Buckeyes rotten in Cotton, lose 14-3

    The Ohio State Buckeyes offense played awful early and late, and while neither Devin Brown before his injury nor Lincoln Kienholz afterward distinguished themselves, the stories of the night are going to be Ryan Day's conservative playcalling, and how much Day is willing to gamble off this game on Brown and Kienholz for the 2024 Buckeyes.

The 14-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri isn't as important as how it happened and how it could affect next season for Ohio State.

Ohio State finished with only 106 yards passing and TreVeyon Henderson led the offense with seventy-two yards rushing.

Ohio State will open the 2024 season on August 31st at home against Akron.

For the first time in a long time, Ohio State may have more questions than answers during a long off-season.

Olentangy Offerings

1) Devin Brown injured his ankle in the second quarter and after an aborted attempt to return, left the game for good.

As much as I would like to blame the loss of Brown for the Ohio State defeat, it's not so.

Brown completed four of six passes for only twenty yards at the time of his injury.

2) Ohio State scored their only points under Brown on a forty-four-yard field goal by Jayden Fielding in the first quarter.

Fielding would miss from forty-eight yards in the third quarter when his kick hit off the upright.

3) The offensive line play was brutal as Missouri sacked Ohio State quarterbacks four times and controlled the run game as the Buckeyes reluctance to throw allowed the Tigers to key on TreVeyon Henderson.

4) Jesse Mirco's punting season has been disappointing, to say the least, but Mirco was not a problem against Missouri, placing three punts inside the twenty, and hitting one of sixty-one yards.

5) The player of the game for Ohio State had to be defensive end Jack Sawyer, who sacked Missouri quarterback Brady Cook three times.

Sawyer hasn't announced his decision for the NFL Draft but his play last night may have made him a few dollars extra, should he decide to go pro.

6) Missouri didn't score their two touchdowns until the final quarter against an exhausted Ohio State defense, and it's hard to blame the defense for allowing those scores.

Missouri held the time of possession battle 34-26 but it seemed to be more than that as I watched the game in live action.

7) I did think Ohio State got hosed a bit on the first Missouri touchdown drive when Josh Proctor was called for a late hit on Missouri quarterback Brady Cook.

I thought Proctor hit Cook just as he was stepping out of bounds and it wasn't late.

8) Ohio State committed eight penalties on the evening and continued the struggles with special teams that will likely cause the demise in the coming days of special teams coach Parker Fleming.

Three of the eight came from the special teams, including a holding call on a punt that was fair caught.

9) Ryan Day was downright timid in his playcalling and while the offensive line didn't do their part in protection, Day didn't want to throw downfield often when Devin Brown was in the game, and he did next to none with Lincoln Kienholz.

If this game was so important to win, as was proclaimed before the game, and if it was a chance to measure the quarterbacks for 2024, why wouldn't you try to use as much of the offense as possible?

There were complications with Lincoln Kienholz in using the entire offense but that wouldn't apply to Devin Brown and I don't think the offense was too wide open even before Brown was hurt.

10) Ohio State has to be disappointed with the loss and changes are going to have to be made on the coaching staff and personnel.

Ohio State enters a pivotal season with four quality teams entering the Big Ten next season, the competition will be tougher so the Buckeyes will not be able to show up and win every game on talent alone.

Ryan Day's seat may be warm now, next season will either solve issues in the program or bring bigger problems to the forefront.

It's going to be a long offseason in Columbus. 

PPM

 The final few bowl games and the college semi-finals are the standouts of the weekend along with the next to last week of the NFL regular season.

Last Week: 10-15

Overall: 160-87

College

Semi-Finals

Washington over Texas 38-36

Alabama over Michigan 24-14

Cotton Bowl

Ohio State over Missouri 26-21

Peach Bowl

Ole Miss over Penn State 20-7

Orange Bowl

Georgia over Florida State 35-13

Fiesta Bowl

Oregon over Liberty 44-14

Music City Bowl

Auburn over Maryland 29-24

Arizona Bowl

Toledo over Wyoming 31-25

ReliQuest Bowl

LSU over Wisconsin 34-17

Citrus Bowl

Tennessee over Iowa 24-10

Pro

Browns over Jets 27-17

Broncos over Chargers 24-14

Games of the Week

Ravens over Dolphins 27-24

Chiefs over Bengals 35-20

Browns ground Jets, Clinch Playoffs!

  The Cleveland Browns offense couldn't be stopped in the first half and despite a second half that saw the offense sputter, the Browns had more than enough to defeat the New York Jets 37-20 in Cleveland.

Joe Flacco threw for 307 yards and three touchdowns to lead Cleveland with David Njoku catching six passes for 134 yards to lead the receivers.

