the pair of overtimes.
Ohio State improves to 6-1 on the season and 3-0 in the Big Ten.
The Buckeyes will host Illinois next Saturday night in their last game before the big showdown vs Michigan State.....

Olentangy Offerings

1) The game ending "throw/stampede" by Joey Bosa,where he basically ran over/tossed the blocker into Christian Hackenberg to end the game is the type of play that you generally see on old NFL Films highlights.
Bosa has to be a contender for the Outland and Lombardi trophies this year and should be the morning line favorite next season for those two awards.

2) I have to give Penn State and their crowd credit-they were loud and proud (of what I have no idea) and the "We are" bunch certainly packs their place,but I have one question-How smart do you look to have a "white out" when your team wears blue for the game??

3) To the white elephant err Lion in the room-the officiating.
Now Vonn Bell's interception clearly hit the ground and should have been overruled,but supposedly there were issues with the replays available to the officials.
Cannot blame them for that,although you could have called it right in live action.
The time expiring before Sean Nuernberger's 49 yard field goal was another botched call.
Not a good night,but....

4) There were some blown calls that went the Penn State way as wel,l most notably a very soft roughing the passer call on Curtis Grant on the drive that saw Penn State tie the game.
Big 10 officiating has always been less than strong historically and that has not gotten any better in 2014..

5) J.T. Barrett was very effective running between the tackles where Penn State was supposedly strongest entering the game.
Barrett is more of a power runner than Braxton Miller was and that is much effective against defensive tackles,where the bulkier defenders resides.

6) Barrett was less than impressive passing though as he finished with just 75 yards and no pass completed of 15 yards or more.
Some of that was due to the next point,but Barrett certainly was nothing to get excited about on this night with his arm...

7) Barrett might not have been great,but much of this reminded me of the Virginia Tech loss where the coaching staff reined the calls in,became one dimensional and didn't try to make plays.
Remember the adage-when you play not to lose,you often do.

8) Ezekiel Elliott might not be Carlos Hyde,but he's pretty dependable and I think he'll be even better next seasn when this offensive line is improved.
Elliott always runs hard,is willing to stick his nose in and block and doesn't need to be taken out on third downs.
I like Elliott and hope he doesn't get overlooked because he isn't Carlos Hyde...

9) The offensive line was better in the first half than the second like the rest of the team,but they might have been the key difference in losing the lead.
The line didn't open the same holes for Ezekiel Elliott and really didn't give J.T. Barrett a ton of time in the pocket either.
Penn State's defense is far better than their offense,but the line will need to pick up their play against Michigan State.

10) I really like the young linebackers and think that they will be even better with experience.
Joshua Perry had a terrific night against Penn State and Darron Lee was strong as well.
Between these two,Ohio State will be back to having a dominant linebacking corps in no time..

11) In conclusion.I usually like Brad Nessler as a play by play man,but he seemed awfully one sided doing this game.
Perhaps it rubs off from being paired with former Nittany Lion quarterback Todd Blackledge,but last night was not one of Nessler's better performances....

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