Players of the Week

In somewhat of a surprise move, Terrelle Pryor was named by the Buckeye coaches the player of the week on offense. The coach spoke of the reason being just the third time a QB has run for over 100 yards and thrown for more than 200 yards in a single game (a couple of Troy Smith scUM games come to mind).

The defensive player of the week was Thaddeus Gibson who was also the co-Big Ten POW. Thad has proved to be a monster on that D line this season. Hardly a surprise.

The special teams POW was Etienne Sabino. Sabino had a great game as the gunner on special teams. Tressel noted that Coach Fickell told Sabino that if he wants to be a great LB, he needs to excel on special teams this season - just think of the emergence of Brian Rolle in that LB corps and you will see the trek Fickell as the young Sabino on.

Tressel was doing all he could to paint he NMSt Aggies as some sort of juggernaut. After all, we know how Purdue jumped up and snake-bit the Bucks following a week of weak preparation. Clearly, Tress is guarding against the possible letdown as the Bucks exit conference play for the pick-up game. Today, Chris Spielman suggested that the coaches put on the film of the Texas A&M Aggies instead of the New Mexico State Aggies! Good idea.

But, it is probably a good week for a respite. Boom Herron and Brandon Saine are questionable for this week's game - Herron has a high ankle sprain and will likely sit. Saine is recovering from a concussion. If Saine is ok'd by the medical staff, per Tressel, Saine will play. Starters today would be Jordan Hall and Jermil Martin. Tressel did mention that he'd burn Jamaal Berry's redshirt if necessary. No worries - the local media is having a love-fest on big Jermil Martin. No one quite knows where the coaches have been hiding the big guy. Tressel also noted that LT Mike Adams will miss several weeks from a knee injury and let slip that Adams had knee surgery. Cordle is the probable LT starter. Dexter Larrimore returns to the practice field this week at DT - and he's probably the team's true DT allowing them to play a 3-4 if Dex gets healthy.

The Bucks face the Aggies at noon this Saturday. The game is on the Big Ten network. The Big Ten announced that the following week's game at Happy Valley will have a 3:30 Eastern start time.

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!

It is a Momentum Game ....

Greetings from sunny C-bus ...

and it seems the sun is always shining after a decisive Buckeye victory!

Saturday's game was a windy, drab affair in the first half but the momentum of the game swung decidedly for the Bucks with the Zach Domicone fumble recovery that put the Bucks in scoring position. Three plays later and Terrelle Pryor scored on a scamper into the end zone. The confidence in Pryor in the offensive possessions that followed mirrored that same confidence that had just welled-up in the stands. Suddenly, it was as if collectively Buckeye fans everywhere sighed a big sigh of relief. Whew. It's not Purdue. It's Minnesota. We got this one.

The Buckeye defense clearly proved too much for the Minnesota offense. While the Buckeye offense is bad statistically speaking in the Big Ten. No worries. For OSU rated 10th in the conference, Minnie was rated 11th. And once their best athlete WR Eric Decker went down with an injury, Minnie had few weapons. Where the D had their turnovers stolen from them vs. Purdue, the refs were a bit better in the booth vs. Minnie and seemed to get the turnover calls correct (and yes, they missed the late hit call). Telling from the stat line, the defensive tackle leaders were among the D-linemen (Gibson, Worthington) and linebackers (Homan, Rolle) and not from the secondary. That gives you a clue to the fact that Minnie was not able to click off any long runs and pretty much had little success in the passing attack.

And the Buckeye offense caught fire in the 3rd quarter. After the short 31 yard drive following the fumbled kickoff by Minnesota, the Bucks clicked off drives of 22 yards and 69 yards and scored 21 total points. The lead into the 4th quarter was 4 scores and time to shut it down. But they didn't. The Bucks had 2 more successful scoring drives for 2 additional TDs before a garbage-time Minnesota score.

Pryor looked solid. He threw the pick at the end of the second quarter - a pass he clearly should not have thrown and forced into double, even triple coverage when you consider the deep help Minnesota had on the play. But I think following Pryor's 62 yard TD pass to Posey earlier in the 2nd quarter, Pryor might have gotten a bit overconfident. The wind conditions were such that a ball had to be perfectly thrown if it were to be snagged by a Buckeye in traffic. It wasn't perfectly thrown and not wisely thrown either. Pryor also ran for 104 yards on 15 carries. His speed was a complete mis-match for the slower Minnesota D. Pryor was 13 of 25 for 239 yards passing and had 2 long TD passes.

And props to DeVier Posey who, after last week's breakout game, has clearly emerged as Pryor's favorite target. Posey had 8 catches for 161 yards and 2 TDs. The baby-faced Posey has speed to burn and has been the beneficiary of 2 straight weeks of mis-matches with the opponents' corners. The test will come in November for Posey, particularly against Penn State and Iowa who have some defensive speed.