The victory clinched a playoff berth for the Browns, who improved to 11-5 with the win and retained Cleveland's slim chance of winning the AFC North title.

Cleveland completes their regular season next Sunday in Cincinnati against the Bengals.

Brownie Bits

1) Amari Cooper was unavailable after suffering a heel injury in his record-setting game against Houston last Sunday. The Browns took another blow to their receiving corps when Elijah Moore left the game with a concussion late in the first half.

Moore had caught five passes for sixty-one before the concussion and his loss left the Browns very basic at wideout.

2) Joe Flacco was solid other than his double-pump pass that was tipped and turned into a pick-six by Jermaine Johnson.

Give Johnson the credit for making a tremendous play, as he leaped into the air, came back down, jumped again to tip the ball, and then caught it and ran for the score.

3) The Browns appear to have found themselves a potential gem in Ronnie Hickman, who had a pick-six of his own.

Hickman, who the Browns signed as a free agent after the draft, is playing in place of the injured Grant Delpit, and should he continue to improve, I could see a scenario in either of the next two off-seasons where the Browns could decide to save some cap space and use Hickman as a starting safety rather than Juan Thornhill or even Delpit.

4) David Njoku was the dominant offensive player of the first half but even then Njoku still fumbled on one play with the Jets recovering.

Njoku may be just one of those players you never receive consistency from and you simply have to accept the occasional mistake,

5) I am not a fan of the Thursday night games but the Browns playing in this one could give the team some clarity for the final week of the season.

If Baltimore defeats Miami, they would clinch the AFC North and the Browns could be locked in as the fifth seed should New England upset Buffalo.

6) If those results occur, the Browns could play it safe in Cincinnati and allow some injured players some time to recover.

I'm never in favor of those decisions usually but there is a difference between resting healthy players and giving injured ones an extra week to heal.

7) The player who has developed into an impact player over the last month has been Jeremiah Owosu-Koramoah.

JOK didn't have a sack or interception in this one but he is developing into a three-down linebacker with the ability to pass or track the quarterback or drop in coverage.

8) The Browns decided to protect the lead in the second half with so much at stake and so many receivers out of the lineup, running the ball and keeping the clock moving.

I understand that under the circumstances and think it was a good idea to try to avoid yet another injury to the receivers but it did allow the Jets to tee off on the running game.

9) The offensive line did its job yet again in giving Joe Flacco time to throw.

Flacco was sacked just once and took only one hit on the evening.

For a team with question marks at tackle, the line has done what they need to do in keeping the pocket clean.

10) Defensive Alex Wright collected one sack between his rookie season in 2022 and the first thirteen games of this season.
Wright has one sack in each of the last three games, so perhaps the former third-round draft choice has found something late in his second season.

11) Turnovers are still a problem for the Browns that will eventually bite them hard.

Three more against the Jets, two of those fumbles, and the Browns seem to be having a season that the football gods are tapping them on the head with the team succeeding despite the turnover problems.

12) The playoff-clinching win sends Cleveland to the postseason for the third time since the 1999 return of the Browns.

That's anemic but it will be the second in the last four seasons.

13) Not a fan of the all-white uniforms and white helmet.

The jersey reminded me of the terrible uniforms that Dee Haslam thought were wonderful and lasted for the minimum time allowed.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

    The tributes never stop as we make time to say goodbye to various contributors from the sports and non-sports world. 

Goodbye to George McGinnis at the age of 73.

The top power forward in the history of the ABA, McGinnis isn't remembered as well as he should be due to his fast decline as a player in his final seasons after the merger with Philadelphia and Denver.

The 1975 scoring leader and co-MVP in the ABA with Julius Erving, McGinnis led the Indiana Pacers to two titles in the ABA, and in the 1975 ABA playoffs against San Antonio, Big George finished game four with the first 50+ point triple-double, fifty-one points, seventeen rebounds, and ten assists.

McGinnis finished his ABA career averaging twenty-five points and just under thirteen rebounds a game before moving to the NBA and the Philadelphia 76ers where he averaged a double-double in his first season in 1975-76.

McGinnis was joined by Julius Erving with the Sixers in the following year and their skills didn't always mesh well, even with the Sixers reaching the NBA finals in the first year.

McGinnis was traded to Denver for Bobby Jones, who helped Philadelphia to a title. After a good first season with the Nuggets, McGinnis's legs began to go and was traded in 1980 to Indiana in a trade that landed Denver Alex English.

McGinnis made six All-Star teams, three in the ABA and three in the NBA before retiring in 1982.

Goodbye to Frank Wycheck at the age of 52.

Wycheck played eleven years, most of them with the Tennessee Titans, making three Pro Bowls as a tight end/H-Back, and caught 505 passes in his career.

