Posted:
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Hey guys, posted this in my thread but its so far down there no one will see it:
Alrighty tonight we've got the Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns in the Fiesta Bowl. Texas has their hearts broken in a last second loss to Texas Tech and never recovered in the polls to have a shot at the national championship. Ohio St. is basically the opposite story. After suffering an embarassing early defeat at USC they gave the ball exclusively to Terrelle Pryor behind center. They did lose another game along the way to Penn St. but basically resurrected their season to make a BCS game. Obviously there are a lot of matchups in tonights game to watch for that should determine the outcome. Youve got Texas' high flying offense vs. Ohio St.'s stingy defense. To break it down further youve got Texas' excellent receivers vs. Ohio St. phenomenal corners. Also these conferences could not be different with styles of play. The Big 12 loves to air it out and play as little an amount of defense as possible. The Big 10 will pound the ball and play a field position style dominated by defense. You've got Ohio St on a big stage for the 3rd consecutive year and getting embarassed 2 years in a row. You've got the Big 12 getting laughed at this bowl season b/c they cant win a game. Weve watched Oklahoma St and Texas Tech just get worn out and have nothing left in the 2nd half. Both teams got run all over late and you wonder how that will play out tonight. Basically so many variables that it is hard to cap this one using previous games. But I came up with a few things I think will be the difference. I concentrated mainly on both teams losses rather than their wins to find weaknesses to exploit.
Now dont get me wrong with what I'm about to say. USC absolutely manhandled Ohio St. and didnt belong on the same field. However, they did hold their offense to 348 yards and USC was able to a majority of their damage on the ground to set up the pass for Sanchez. The Ohio St. offense had some success moving the ball in the 1st half. They sustained 2 long drives against the defense but had to settle for 1 missed and 1 made field goal. The game got out of hand when Boeckman threw a pick 6 to put USC up 21-3 and then fumbled after a few first downs on the following drive. I saw reports saying they will be working Boeckman into the QB mix in this game and cant figure out for the life of me why. I hope it is rare and only as a decoy. Pryor has improved every week and looks like he is going to be a great one for sure. After the USC they instilled him as the starter and havent looked back since. They had Penn St. come into the Shoe after 5 consecutive wins following the previous loss. In true big 10 fashion this was an absolute
er.
Penn St. played an absolutely flawless game which I dont think most
people realize. Penn St had zero turnovers and zero penalties. Thats
remarkable to me. Even with no mistakes period they still needed the
Pryor fumble late to win this game. Neither team gained 300 yards of
total offense and it was really an old fashioned battle. Quite the
opposite of what Texas will want to do tonight. Penn St. had one
sustaining drive in the 1st half and it was done on the ground. They
couldnt move the ball in the air against this defense
.
I know Texas' passing offense is on another level than Penn St's but
its impressive nonetheless. So basically when Ohio St. has had trouble
this year it has been when a team was able to run the ball against
their defense. I just dont see that being Texas' plan tonight and I
think they are going to test the corners of Ohio St. and I think they
are going to have a rough time in doing so.
So for Texas I decided to run through the Oklahoma and Texas Tech games pretty closely. Oklahoma came out firing on all cylinders and it really doesnt do much good to compare the OU offense to the OSU offense. What you can compare is when Texas had the ball. They got it back trailing by 7 and they couldnt run the ball at all. They were having 1 yard runs and 15 yard passes which isnt exactly the recipe for beating OSU. Oklahoma drove right down the field passing at will again and scored to go up 14-3. Then the game changing moment occurred when Shipley took the kick back to reenergize the team. The rest of the half was the same story again. Oklahoma passing it down their throats and not even trying to run it. Texas doing the same thing. I know there is a stat floating out there that says Texas is #2 in the country vs. the run but how seriously can you take that? Their pass defense is horrid and they play in the Big 12 where they hardly ever run the ball. That stat is about as bad as Boeckmans TD/TO ratio in big games. Looking quickly at the box score one might say Ogbannaya had a big game for Texas. I mean he had 15 carries for 127 yards.
He had a run of 30 and a run 62 in those stats. Otherwise he had 35
yards on 13 carries. So that stat is a little misleading to me as well.
So what it comes down to is whether Texas can pass the ball at will
like they have been all year, or if the prolific Ohio St. secondary can
contain them. My money is on Ohio St here. I think this game is going
to be very close. Texas' defensive line will have not taken a beating
like this all year. They will get a constant helping of Pryor and
Beanie. So far the Big12 has struggled against a combination of running
qb/running rb. Anyone remember what happened to Oklahoma St in the 2nd
half? Wasnt pretty. I expect more of the same. I wanted to find an
example of a running QB in the Big 12 and the best example for me was
Baylor's QB Griffin who ran for 101 yards on them. He wasnt able to do
much in the air but I dont think Coach Tress will be overly concerned
if Terrelle picks up first downs on the ground or in the air. I could
not believe I was getting 10 points in this one. Ohio St has struggled
2 years in a row and that pushed this line high but they were also
beaten by excellent rushing teams with great defenses. Tonight weve got
the opposite and I think it plays into Ohio St's hands.
