M-Borg vs. THE Flavortown U Thread, Orig. by Buckeye Paul, absconded w/by talent.

[iam416]

I'm fine with it, OP, and appreciate the gesture.

[Dr. Strangelove]

That was a good game.

[iam416]

My initial thoughts.

1. Really glad to see Elliot go out the way he did. I've really enjoyed watching him play every phase of the game. He earned better than last week and got it. For my money, he's as good as anyone in the country w/ the possible exception of Fournette. I also was happy that Bosa made a couple plays and would have love see him get into the endzone. Two fantastic players.

2. I refuse to call 11-1 with a win over M a "disappointing" season. I think some things could have been handled better, and I think they are the best team in the B10, but such is life. When you play your worse game of the season in the biggest game of the season that's what happens.

3. It'll be interesting to revisit the "scheme" discussion JB and I had. Today looked like something JH would dearly love to be able to do.

4. Next season will be interesting. So much talent will leave...they could set NFL draft records. It'll be nice to have JTB back and I like the upside talent on the OL way more than I do this group, but they're going to struggle. UFM may lose as many games next season as he has in his first 4.

[iam416]

Penn State has 270 yards in one half. Penn State.

I can't believe how fucking awful Ohio State was last week. Unreal.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The schedule ought to be so much tougher next year. Brutal. And then in 2017 I think we have road trips to Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska

[Jeff Buchanan]

My initial thoughts.

1. Really glad to see Elliot go out the way he did. I've really enjoyed watching him play every phase of the game. He earned better than last week and got it. For my money, he's as good as anyone in the country w/ the possible exception of Fournette. I also was happy that Bosa made a couple plays and would have love see him get into the endzone. Two fantastic players.

2. I refuse to call 11-1 with a win over M a "disappointing" season. I think some things could have been handled better, and I think they are the best team in the B10, but such is life. When you play your worse game of the season in the biggest game of the season that's what happens.

3. It'll be interesting to revisit the "scheme" discussion JB and I had. Today looked like something JH would dearly love to be able to do.

4. Next season will be interesting. So much talent will leave...they could set NFL draft records. It'll be nice to have JTB back and I like the upside talent on the OL way more than I do this group, but they're going to struggle. UFM may lose as many games next season as he has in his first 4.

1. ..... well, it took you fuckers 11 games to play up to potential! Does this mean Warriner and Beck stay? My bet is that they had nothing to do with the play calling other than pass down who on Ms D was vulnerable to whatever ufm was calling.

2. .... osu has a nack for playing well when there is "big money" on the table. Feel bad for you (not for long though) that that one loss to MSU will keep the bucks out of the CFB. My sense is that they would roll.

3. What scheme discussion? To run what JH want's to run works only if you have a talent advantage. Clear evidence of that today with M not having it..... yet.

My thoughts are that on offense, Harbaugh is not your average play caller. He can run a WCO with a pro-style passer. I don't think he is suddenly going to look for his version of Cam Newton. But you saw the talent gap on the OL today. Still, lots of unique plays out of what the osu D would have keyed on. Again, you have to have more talent in the trenches (still short there and you can't put lipstick on a pig), at receiver (I think M is close right now) and at RB (not close) than the guy across the line to make those work. M's OL is average. osu's DL is way above. Talent wins. I'm not ready to jump on ufm's offensive bandwagon just yet.

On D osu's OL out worked and out talents M's DL. Frankly, I don't think having Galscow would have made much difference. osu pretty much did the same thing, except a lot better at the QB position, that IU did to M. The veer, the zone stretch and the IZ/OZ power was there for the bucks today. M's LBs were not gap sound and repeatedly got sucked outside, giving barrett huge lanes on the read option inside at the mesh. Frankly, that DJD didn't better prepare his defense for the railing that osu delivered on the ground was telling. That wasn't a talent issue, it was scheme. M can't sit back there in nickel or zone, not bring the safeties up, not run blitz more than they did and watch osu bring 8 hats to M's 7 at the point of attack ....... that was fucking frustrating and its not the first time (Utah, IU, Minny). That MSU did do that effectively sucks even more!!!! Durkin was not nearly as aggressive as he needed to be early and the game got out of hand. (Big MO switch with the flag - a legit one - on the osu punt from the endzone).

I'm surprised a player on D didn't say post game, "our coaches didn't put us in a position to make plays and win today." Cause like zeke said after the MSU loss pretty much the same thing and he was right. M's defenders would have been right to.

4. Harbaugh will not like it that urban jammed a run game up his ass in his house when M comes to town in c-bus. I look for a competitive game as the talent gap narrow. Bottom line, 9-3 regular season is fine by me. What is not fine is that two of the three losses were to our biggest rivals. My sense is that there will be pay-back. JH is not the kind of guy to go aw shucks and say we practiced well. You boys know this.

[Rocky Bleier]

Luck was on the side of the Spartans this season. Thanks to Blake Oneill's dropped punt/pass to a wide open Sparty and a driving rainstorm in Columbus, they're are heading to the B1G Championship game where they will put a beating on an average Iowa team.

[The Oracle]

Go Hawks!!!@!@

[iam416]

I think Iowa will get them.

[Rocky Bleier]

Shut up! You said Michigan would win today, too!

[iam416]

I was wrong on every game today.

[Rocky Bleier]

I still don't believe you thought Michigan would win today. Based on their performance at Indiana or Minnesota? They were living on the edge for a few weeks. The best thing that happened to OSU was a loss to MSU and a shit ton of criticism all week from people like Mark May.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I can't believe you let OP off the hook for 5 bills. That would have been a nice Xmas bonus and then told him it was ok with Avatars.

Face palm. Taken by the Prime.

[iam416]

Buchanan:

I thought JH called a good game. They did some good things. I thought there a series or two that were a little too cute and, honestly, they should have abandoned any pretense of running the ball no later than the 3rd. But, I thought they did a good job of moving the ball. I am, however, perplexed by how awful their running game is. That makes it so hard to be effective. Rudock converted so many 3rd downs today and still needed to convert lots more b/c they couldn't run for shit.

Defensively, meh. I would have played with 8 or 9 guys coming downhill did. The problem is that M doesn't have MSU's DL and M does have M LBs. But that almost makes it more imperative to bring up extra guys. The other problem M had was that it wasn't a driving windy rainstorm that, for some reason, spooked the shit out of the OSU staff.

Overall I thought the staff did a good job. I think they're about an 8.5 win team and they finished with 9 wins. They'll get a chance to play an SEC team -- probably a not good one -- to finish with 10. But the extra practice is more important.

Next season will be fascinating. OSU will have JTB and nothing. M will likely have have a new QB and tons of returning players. Maybe they get Hill, I dunno.

Anyway, I'm glad OSU won. It makes posting here bearable. But Harbaugh will be winning the game soon enough.

[Hannibal]

You guys will win next year. I'm calling it now. You may recall that I made the same bold prediction immediately after the 2006 game when it looked like UM should have a huge leg up for 2007. I'm making that same prediction now.