What is there to say about the game on Saturday?

I am sure you have already heard, read, and seen for yourself that it was a tale of two halves, so I am not going to dwell on that aspect too long, but here’s a quick recap:

Down 3-14 at half time, Jim Tressel earned his paycheck in the locker room, and the Buckeyes rolled off 35 unanswered points in the final 30 minutes of the game. In the process they turned what looked like an extremely frustrating evening for Buckeye fans into a comfortable victory.

Okay, maybe I will dwell on the second half just a bit longer.

The offense was dominating.

The 11 play 96 yard touchdown drive to start the half set the tone. The Buckeyes would follow that drive up with a 7 play 78 yard touchdown drive to put the nail in Penn State’s coffin in the fourth.

Behind those two clock eating, confidence building, will imposing drives, two pick sixes, and a lucky bounce on a deep bomb, Ohio State erased the 11 point deficit with ease. It was the largest comeback by a Jim Tressel coached Ohio State team. To top it off, Boom’s 190 yards is tied for the 21st best rushing performance by a Buckeye ever (Beanie only topped 190 yards twice in his career).

The offense brought it in the second half behind some outstanding individual performances.

The defense was dominating as well.

The Silver Bullets held Penn State to 31 total yards (21 of which came on the very first drive) in the second half after giving up 249 in the first. They only allowed Penn State’s quarterbacks to complete two passes (on 15 attempts) for 16 yards (both of which came on the first drive). If you count the two pick sixes I suppose you could say they completed four passes in the half, but that is just splitting hairs.

The defense brought it in the second half behind some great adjustments by the team and by individuals.

It really was an outstanding all around performance by the offense and the defense. So why the slow start in the first half?

Blame it on a bye week hangover, blame it on soft zones on defense to start the game, blame it on Pryor being indecisive in the pocket (which is by far my  biggest post game concern), blame it on whatever you would like. The Buckeyes responded in the second half and absolutely dominated an outmatched Penn State squad and it was a thing of beauty.

The pessimistic fans among us will undoubtedly choose to focus on the first half and be all gloom and doom about the game at Iowa next week. I personally choose to take the middle road, leaning on the side of optimistic. So first, the good things:

Run Game

190 yards on the ground is the best performance from an Ohio State back in over two years. The offensive line, particularly the left side (shout out to Justin Boren and Mike Adams) got the job done all night long, and Boom was able to bounce  runs to the outside for big gains behind the crushing lead blocking of Zach Boren.

Ohio State ran their way to victory last November, and they are off to a great start doing the same this time around.

Defensive Adjustments

For some reason, Ohio State’s corners were playing way off the Penn State receivers for most of the first half and doing everything they could not to get beat deep. This led to Mr. McGloin lighting up the secondary (particularly Devon Torrence) on short routes and it looked like it was going to be a long night on defense.

In the second half, Ohio State tightened up their coverage, McGloin missed on every deep ball, and Ohio State returned two interceptions for touchdowns. You have to give McGloin credit for playing well in the first half, but you have to give the Buckeyes even more credit for shutting him down with no mercy in the second.

Oh yeah, the front seven and the run defense brought it as well.

Pryor

Now that we have covered the good (or at least some of it, there is plenty to go around), here is the thing that worried me the most about the game. Pryor looked indecisive and uncomfortable in the pocket. He seemed late making his reads and too quick to tuck the ball and run (or at least get happy feet), especially in the first half.

Was he nervous? Was he rusty? Was it something else? Who knows, but Pryor clearly wasn’t on his game for most of the first half (and for most of the game) and it hurt the offense. Missing a wide open Sanzenbacher on third and short, only to tuck the ball and take a loss, is the perfect play to summarize Pryor’s performance. At the same time, Pryor wasn’t awful, he just wasn’t sharp.

On the plus side, he looked more comfortable and smooth running the football than he has in quite some time. In the future when Pryor gets happy feet and looks that uncomfortable in the pocket, I would really like to see him roll out of the pocket by design.

I think roll outs would let him relax a bit, allow him to find some open receivers in the flats for some short, easy, high percentage throws, gain some confidence, and if he needs to, it gives him a much better opportunity to tuck it and run.

The running game carried the team to victory against Penn State, and it probably can do the same for the rest of the season, but a potent running game plus an on target Pryor would make the offense even more effective (obviously).

If Pryor is having trouble making reads (or whatever the problem was) in the pocket, rolling him out seems like the best solution to my untrained eye.

The Iowa game will be a huge challenge for the Buckeyes. A first half like Saturday on the road will be much more difficult to overcome (but not impossible), especially if Pryor is mediocre again. On the other hand, if Ohio State carries over the momentum from the second half and keeps rolling at Iowa, the world will be a happy place.

More on that in the game preview though. For right now, let’s enjoy a great second half performance and a great victory by the Buckeyes.