It was almost a perfect game for the Buckeyes last week against Youngstown State. Their offense was balanced with 251 yards rushing and 244 yards passing. The defense only gave up on 74 total yards to the Penguins including -11 rushing. The big flaw however, was the third quarter injury to Chris 'Beanie' Wells. There is no way to tell at this time what impact that will have on his Heisman campaign or the Buckeyes quest for another trip the the BCS title game. What we do know for sure he will not suit up for the game this week against the Ohio Bobcats. Relax Buckeye fans, this will not change the outcome of the game Saturday.
When the game kicks off at noon in Ohio Stadium, Coach Tressel will be looking for 75th OSU win and 210th in his career. He is presently 4th on the list of active coaches, but would tie Frank Beamer for third if the Hokies manage to lose to Furman. for the Bobcats (0-1), Coach Solich is in his 4th season in Athens where he is 19-19
State plans to red-shirt this season. If you don't play the first two weeks this year, you ain't playing. We will be bringing guys of the bench that would start on most MAC schools, especially Ohio. Expect Doug Worthington to be back to playing full time and perhaps start the game. Last week he was held out at first but ended up being in 12 plays. That may not sound like a lot but when you consider we only had 39 defensive plays he was in for a high percentage of them. Expect The Buckeyes to try to use Worthington to get a lot of pressure on the quarterback as Ohio was able to move the ball down the field passing against Wyoming. In particular, local standout Taylor Price from Hilliard Darby set a new OU team record with 14 receptions, eclipsing the old mark of 12 set back in 1968. Nine of those passes went for first downs which was more than the Bucks yielded to the Penguins. Lawrence Wilson had a nice return game including a big sack and he should get more opportunities for that this week. The reason you would expect OU to be passing is they do not show much of a running game threat. Last week they only managed 1.9 yards a carry and that was not against a defense with an strong and deep of a front seven as Ohio State has. If they could only get 39 yards of rushing against the Cowboys, chances are good they will struggle again this week. I am going to go out and make the prediction that Ohio State will have a second week in a row where they will hold their opponent to minus yards rushing.
Special Teams: A lot has been made about the Buckeyes being rated 117th last year in kick-off returns. Because of the shut-out, we only had one return in the game last week. I look forward to seeing how "Boom & Zoom" handle those duties in 2008, but as I expect our defense to shut out the Bobcats, we may only get one opportunity again this week. You can not ask for more from our kicking game, perfect on extra points, perfect on field goals, including two over 50 yards, and the kick-offs and kick coverage was outstanding. I still think we can improve our punt return game, to the point where I would like to see Small or Hartline take one all the way this week. Don't know if you noticed but on Small's long punt return, Hartline was downfield laying blocks for him. Nice job! This is actually a stronger area for the Bobcats. So far this season, they are averaging 46.7 yards on a return. We will be kicking to them a lot this Saturday so we need a way to contain that. Or as I always believe, "if you have someone that can kick it into the endzone every time, DO IT!" Why give them a chance on a run back, just to try to pin them inside the 20 yard line. I would like to see a lot of kick-offs by the Buckeyes again this week. AJ Trapasso did not do much for his Ray Guy chances as he did not punt last week. But when talking with him at the BCS Media Day, he mentioned that to him a perfect game is when he doesn't have to punt. So I guess he is OK with that. But if he doesn't get to punt, maybe Tressel can bring him in at Fullback like he played at Pickerington.
Bottom Line: As with last week, Ohio State will call their own score on this one. Perhaps Tressel will be less likely to hold back this week, yet at the same time he is certainly not going to show any more to the Trojans than he needs too. The Bobcats are no match for the MAC, let alone the Buckeyes. More plays for Pryor and more opportunities for the incoming freshman. Expect Boeckman to go downfield this week once or twice and expect us to do a little better in the red zone (we can not do worse). Who knows, maybe Trapasso will get to punt this week. PREDICTION: OSU 45 OU 6
Extra Points: A victory against Ohio this week would give the Buckeyes 800 wins all-time. Only four other schools have eclipsed the 800 victory mark. .... The Ohio State ticket price for a single game ticket is $62. The cost of a season ticket at Ohio University is $78 .... Ohio is 0-14 vs. ranked opponents since 1990, under Solich they are 2-5 against BCS conference teams. .... OU is 6-35-1 against the Big Ten and 0-5 against the Buckeyes. .... The last team OU came to Columbus in 1999, the score was 10-10 at halftime. .... Ohio will play three of their first four games on the road and six of their first eight.
Ohio University
Preview
9/4/08
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September 6th, 2008
Ohio Stadium - Columbus, Ohio
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By Gregg Watson
and 77-38 overall in his coaching career. Two years ago he led Ohio to their first bowl game since 1968 and last season they were one of only a couple bowl eligible teams that did not get an invitation. Ohio is projected by most preseason publications to finish in the lower half of the MAC - East and lost a tough one to Wyoming 21-20 in the opening week.
Buckeyes Offense vs Bobcat Defense: Even without Beanie this week, the Bucks will have no problem moving the football. Mo Wells will make the most of his starting opportunity, yet I look forward to seeing Boom Herron and Zoom Saine get additional touches. I don't think we will see anything different from the passing game, soft conservative throws. Boeckman should have a high percentage of completions again, Bauserman might get to throw a long one or too. And expect Pryor to expand his package of plays a bit. The Bobcat defense was lead last week by linebackers Noah Keller and Chris Hall, who combined had half as many tackles as the entire Ohio State team last week. Then again, if you are not giving away first downs, you don't get that many tackling opportunities. As the season develops though, senior linebacker Michael Brown will likely lead the team in tackles. In fact, he should get a lot of chances this week as we run the ball down the heart of their lineup. The Bobcats do have an experienced defensive crew, returning 7 starters and 35 letterwinners from last year. But that means they have the same players back from last season that gave up 30 points a game. Another issue OU had last season was finishing strong, as many games were lost for them in the fourth quarter. Expect Ohio State to keep scoring from start to finish.
Buckeyes Defense vs Bobcats Offense: Ohio State should be expected to overpower their opponent again this week. I expect we find out who Ohio
