OSU v Texas (Two Weeks Late)

I never got around to breaking down the Ohio State – Texas game, so here it is. Ohio State should have won. They should have won by a large margin. They had great field position the entire game, but couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. The fact that Josh Houston made so many field goals tells you all you need to know; OSU could’ve/should’ve/would’ve had 40+ points and won handily.

So who to blame? Well, first let’s talk about who wasn’t to blame. First on that list is A.J. Hawk, who solidified himself as one of the best linebackers in the game – he was everywhere – and the rest of the OSU linebackers. There were a couple of breakdowns, but you can’t expect perfection every play. They did their jobs. The same is true of the defensive coordinator, who adjusted the game plan perfectly.

We can’t blame Houston. His only miss was a foot wide on a 50-yarder, and he consistently kicked off into the end zone.

No blame goes to Santonio Holmes who, despite the ravings from the media about Ted Ginn Jr, is Ohio State’s best receiver. Who was the go-to guy on third downs? Holmes. Who came up with big play after big play on offense, including a very difficult TD catch? Holmes again.

On the other hand, plenty of blame can be send Ginn’s way. He’s supposedly a Heisman candidate, but what kind of Heisman winner drops three easy passes? I mean, seriously, they were little five yard swing passes designed specifically to get the ball into his hands, and he dropped them. The same thing happened the next week in the San Jose State game. Don’t bother packing for New York, Teddy.

As for the quarterbacks, a little bit of blame goes to Justin Zwick, but only a little. Cover the ball with two hands when you’re about to get hit, Justin! But as far as I’m concerned, Justin was the better of the two OSU quarterbacks that day. He was one bobbled and then dropped TD pass from winning the game.

On the other hand, lots of blame goes to Troy Smith. Yes, he made one pass for a touchdown – but only because Holmes is a great receiver and caught the ball that was thrown behind him, with the defender’s arm crammed in to boot. Hint to Troy: when you’re about to be sacked and it’s clear to everyone (except, apparently, you) that there’s no escape, THROW THE BALL OUT OF BOUNDS! You are not Michael Vick, or even whatever the Texas QB’s name was. Just because you can miraculously escape once every six times does not mean that you are unsackable. The safety at the end of the game was only the worst example; he killed several other drives doing the same thing.

Plenty of blame goes to Jim Tressel and whoever the offensive coordinator is too. Why do they feel the need to completely change the playbook when Smith is in? Why must every other play be a quarterback draw? Antonio Pittman was running really well, but he only ended up with 17 carries because they insisted on running Smith whenever he was in. There was way too much spread in OSU’s version of the spread offense.

Finally, plenty of blame goes to Texas. They made the plays they had to; they consistently kept OSU out of the end zone even though they lost the field position battle. They bottled up Ginn (which, with his hands, wasn’t that hard of a task) and didn’t give up many big plays. Props to them. I guess.

Happy Autumn everyone. It just gets colder from here.