Sunday, September 18, 2016

Ohio State booms the Sooners 45-24

The Ohio State Buckeyes stormed into Norman,Oklahoma and dominated a game that most (including me) thought would be a difficult contest for a good team to win in a 45-24 thumping.
J.T,Barrett fired four touchdowns to Noah Brown and Mike Weber with Curtis Samuel gashed the Sooner defense for 221 rushing yards between them in the victory.

The now 3-0 Buckeyes have next week off before starting conference play at home vs Rutgers....

Olentangy Offerings

1) The catch of the year shown above as Noah Brown pinned a J.T. Barrett pass against the back of a Sooner defensive back and still managed to get his feet down inbounds.
Perhaps this is a bit of revisionist history,but go back to Brown's knee injury before last season,could a healthy and motivated Brown been the Devin Smith type player that last years team needed?

2) J.T.Barrett threw for less than 200 yards with his four scores,but his 20 attempts showed that the Buckeyes didn't need him to do throw often.
Ohio State was able to keep third and long situations out of the equation most of the time and as a result,Barrett was able to keep his passing totals low..

3) I felt this game swung in the first quarter and I never felt really in danger thereafter.
The first game on the first drive of the game by Oklahoma.
The Buckeye defense stiffened and stopped the Sooners after a drive that looked as an impressive beginning to the game as Oklahoma could have expected.
However,Austin Seibert's field goal clanged off the upright and you could feel the game change right there...

4) The other was Jerome Baker's grab and go of a deflected pass and resulting interception return for a touchdown.
Oklahoma never recovered from that shot and seemed to change their offense after that as they almost seemed panicked going to the pass more than one would think.

5) The interception by Baker was the fourth this season returned for a touchdown already this season and tied the Buckeye record for interception scores for a season..

6) One thing that Oklahoma didn't do more of and I'm stunned why they didn't was run Joe Mixon more.
Mixon was the one player on the Sooners that matched up well with the Buckeyes and averaged almost nine yards a carry.
Mixon would only receive nine carries though and I'm surprised that the Sooners didn't try to get the ball in his hands more..

7) Mixon showed the explosive burst that I worried about on his kickoff return for a touchdown after the Buckeyes scored on the Jerome Baker pick.
Mixon is a real player,but he clearly dropped the ball before entering the end zone.
This seems to happen far more than it ever should in football.
General rule of thumb in college or pro football-Don't drop the ball until you see the different color or grass/turf under your feet.

8) I was screaming about this play well before Fox bothered to replay it ten minutes later.
The replay crew (from the Big 10) missed this call.
I expect this stuff from the horrific Gus Johnsom,I don't expect it from officials.
BTW- get used to more screaming Gus on Buckeye games with more Buckeye games going to Fox next season...

9) Urban Meyer 19-0 on the road at Ohio State.
Not much I can add to that.

10) I really like Mike Weber as a back and I think he is only going to get better with work.
Weber still hasn't ripped off one of those backbreaking long runs yet,but it's coming and Weber is going to be the workhorse for this team in Big 10 play-Just an opinion.

11) Finally,this-Ohio State is a contender in a year that was thought to be a reloading one.
Urban Meyer seems to thrive on situations like this and the win over Oklahoma showed such.
I'm still wondering about those road games in East Lansing (especially after the Spartans dusted Notre Dame) and Madison (although Georgia State ,yes State gave Bucky all he wanted yesterday),but I'm feeling good about where things are right now...

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