Eastern Michigan is bad, really bad.
So bad that it is hard to find a place to start describing their ineptitude at playing the game of football.
Since I like to focus primarily on Ohio State in these previews, and as readers of this blog, you presumably care primarily about the Buckeyes, I will keep this as brief as possible.
Eastern Michigan has not won a football game since 2008.
Moving on…
Ohio State has some things they need to work on this week as they prepare for Big Ten play.
Join me after the jump for a look at what those things are.
Ohio State’s offense vs. Eastern Michigan’s defense
It was a neck and neck race to see who had the worst defense in the state of Michigan last week.
In the end, Eastern Michigan inched out a victory by giving up 523 total yards to Central Michigan.
Michigan, to their credit, put up a valiant fight, giving up 439 total yards to Massachusetts.
In EMU’s defense, they were playing a much better team than Michigan was.
Mocking that school up north aside, Ohio State should be able to do whatever they want offensively this week, providing them with a nice opportunity to practice whatever needs to be practiced.
It will be interesting to see if Tressel continues to give Pryor reps throwing the ball, or if he switches focus to the ground game.
Through three games, the young running backs (Berry and Hyde mostly) that everyone has been itching to see haven’t gotten much action.
Maybe that will change this week, but it depends on how Pryor looks throwing the ball.
Ideally, Pryor will come out for the first half or so and drive the offense down the field with ease . If he makes smart decisions and distributes the ball efficiently, I don’t see him getting much playing time in the second half.
Basically, the ideal scenario would be for Pryor to do exactly what he did last week… minus the forced throws into the end zone.
Once he has completed his task of putting up Heisman numbers on national television, he can make way for the stable of running backs that have yet to be unleashed this season.
That is the ideal scenario. Especially considering the ground game has been somewhat neglected so far.
If Pryor doesn’t look crisp, I imagine Tressel will give him some extra reps throwing similar to last week against Ohio, which may cut into the carries for the backs once again.
Ohio State’s defense vs. Eastern Michigan’s offense
Anything less than total domination with interceptions and fumble recoveries galore would be a big disappointment.
The major news on defense from the OU game were injuries. The defensive backfield in particular had several players go down.
Fortunately, according to Tressel at his weekly press conference, Donnie Evege is the only player that will be out for an extended period of time (more than a week or two) due to injury (sorry Vico).
It will be a good week to get the backups some game experience.
Perhaps most importantly, all of the players in the defensive line rotation will see plenty of action.
The starters on the defensive line are some of the best in the country, but the backups are still young and relatively untested at this point.
It will be important for guys like Garrett Goebel, Adam Bellamy, and Jonathan Hankins to be an effective part of the line rotation during the grind of the Big Ten schedule.
Getting them as much game experience as possible this week could go a long way in preparing the defense for some tougher challenges down the road.
Special Teams
The kick coverage units seemed to make improvements last week against OU. There were still some shaky moments, though, so they aren’t off the list of things Ohio State fans are worried about yet.
Putting together a solid week in coverage with no break downs won’t erase everyone’s concerns, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt.
In the return game, Jordan Hall and Jaamal Berry have shown flashes, but they have yet to take one to the house. It will be interesting to see if that changes this week.
If we are lucky, Berry and Hall will be busy carrying the rock in the second half, so maybe we will see what Corey “Philly” Brown can do in the return game.
Overall (sorry about being a broken record about it) this game is about getting better. Due to the match up being particularly bad, this week is also about getting some young players game experience.
It might not be very exciting to watch, but a solid game this week could pay huge dividends down the road.
That makes it at least mildly intriguing… right?
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