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

[hack]

Gotta love Talent's ``optimism''.

[Chuck Mallory]

Nice piece on Clarett. I'm gonna show it to my students tomorrow morning during HR. E60 has some very good shows.

[iam416]

Chuck:

Yeah. I'm really happy for the guy. They're honoring the 2002 BCS Champs at the end of the 1st Q of the OSU-M game. It will be nice to see Clarett back in the Stadium. I think this year is the first time he's been back to Columbus for gameday. Cynically speaking, heh, man's gotta eat. But he's obviously come a long way from the knucklehead who got himself incarcerated.

Hack:

Thanks! I'm not sure exactly how optimistic I am if I think they have a credible shot at 10 wins. All I know is I'm no where near the pessimist Hanni is, who I reckon has retired that crown.

[Hannibal]

Chuck:
Thanks! I'm not sure exactly how optimistic I am if I think they have a credible shot at 10 wins. All I know is I'm no where near the pessimist Hanni is, who I reckon has retired that crown.

You guys keep saying that, but on Saturday, the defense didn't exactly disprove me. UMass was only held to six points because they committed nine penalties on offense and missed a field goal. They had more first downs than they had against UConn or Indiana and more rushing yards than they had against both of those teams combined. They did this with essentially only 11 offensive posessions. Through three games, the turnovers forced by our defense amount to one worthless fumble as time ran out in a half. The other turnover was an unforced error by UMass on special teams. Our next interception will be our first, and we have three sacks so far this year. We have to blitz to get any pressure at all on UMass. We had to rely on their mistakes and outscheme them to stop them. I am absolutely not exaggerating when I say how bad our defense is. It is as bad as it was in 2010. The defensive line is to this defense what the defensive backfield was to that defense. The only upside is that unlike 2010, we had an excellent recruiting class, so the defense could improve as some of those guys become full time players. On offense, we don't fumble nearly as often, but our offensive line also isn't nearly as good as that 2010 team's was. We don't have the firewpower to keep up with most of the teams that will score 30+ points on us.

[hack]

The defense looks very alarming, but I don't think it's a death sentence just yet. We'll see. IMO there IS the firepower to win shootouts, but I do think Borges is going to muck that up but dabbling in a whole bunch of things at the expense of developing enough bread and butter.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hanni .... I think you are essentially correct in your comments about the defense. The biggest difference between the 2010 defense and the 2012 one is coaching. Last year, Martin didn't become a dominating force until VanBergen picked up his game and Roh was learning how to not over-run the play. That evolution forced OCs to account for all three of those guys, limiting a bunch of 2Xs on all of them individually.

I also think the back side has better athletes and is WAY better coached compared to 2010.

But I'm not discounting your concerns with the DL. They're valid. The LB play is also pretty weak right now with a few exceptions. I'm hoping Demens picks it up. That is going to be key going forward.

[iam416]

Well, look at this way -- one more game and then you're playing a bunch of shit B10 offenses.

[iam416]

Interesting from UFM today....Cal started 5 possessions inside OSU territory and didn't score a single point.....yet, Cal had over 200 yards of total offense on 6 plays. Weird, frustrating defensive performance. They did do a really nice job of stiffening against Cal, but the maddening big plays and their inability to force 3 and outs sort of sucked donkey balls.

The penalties were a debacle, too. Killed at least 3 drives. Bah. Onward to UAB. WooOOOT!

[hack]

Boy oh boy when he says WooOOOT! it just really gets my goat, goshdarnit! That dastardly Talent!

[iam416]

In yer face, Hack! WooooOOOT!

[hack]

Ooooooooooooooooooh! Dammit he did it AGAIN!!!!

[lineygoblue]

Don't let him get your goat, Hack....

[iam416]

Baaaaaahhhhhh!

Hack is just funning around in his oddball Western Ontario way.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Shut the fuck up.

[iam416]

Get out, Rat. You stink.