Prediction:
Ohio St. 21
Texas 17
Upset city guys
GL
Alrighty tonight we've got the Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns in the Fiesta Bowl. Texas has their hearts broken in a last second loss to Texas Tech and never recovered in the polls to have a shot at the national championship. Ohio St. is basically the opposite story. After suffering an embarassing early defeat at USC they gave the ball exclusively to Terrelle Pryor behind center. They did lose another game along the way to Penn St. but basically resurrected their season to make a BCS game. Obviously there are a lot of matchups in tonights game to watch for that should determine the outcome. Youve got Texas' high flying offense vs. Ohio St.'s stingy defense. To break it down further youve got Texas' excellent receivers vs. Ohio St. phenomenal corners. Also these conferences could not be different with styles of play. The Big 12 loves to air it out and play as little an amount of defense as possible. The Big 10 will pound the ball and play a field position style dominated by defense. You've got Ohio St on a big stage for the 3rd consecutive year and getting embarassed 2 years in a row. You've got the Big 12 getting laughed at this bowl season b/c they cant win a game. Weve watched Oklahoma St and Texas Tech just get worn out and have nothing left in the 2nd half. Both teams got run all over late and you wonder how that will play out tonight. Basically so many variables that it is hard to cap this one using previous games. But I came up with a few things I think will be the difference. I concentrated mainly on both teams losses rather than their wins to find weaknesses to exploit.
Now dont get me wrong with what I'm about to say. USC absolutely manhandled Ohio St. and didnt belong on the same field. However, they did hold their offense to 348 yards and USC was able to a majority of their damage on the ground to set up the pass for Sanchez. The Ohio St. offense had some success moving the ball in the 1st half. They sustained 2 long drives against the defense but had to settle for 1 missed and 1 made field goal. The game got out of hand when Boeckman threw a pick 6 to put USC up 21-3 and then fumbled after a few first downs on the following drive. I saw reports saying they will be working Boeckman into the QB mix in this game and cant figure out for the life of me why. I hope it is rare and only as a decoy. Pryor has improved every week and looks like he is going to be a great one for sure. After the USC they instilled him as the starter and havent looked back since. They had Penn St. come into the Shoe after 5 consecutive wins following the previous loss. In true big 10 fashion this was an absolute
er.
Penn St. played an absolutely flawless game which I dont think most
people realize. Penn St had zero turnovers and zero penalties. Thats
remarkable to me. Even with no mistakes period they still needed the
Pryor fumble late to win this game. Neither team gained 300 yards of
total offense and it was really an old fashioned battle. Quite the
opposite of what Texas will want to do tonight. Penn St. had one
sustaining drive in the 1st half and it was done on the ground. They
couldnt move the ball in the air against this defense.
I know Texas' passing offense is on another level than Penn St's but
its impressive nonetheless. So basically when Ohio St. has had trouble
this year it has been when a team was able to run the ball against
their defense. I just dont see that being Texas' plan tonight and I
think they are going to test the corners of Ohio St. and I think they
are going to have a rough time in doing so. So for Texas I decided to run through the Oklahoma and Texas Tech games pretty closely. Oklahoma came out firing on all cylinders and it really doesnt do much good to compare the OU offense to the OSU offense. What you can compare is when Texas had the ball. They got it back trailing by 7 and they couldnt run the ball at all. They were having 1 yard runs and 15 yard passes which isnt exactly the recipe for beating OSU. Oklahoma drove right down the field passing at will again and scored to go up 14-3. Then the game changing moment occurred when Shipley took the kick back to reenergize the team. The rest of the half was the same story again. Oklahoma passing it down their throats and not even trying to run it. Texas doing the same thing. I know there is a stat floating out there that says Texas is #2 in the country vs. the run but how seriously can you take that? Their pass defense is horrid and they play in the Big 12 where they hardly ever run the ball. That stat is about as bad as Boeckmans TD/TO ratio in big games. Looking quickly at the box score one might say Ogbannaya had a big game for Texas. I mean he had 15 carries for 127 yards.
He had a run of 30 and a run 62 in those stats. Otherwise he had 35
yards on 13 carries. So that stat is a little misleading to me as well.
So what it comes down to is whether Texas can pass the ball at will
like they have been all year, or if the prolific Ohio St. secondary can
contain them. My money is on Ohio St here. I think this game is going
to be very close. Texas' defensive line will have not taken a beating
like this all year. They will get a constant helping of Pryor and
Beanie. So far the Big12 has struggled against a combination of running
qb/running rb. Anyone remember what happened to Oklahoma St in the 2nd
half? Wasnt pretty. I expect more of the same. I wanted to find an
example of a running QB in the Big 12 and the best example for me was
Baylor's QB Griffin who ran for 101 yards on them. He wasnt able to do
much in the air but I dont think Coach Tress will be overly concerned
if Terrelle picks up first downs on the ground or in the air. I could
not believe I was getting 10 points in this one. Ohio St has struggled
2 years in a row and that pushed this line high but they were also
beaten by excellent rushing teams with great defenses. Tonight weve got
the opposite and I think it plays into Ohio St's hands.Prediction:
Ohio St. 21
Texas 17
Upset city guys
GL
0
but I like TX.
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