osu 63, Michigan 39

[drok]

Is it game day yet???

[hack]

Yes, it is. Please go directly to the golf course and begin setting up.

[THE_WIZARD_]

.....or STFU...whichever comes first...hopefully the latter...

[iam416]

Ohio State's offense is better than it was in 2016, but, in terms of playing M, I think it is going to be about the same. I don't think immobile QBs fair well against Don Brown's blitzapalooza.

Defensively, you only have to look at OSU's secondary in 2016. And Raekwon McMillan at ILB. And Jerome Baker at WLB. There isn't a single player in this year's Back 7 that would have started in 2016. The DL this year is probably a touch better, but not much.

And M has a mobile QB that can make plays with this feet instead of their traditional statue.

This won't be close.

[hack]

Certainly the lack of a mobile QB plays right into Brown's hands. And I'm very pleased, for the long-term, with what seems to be a commitment by Michigan's staff to avoid a statue at QB.

[Rocky Bleier]

This should help osu on Saturday... and that was at Maryland!


https://twitter.com/coachkeeosu/stat...388493313?s=21

[Rocky Bleier]

Talent, how many series does Tate Martell get Saturday? He could be the difference in the game.

[iam416]

Barring injuries, Martell gets zero series. If I were to set the over/under for total plays, I put it at 2.5.

There's no gimmicking your way to a win in this game.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Blitzapallozza ....... if I recall correctly, in 2016, Brown deployed an unprecedented number of blitzes v. osu in his first year defending them. barrett ran for 125 yards while curtis samuel and mike weber added another 80. The defense delivered 8 sacks but this didn't help M to put distance between themselves and osu after gaining a 10-7 half time lead. While the controversial ball placement on a 4th and one was perceived as the reason osu won, the real reason was M's inability to score 2nd half points and avoid that circumstance in the first place.

Both IU and, to a lesser degree Rutgers, got some big plays against Blitzapalloza. Both QBs are not dual threat types although Ramsey is a McSorely type runner. That strategy has inherent risks. I also think that against an osu offense QB'ed by dwayne haskins, it's a risk worth taking. How can ufm mitigate the impact of the Don Brown specials on haskins? I disagree with talent ....... Play back-up QB tate martell.

Brown had no answer for haskins when he came in to relieve an injured jt barrett. M was so invested in their game plan intended to thwart a running QB who was a below average passer, that when haskins came in he feasted on single, man coverage with no Ss over ...... the Ss had been deployed up on the LOS to contain barrett and were unprepared to go into a 2 hi scheme required to make haskin's reads a bit more challenging.

In any event, Harbaugh needs to make sure Brown is prepared for a running QB and as far as I can tell, martell's very good at it. What has osu got to lose? M needs to not shit the bed again like they did when haskins came in. Beware the risks of blitzapalooza on mobile QBs.

[THE STEE]

maybe Harbaugh should sleep over at Nordins house again and get his head straight

[iam416]

There are a couple of things that are absolute givens when it comes to OSU Offense vs. M Defense.

(1) OSU will run a ton of short routes. Stops. Slants. Crossing. Mesh. They beat M last year with crossing routes. Campbell and Hill are really fast and Hill, in particular, is a really good WR. They absolutely will generate separation.

(2) M will get a lot of pressure on Haskins from their BASE DL. That's irrespective of whether Winovich plays. they'll get way more if he does because Prince is incapable of blocking a true speed edge rusher, which is Winovich's entire game.

(3) OSU has a terrible guard in Demetrius Knox. He shouldn't be starting, but summer injuries being what they are, he's there. They lost their center which forced Jordan over (and he's an average center and a very good guard) and then Bowen, which forced Knox to start with Pridgeon. The one place where teams have had SOME success against M is running inside, but that's a non-starter for OSU.

(4) Don Brown will blitz. There's no two ways about it. That's what he does.

With that in mind

(1) OSU has to take deep shots to McLaurin (if he's healthy), Hill and maybe even Victor. Victor is still skinny, but he's tall. They can't let M sit on all the short stuff. I'd like to see 4 or 5 shots, at least. If they're aggressively calling PI then even more -- M DBs hand check all over the place and OSU DBs aren't often close enough to hand check.

(2) OSU has to make M pay on its blitzes. M is going to blow up a lot of plays, but they have to get the ball to a playmaker (Hill or Campbell or even Dobbins/Webber screen) in space against those blitzes at least 25% of the time. IU did a nice job of finding Westbrook. OSU has WRs that are as good.

(3) OSU has to find some space to run. I'm not sure where that's going to come from, but they've always run against M. Always. Even when it's been a grind, they've always ended up with a lot of yards. I don't see that happening this year. I don't think they run between the guards because of (3) above and I don't think they can get outside because Bush is too good laterally.