Now, if Pryor would just stop staring Posey down.

The injury bug has bitten the Buckeye running back corps. But no worries! In addition to the emergence of backup Jordan Hall vs. Toledo, add to the mix the big, bruising Jermil Martin. Both got their first collegiate TDs Saturday vs. Minnie and both looked darn good doing it. My husband is a particular fan of Jordan Hall for his quick-to-the-hole running ability. He doesn't stutter step around and really shows great burst. Jermil Martin was a surprise to all in attendance I think. Martin was moved from fullback to tailback before the start of the season and ended the game with 75 yards on 7 carries and a 39-yard TD. The big man showed great speed on the TD run - no wonder he's not a fullback any more!

And the Bucks may be without Boom Herron and Brandon Saine next week vs. the New Mexico State Aggies as Herron's ankle sprain kept him out of the Minnie game and Saine took a blow to the head - probably a concussion. This might make the Aggies a well-timed get well game for both - no offense to the Aggies who ARE a Division I football team.

The Bucks are again home this Saturday to face the New Mexico State Aggies. The game, at noon Eastern, will be an upset-alert if the Bucks take their out of conference opponent too lightly. That being said, it might be a good respite before the killer schedule in November.

And Tressel believes in playing the best football in the month of November ... and the Bucks had better! There is no let-up with @Penn State, home vs. Iowa, and @Michigan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!

Do I Have to Go to Work Monday?

Doom and gloom as there was a complete train wreck in West Lafayette Saturday. And in attendance, a guy I work with ... and he's not even someone I like. As he left Thursday, he gave me the "high sign" that he was going to the game Saturday. He is an IT project manager ... and we've already had words a couple of times this year as his "staff" completely botched a project and because the deadline is looming, somehow it is just fine to inconvenience me and my staff because it wasn't done correctly the first time ... and NOW THIS!

I can't even find anything good to say about the offense. Did they all have H1N1 or something ... DeVier Posey stated, "I feel like it's just an attitude thing: I don't really feel like it's a technical problem." Posey said in the Columbus Dispatch, "I feel like it is something inside our chest. I feel like it's something that's got to do with our heart."

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ... are you saying that the team didn't get fired up or didn't care or both????????????????

Then, here's a news flash. There are guys on that team that do care. So LET THEM PLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no place for that lax attitude. I pay freeking good money for you to go to school for free. So play hard or step aside.

And credit new Purdue head coach Hope ... what a great name for a football coach. His play calling and execution by his QB Elliott were key to neutralizing the Buckeye D ...

Next up ... Minnesota. And we thought this was the easy part of the schedule ...

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!

Injury & Other Updates

Quick update ...

Dexter Larrimore and Boom Herron will miss the game due to injury.

Jim Cordle is back and available as is OL Andrew Miller. Coach Tressel spent quite a bit of time in his press conference today on the flu bug that has hit the team, noting that because OSU is a school on quarters, the flu hit the student population later and is therefore later peaking. He stated that "one" player got hit with it today but didn't give a name and was not sure if it would keep him out of the game. Experience with the H1N1 hitting the local high school is that for most kids, it is fairly short in duration - 4-5 days - and benign. For healthy football players without other underlying conditions, it might be that someone ill today could play Saturday.

Tressel did continue to lament the lack of offensive plays last Saturday - quoting 32 plays on offense. He continued to laud praise on the defense, particularly given the number of plays and the unfortunate lack of rest given the defense during the game. He pointed to a lack of adjustments on the offensive side of the ball, without pointing a finger at the QB or the coaches for the matter, but rather stating it was a collective issue. Apparently Wisconsin did some things on defense that OSU's offense did not adjust well to, but then Tressel noted that the coaches "shut it down" once the Bucks got to a 3-score advantage.

So we will see ...

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!

Defense Rules

Congratulations to Ross Homan who was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, the Bucks first Big Ten honor of the season. Homan had 15 tackles, 2 tackles for loss in a stellar performance. However, the Buckeye coaching staff recognized Kurt Coleman as the defensive player of the week. His pick-6 for 89 yards started the defense's scoring blitz that, alone, accounted for the victory - the defense scored 14 to the Wisky 13 total points.

On special teams, Ray Small was recognized by the coaching staff. This caps his emergence this season from the Tressel doghouse. And let's hope he stays on the coach's good-side for the balance of the season for Ray is loaded with talent.

No offensive players of the week awards were handed out by the Buckeye coaches. And no wonder - there were just 42 plays to evaluate.

The Bucks have Purdue this Saturday at noon eastern. After putting the hurt on Toledo in the first week of the season, PU has been victimized by turnovers in some close games (until last week). Should be ripe for the Buckeye defense this week.

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!