Wycheck is most famous as the player who threw the ball across the field to Kevin Dyson with sixteen seconds remaining in Tennessee's 2000 playoff win over Buffalo resulting in the "Music City Miracle".

Buffalo had taken the lead and with seconds remaining, kicked the ball to the Titans on the left side of the field, Wycheck took the squib kick and fired the ball across the field and backward for a legal lateral to Dyson, who took the pass and ran seventy-five yards for the game-winning score.

Wycheck was the Titans' radio color commentator from 2005 to 2016 before retiring due to head trauma suffered during his career.

Goodbye to Vic Davalillo at the age of 84.

The diminutive Venezuelan native played sixteen years in the majors, most notably with the Cleveland Indians, where he made his only All-Star team in 1965 and a Gold Glove in 1964.

Davalillo was known for his "stepping into the bucket" hitting stance and his difficulty for pitchers to strike out in his career with six teams.

Davalillo left the majors for the 1975 and 76 seasons before returning for four seasons with the Dodgers, where Davalillo would comprise the best pinch-hitting duo of the time with fellow veteran Manny Mota.

Goodbye to Hartland Monahan at the age of 72.

One of the early standouts of the expansion Washington Capitals, Monahan played for six NHL teams from 1973-81.

Monahan scored forty goals in his two seasons with Washington but just twenty-one over the rest of his career with the other five teams.

Goodbye to Ryan Minor at the age of 49.

One of the nicest guys in sports that I've ever met. Minor was a two-sport star at Oklahoma for both the baseball and basketball teams and was drafted in both sports, Baltimore in baseball and Philadelphia in basketball.

Minor was named the Big Eight Player of the Year in 1995 for the Sooners in basketball and would manage for several seasons in the Orioles organization managing at Low A, High A, and AA.

Minor played parts of three seasons for the Orioles and Montreal Expos, most notably as the player that started in place of Cal Ripken on the evening Ripken's consecutive game streak ended.

Boxing Challenge: Inoue Unifies Again!

   Naoya Inoue got more than most bargained for in a strong effort by Marlon Tapales but even in a gutsy attempt by Tapales, the greatness of Inoue was far too much as Inoue took away Tapales's WBA and IBF junior featherweight titles by tenth round knockout in Tokyo.

Adding those titles to the WBC and WBO championships that Inoue owned entering the fight means that Inoue completely unified the division in the two fights that the Monster has fought in the weight class.

Inoue was expected to overpower Tapales but Tapales showed the willingness to engage with Inoue and took the power shots very well, even fighting back after a fourth-round knockdown and winning the seventh round on my card, which is rare against Inoue.

Still, even though Tapales fought much better than expected, he was overmatched by Inoue, who could be the best fighter in the world and if he is rated behind anyone, it's Terence Crawford and no one else.

Inoue announced his desire to stay in the division to defend his titles rather than vacate them almost immediately as he did with his bantamweight titles. He is expected to face former WBC bantamweight and super featherweight champion Luis Nery in the spring.

Nery is a fighter who was once rated by some as a top ten pound-for-pound fighter and has won four straight since suffering his only loss in 2021, a seventh-round knockout loss to Brandon Figueroa.

Nery will be the hardest puncher that Inoue has faced other than maybe Nonito Donaire but Nery is likely to have issues with the speed of Inoue and his chin gave out against Figueroa, it's hard to see him holding up against Inoue.

Naoya Inoue is a special fighter and has already stamped himself as a Hall of Famer.

The question is this- Who will be the fighter that truly pushes him to the limit?

I don't see anyone doing so at 122 pounds, is that fighter at 126 pounds?

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 198 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 179 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 131 Pts (2)  

Boxing Challenge

   Early Tuesday morning in Tokyo, Naoya Inoue will attempt to unify his second division in two years as Inoue will place his WBC and WBO junior featherweight titles against the WBA and IBF belts held by Marlon Tapales to create one champion in the division.

Inoue won his two titles from the man who was regarded as the best fighter in the division before Inoue rose in weight from bantamweight, as Inoue ripped through Stephen Fulton in eight rounds in July, while Tapales took advantage of a sluggish start from Murodjon Akhmadaliev to slip by with a split decision win in April to win his two championships.

Inoue is heavily favored to dispatch Tapales and I think it could be a short night.

Style-wise, Akhmadaliev may have been a more difficult opponent for "The Monster" and Tapales doesn't seem to have the skill to trouble Inoue or the strength to come forward aggressively.

Should Tapales pull the upset, it will be the biggest upset in the lighter-weight classes in decades.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica; Inoue KO 6 

TRS: Inoue KO 2

Vince Samano : Inoue KO 5

Merry Christmas!

 Happy Holidays from myself and my hard-working staff here at TRS!

Hope the holidays are safe and happy ones!