(4) If I were M, I'd really mix up defenses and play a lot of man/zone combos and play pass. All you need to do is confuse Haskins for a second -- force him to his second read -- and there's a good chance the rush will get home without blitzing.

(5) OSU hasn't gone tempo much, but I think you'll see a few attempts at hyper speed. Something to catch M on their back foot.

I think Ohio State's best hope for scoring points are my first two points. They're not going to drive the field for TDs. They have to hit big plays. If Don Brown goes high risk then OSU has a chance, IMO, to hit a couple big plays.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Not really pertinent to The Game discussion because John O'neil, I am told, will not be in c-bus because he was in AA last weekend, to fuck things up ...... for both sides. Seth from mgo tweeted some thoughts on O'Neil this morning:

November 18, 2018

Off the top of my head

2018 IU
2018 Nebraska
2017 MSU
2016 Iowa
2016 Oregon State
2016 UCF
2014 IU, ND and OSU
2013 Nebraksa
2012 OSU, Illinois
2011 Illinois

And that infamous 2014 OSU-PSU game

I was aware of O'Neil's record but not in this context (injuries). It certainly resonates with me because I have a burr up my ass about the shit game changing calls made by officials. I don't think it is just the BIG. Sadly, there is no way to nail down officiating incompetence and it's impact on outcomes in any meaningful way. We just get snippets of it (e.g., the PAC12 targeting thing, any time a conference publicly acknowledges a screw up as infrequently as that is).

I don't watch a lot of NFL games but I had occasion to yesterday. The difference to the naked eye about how officials call games that are 2X as fast as the college game, and get the rules interpretations right most of the time, is stark. If there is a question, the way the call is reviewed is light years ahead of the shit that goes on in replay for the college game.

My question is, how can the conferences abide by this when there are literally billions of dollars at stake in the CFB game? If outraged women can get big companies to toe the line and oust executives for even a hint of sexual bias or misconduct, how the hell can't people involved in the game of CFB not be outraged by incompetent refereeing in the college game to the extent that the deciders at the Univeristy level - the member schools of the NCAA - have to act to correct issues involving referee incompetence?

Wiz, don't give me the "fucking refs" response. You've addressed this issue in the past cogently as rarely as you can be associated with cogent posts.

Linesman, you read things here and post when you feel like it is appropriate. It's appropriate. Post, damn it.

[AlabamAlum]

I think college officials get it right the vast majority of the time. But I do enjoy the fact that Buchanan is already putting in preemptive bitching about the refs. Heh.

[iam416]

Bitching about officiating is THE favorite pasttime of M fans. It's remarkable they get hosed so often in so many different sports. At this point, it's just chicken soup for my soul.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Look, I know you're having some fun with this but there is the perception that injuries in the college game may be the result of officials failing to interpret and enforce specific rules intended to reduce the risk of injury. There is some fairly strong, although mostly anecdotal evidence, that John O'Neil's crew fails to control the game well enough such that injuries are avoided. I am absolutely positive I can make that case in the M v. IU game where his crew was officiating. Certainly there are going to be differing views on this and we've already seen them. My position is that it is impossible to mitigate the significance of the failure to control the conduct of both IU and Michigan players that ultimately led to serious injuries to Berkley Edwards and Chase Winovich.

It may also have led to players, on both sides but to a greater degree IMO, IU players, that dirty shit wasn't going to get called because O'Neil's crew doesn't call the game that way. Does that pre-game knowledge entice coaches to tell there players to get it on? I think it might. Tom Allen has a Narduzzi type reputation on that score. Besides, it seems the refs don't want to get harassed from the sideline by the HCs on a questionable PF call. Off-setting PF calls don't do shit to deter dirty play and I've seen a lot of that. We don't see 90% of what goes on in the pile before the whistle, and sometimes after it, and certain refs are in positions to be standing right on top of it and do see it. Call it like you see it.

I never played anything other than flag football but there are enough posters around here and elsewhere that have played football at the CFB level that will tell you what goes on from nut crunching to eye gouging to ankle twisting - all of that. It is undeniable that it goes on. You fail to control that in a game and, IMO, you invite hits like Berkley Edwards and Chase Winovich sustained that may not have happened if O'Neils crew had clamped down on the chippyness that was ongoing in that game to start with.

I know that M's players play with an attitude of toughness. Harbaugh encourages that - you can see it in the level of violence Brown's defense plays with. Watch the hits. It's intended to be intimidating. It's intended to send a message. It's cruel and as long as it is within the rules cruelty is decent tool to inflict on your opponent in an effort to gain an advantage. It wears on you. I can see why teams that are subjected to it, especially in the Big House, don't like it. It's the poorly coached, immature players that inappropriately react to it in an attempt to equalize the cruelty with illegal or prohibited conduct that should elicit a flag. Refs should be able to pick up on this, control it by making the calls when the rules are broken and, in that way, hold the violators accountable. I don't think that happened in last weekends game v. IU.