Strange Game Ends in Victory

Greetings from sunny C-bus,

Of course, it could be a monsoon or blizzard on a day following a decisive Buckeye victory and no one in this city would notice ...

The puzzle ... how does a team have the ball for 42 minutes and 47 seconds and score only 13 points and lose by 18 points? The answer ... opportunistic, big-play defense.

So, was it a decisive victory?

If I am a defensive coach or player, yeah, it was decisive. The Wisconsin hog-mollies up front had yielded just 2 sacks in 5 games to tie for second in the nation going into this game. The Bucks tagged 6 sacks on the Wisky line. And the Bucks were just dominant up front. That was THE decisive factor in the game. As Coach Bielema said in the postgame, "I don't know, since I've been in the league, if I've ever seen the defensive-lineman rotation, the depth they've got to be able to keep coming in with new guys." Bielema said, "The four guys that start are pretty special." And the Bucks were without their true nose tackle, Dexter Larrimore for this game too. That D-line basically allows the inexperienced LB corps a chance to roam, take chances, and cover receivers while that D-line can rush 3 and still get penetration on the QB. Ross Homan had a career game with 15 total tackles including 2 sacks. He was also in on a number of QB hurries and put the hit on Tolzien a number of times in the game after the QB released the ball. LB Brian Rolle was again "on a roll" in this game with 14 total tackles including a half a sack.

The return of senior captain Kurt Coleman was probably the most anticipated and he did not disappoint. He opened the Buckeye scoring with the first pick-6 taking the ball to the house 89 yards later. He also had 14 tackles on the day. His leadership was evident in his return to the secondary as he played center field most of the second half of the game as Wisconsin tried to play catch-up, often 15 yards off the ball. Yet, his pursuit led to tackle-after-tackle. Props to the senior leader.

And the second pick-6 came from young Jermale Hines who showed tremendous speed and some running back ability as he bulled into the endzone on his TD. Hines had 11 tackles including a half a sack.

And along the D-line, young Nathan Williams has emerged as a force on the inside of that line. He's got a nice burst off the ball and ended the game with 5 tackles including 1 sack for a 9 yard loss.

The offense played a total of 42 plays in this game and Terrelle Pryor accounted for 23 of the plays with 10 rushes for 35 yards and 13 passes, completing just 5 for 87 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. The game was largely a defensive struggle for the first half until the Bucks got a decent drive that ended up being a decisive response to a bit of Wisconsin momentum before the half ending in a spectacular pass and catch between Pryor and Posey for the TD. Posey led all receivers with 2 for 54 yards. In the second half, an entire hour passed before the Bucks got a single offensive play and that came at 1:40 remaining in the 3rd period. Then the Bucks got a whole 3 plays in the quarter.

The Buckeye offense just never got anything going. And where to place the blame? Hard to say - with so few possessions, the Bucks could hardly get anything going from a momentum sense and with so many 3-and-outs, it was hard to tell what exactly was and wasn't working. Perhaps, not much was working until that drive before the half.

But props to Wisconsin - they have a real defense - like Iowa and PSU have a real defense. The rushing from the shotgun was not a surprise to Wisky like it was to Illinois and the O-line was faced with a pretty darn good D-line. And the left side of the Buckeye line did not play well for much of the game. Wisky likes to twist and Big Mike Adams was not handling the moves the D-end was putting on him, despite the film study he must (should) have done in preparation. The Wisky D-line didn't do anything unexpected, but they are talented. I might chalk a bit of the O-line weakness to the flu - 2 or 3 of the guys missed at least one day of practice last week due to illness and Andrew Miller missed his second consecutive game due to illness.

I did think that using Pryor around the edge might have been more successful had it been tried more in the game. Pryor had a clear speed advantage on the Wisky D-line and LBs as was evidenced in a couple of called runs and scrambles. The weakness seemed to be in the blocking of the play. The TE, tackle or a receiver has got to seal that edge for the play to get more than a few yards.

A mixed bag on special teams. Props to the enigma that is Ray Small. It was like the parting of the Red Sea as the 96 yard TD kick-off return unfolded. Taking it right down the middle is a bit unusual for the Buckeye special teams schemes ... but it was very effective. And ... no penalties! Jon Thoma's leg, however, seemed to wear down right before our eyes as each successive punt seemed shorter than the last. He ended the game with a 39.5 yard average but a 48 yard long. Not consistent enough. I could see the field position for the Wisconsin Badgers continue to improve in the first several 3-and-out possessions for the Bucks and had that "uh-oh" feeling come over me as the Wisky field kept getting shorter.

So the game was just weird. Two defensive pick-6's, a kickoff return for a TD, 1 offensive TD and an offensive FG. So the Buckeye D beat Wisky alone. The rest was just gravy, and in a way, it seemed like that. I think most of us in the stands had this sense that we were going to win, and that it was just a matter of time before Pryor and the coaches put together an old fashioned offensive drive. But it really never happened. Then you got the sense that it was better just to let the defense stay on the field ... but then I had visions of a defensive breakdown ala USC with little confidence in Pryor to pull it out if we went down. Then - pow - like shot from a gun, Ray Small put the game away.

