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

[iam416]

NOW we're seeing the old Talent rising to the surface again.

I knew he was in there somewhere.

Predicting 15 more years of OSU beating down M. That's more like it.

That's not at all what I predicted. Re-read and acknowledge your error.

[WingsFan]

Liney, I have a question. Does the flu cause false starts?

[iam416]

I guess the upside is that Ohio State still showed up, played and took their beating. When HARBAUGH!!!!'s boys were sick they sort of bitched the fuck out to avoid the 70-7 loss.

In any event. I'm sure HARBAUGH!!! and MacDonald will punish Stroud (and Day) accordingly next year. It's going to be a total bloodbath.

[Tom W]

Keep the joy and promises of 2020 alive!

Said no sane person ever.

[lineygoblue]

That's not at all what I predicted. Re-read and acknowledge your error.

Oh, .. my bad. The new(er) sandbagging Talent is still the dominant personality. At my advanced age and diminishing mental faculties, I have a bit of a struggle sorting out the sandbagging from the stealth-like mocking. But hey, its all good. You've acknowledged Michigan and Harbaugh's improvement this year, but I think we all know that under the surface lies the real Talent, who is longing for the day when he can revel in the results of yet another whipping administered by OSU over Michigan. That day is coming, I have no doubt.

[lineygoblue]

Liney, I have a question. Does the flu cause false starts?

I don't think so, Wings. But I've seen the flu cause barfing on the field. I didn't notice any of that in M vs OSU.

You need to understand that "the rules" don't apply to TTDS. When Michigan had over 40 out of 85 scholarship players down with Covid (or in Big Ten mandated Covid protocols, 2020 style) TTDS and their fans thought they should show up anyway, and accept their 100 point (as Coach Day promised) beatdown. Both the Big Ten and Michigan respectfully disagreed. OSU still feels cheated out of a "scoreboard", so they've still got their gold panties in a twist over that. BUT, .. they were fighting the flu in 2021. Got it.

I said at the time that I thought OSU played a great game, and I think they're one of the top 5 teams in the country today. They didn't look to me like they were sick. All they needed is for their linebackers to make a few more tackles, instead of disappearing, and they might have won that game.

But, things will be back to normal next year. CRD is already plotting the beatdown and is adjusting his staff accordingly. It will be a beatdown like none ever seen in the history of mankind.

[iam416]

Oh, .. my bad. The new(er) sandbagging Talent is still the dominant personality. At my advanced age and diminishing mental faculties, I have a bit of a struggle sorting out the sandbagging from the stealth-like mocking. But hey, its all good. You've acknowledged Michigan and Harbaugh's improvement this year, but I think we all know that under the surface lies the real Talent, who is longing for the day when he can revel in the results of yet another whipping administered by OSU over Michigan. That day is coming, I have no doubt.

Well, I agree on at least two things: your advanced age and the fact that I would revel in any OSU win over M. As to the latter, I certainly would never hide that fact. I just don't think it's going to happen for a very long time.

I strongly disagree with your later assertion that Ohio State is a top 5 team. That's complete fucking nonsense. They are a borderline top 10 team.

[lineygoblue]

I'd still show my top five as

Alabama
Georgia
Michigan
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Notre Dame

and anybody else ... it doesn't matter.

I'm still not convinced that Cincy is better than OSU. Maybe the Bearcats can throttle Alabama and prove me wrong, but I don't think so. And, I still think OSU would beat ND. Even in South Bend.

[WingsFan]

Liney, just one more question. Does the flu cause a player to RIP off an opponents helmet and throw it 30 yards? ... Sorry for the bother.

[iam416]

UAT/Georgia (if they played tomorrow and you told me UGa won I wouldn't be surprised at al)
M
Notre Dame
Baylor/Okie State
Utah
Oregon
Ohio State
Cincinnati

I do think OSU is slightly better than UC. Maybe.

I don't think you fully appreciate how bad Ohio State's defense is in every regard.

[lineygoblue]

I can appreciate that Michigan finally had an offense that could dominate an OSU defense, but I also remember that OSU still won 10 other football games, and you can't do that with a bad defense. Michigan (Don Brown) proved that.

OSU is just a couple decent LB's away from being a dominant defense, and I'm absolutely positive that problem will be solved before the 2022 season.

[iam416]

Until that problem (and several others) are solved, they are not a top 5 team.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think talent's assessment is accurate. I suspect not many here poured through the UFRs for the M win over osu this season. I did. osu's defense is bad. What kept osu in games this season was the talent level of the players on that side of the ball v. the talent level of the rest of the teams in the BT. What killed them was how it was deployed. I would bet that if I was able to see video of osu's defense v. it's other 2021 opponents, I'd see the same kind of issues with scheme that the UFR characterized and exposed v. M.

Another factor in the M game was that for the first time in a while, M had a QB, skill players and an OC that deployed them properly all on the same team and in-sync. McNamara and McCarthy repeatedly exploited LB play - some of that due to D scheme particularly on the back end and probably coaching - some of that due to Gattis RPS'ing the shit out of whoever was calling the defensive plays in both the run and pass game. When Seth charted RPSs, he was stunned at the numbers M accumulated. That is unprecedented in the history of The Game. TBF, the M win was produced by the convergence of multiple factors in a perfect storm. But there's more ........

Some of the same sort of uncharacteristic happenings went on with osu's offense v. M's D. Setting aside home-field, the crowd and the intensity and confidence M's players played with, nothing seemed to be working for osu's offense and there were too many forced errors that ended up keeping osu behind the sticks on multiple series. Recalling average yards to go in a given series, I think it was something like 6+. osu's receivers had plenty of drive sustaining circus catches but overall, osu's tackles got owned ...... highly unusual, making M's pressure metric v. Stroud pretty big. The consequence of that was osu didn't have an efficient passing game, sort of a big deal for a team that absolutely relies on the big play.

osu didn't get to 10-1 before getting whipped by M by having a bad offense and defense as in the bottom 50% of CFB teams. Still, the curb-stomping M laid on osu also wasn't an anomaly for 2021. The degree of it maybe and we'll see going forward. The whole team, coaches and players, despite the talent among players and resumes of the coaching staff, just wasn't elite. Which is why I don't think talent is sandbagging. M football fucked around with these kinds of problems for a long time - high levels of talent and piss-poor player development and coaching. We know how that goes. Results on the field over the last 10 or so M seasons are Prima Fascie evidence of that going on way too long.

From the outside looking in, the unknown is the question of whether or not CRD can restore the swagger in 2022 by (1) getting the right coaches on staff either by replacement or by jacking up the ones he keeps because he sees them as having the right stuff to compete. (2) get the player's re-focused and a lot of that has to do with the quality of the coaching staff. These were both UFM skills. Not sure CRD has those skills. We'll see ....... for sure, the rivalry has been restored and that's a good thing for the BT and CFB. It's been dead too long.

[Tom W]

Yeah, what Jeff said.

It’s just too bad that he wasn’t present to see the Death Star get taken down in person.

[Jeff Buchanan]

There's a rumor floating around the interweb that Ryan Day has been offered the HC position by the Bears.

Turmoil. Love it...... just in time for NSD. The transfer port could get interesting.