Next up ... Purdue. Truly PEEEEEE-UUUUUUUW this season at 1-5 on the season. Purdue was solidly smacked around in Minneapolis Saturday. The game is a nooner in W. Lafayette.

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!

Honorary Captain

For the 3:30 Wisconsin game, Shaun Lane who suffered career ending injury about a year ago will be the honorary captain this week. He still has lingering effects of the injury per Coach Tressel but his efforts will be rewarded.

Be ready to play ...

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!

On (to) Wisconsin ...

It seemed a bit like a defeat when the 2-game shut-out streak ended in Bloomington but nonetheless, the Bucks stood triumphant in front of a high percentage of Buckeye fans in attendance at IU. The Bucks are very much in the mix of the Big Ten and still hanging on in the national picture after the 33-14 defeat of Indiana.

Probably, position by position, the Bucks proved too much for IU but for Hoosier wide receiver Doss who made some plays when it counted and kept the Bucks from a third-straight shut-out. The Buckeye D line was again decisive and the make-shift secondary due to the suspension of Kurt Coleman did a decent job Saturday.

Terrelle Pryor and the offensive coaches proved to be equal-opportunity with the distribution of passes Saturday with 8 different receivers catching passes, including another pass thrown to the FULLBACK! That's a play right out of Woody's playbook but Zach Boren can catch - saw plenty of him in high school conference play over the past 4 years to be definitive in that assessment. And Terrelle appeared to make some positive steps in his development this season.

The knock on him continues to be pass mechanics and some on the decision-making side. In terms of mechanics, if he can connect with his first option, his passing is flawless - feet set, arm position good, delivery timely. If he has to take the second or later options, his mechanics tend to break down - especially his feet. That's where you see the over- or under-throws and some of the off-target stuff. Now, you might point to the pass to Duron Carter for the TD as one that demonstrates bad mechanics - Carter however has said that he asked for that ball to be high to elude the defensive coverage. Not sure that he's not a good "cover" for his QB on that one. That being said, that ball was seriously where none of the defenders could have brought it down. Pryor does seem to have been a bit quicker to pull the ball down and run since the first and second game too this week and last. It is not clear how many of his runs have been designed or not.

The Bucks face a Wisconsin team that is getting little respect at this point nationally, however among the Big Ten, Wisconsin this past week swept the conference awards for offensive and defensive players of the week. Their big RB Clay had over 180 yards rushing this past week and the team is averaging about 217 yards per game running the ball for a mark of first in the conference. I like our chances against a running team - especially an old-fashioned running attack. We get ourselves in trouble against the team that likes to spread the ball and run. The latter is not Wisky's style traditionally. The Buckeyes are 10th in the nation, and No. 1 in the Big Ten, against the run (83.4-yard average). Since giving up 186 yards to Navy, they have yielded 118 to Southern California, 13 to Toledo, 82 to Illinois and 18 to Indiana. OSU held Indiana's Darius Willis, who rushed for 160 the week before at Michigan, to 23 on 11 carries.

Wisky also brings a good defense, particularly one that likes to pressure the QB and has had some games with plenty of TFLs and sacks. I like the prospect of Pryor rolling away from the rush to deliver the ball or run. And I like the prospect of Dane Sanzenbacher as the steady receiver. The receivers will need to be aware of the rush and be able to come back to the ball if needed to help Pryor if the O line breaks down.

And speaking of the O line, the Bucks had yet another assemblage of guys out on the line for much of the game. Seems that the coaches are yet to be set upon a mix of guys that they really like. Big Mike Adams, however, seems to have settled in at the left tackle spot - I like that - the kid's massive. J.B. Shugarts is now seeing his playing time cut as freshman Marcus Hall got extensive time at the right tackle spot. How will the line shake out when senior Jim Cordle returns?

And how about Brandon Saine as the new starter? True, Boom Herron had an ankle tweak but Saine seemed to have the mo-jo this week. I vote Saine as the starter until he peaks and Boom has the hot-hand.

Our true Defensive Tackle Dexter Larrimore suffered a knee injury that has caused him to fall out of the two-deep though Tressel called it "minor". The flu bug hit left tackle Andrew Miller and he didn't make the trip. Other injuries are unknown at this point - Pryor looked a bit gimpy to me at the end of the game.

And to Mr. Pettrey, let's get some practice in this week.

This Saturday is so far projected to be a blustery November-like day with a high in the mid-50s. See, in Ohio, we skipped from summer to winter all in about a week. And we haven't really looked back. But we will ...

Game time is 3:30 eastern on ABC.

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!