I thought now might be the perfect time to interject into all of the current discussions and completely change the line of thinking*. Let’s take a look at our next opponent, Toledo, who is making a bit of a name for themselves this year.
Toledo’s current head coach should be familiar to most serious Buckeye fans – Tim Beckman – former Secondary coach for the Buckeyes(2005-2007), and Defensive Coordinator at Oklahoma State (2007-2008) before becoming Head Coach at Toledo in December of ’08. He is a solid, defensive minded coach with an aggressive streak to him. Beckman is looking pretty good at Toledo so far. He kept his team close in a game with Purdue, and beat the pants off a bad Colorado team**. Sure, these aren’t the most spectacular of victories (or games), but they’re giving Toledo a little bit of confidence, and we all know that MAC schools get dangerous and fiesty when they have a little confidence.
Let’s focus a little bit on some of the Toledo players, so that we can be well informed this weekend.
Quarterback – Aaron Opelt. This guy is a tremendous talent, and there’s a good chance he might end up playing on Sunday’s. During the last two games (Purdue and Colorado), he has thrown 56/90 (62.2% completion) for 742 yards, 7 TD’s and 2 INT’s. Compare this to TP who is 25/46 (54.3%) for 351 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTS. While TP’s numbers are clearly against better competition (and probably signalling a Sophomore Slump), they still throw Opelt’s into sharp relief. Toledo is definitely having success throwing the ball.
He is also quick on his feet, running 12 times for 132 yards (11.0 ypc) and 2 TD’s – good for second best runner on the team. He managed a 61 yarder against Colorado as well making him a very dangerous option if he breaks containment.
Runningback – DaJuane Collins is the primary ball-carrier. He has 29 carries for 187 yards (6.4 ypc) and 2 TD’s. He is clearly not their top option, but he makes the most of his attempts.Receievers – Toledo likes to spread the ball around a little (10 receievers with at least 1 catch, 5 with 7 or more), but they have two primary targets: Eric Page and Stephen Williams. Each has 15 receptions and 2 TDs. Eric Page has earned 266 yards for his effort, while Williams has a more pedestrian 185.
Overall, Toledo likes to employ a spread offense. This is good for the Buckeyes, as it gives us an opportunity to flavor the offense before we face Michigan’s later. However, this is the 3rd different offensive look in as many weeks, so expect the Buckeye defense to struggle a little bit with it early. If the Buckeyes can keep containment of Opelt and shut down Page and Williams as receiving options, things will go well for the Bucks.
The one major advantage we have is on Offense. There is no way Toledo has the defensive intensity or talent to stop our Offense. They rank 110th in yards per game with 493, 107th in Rushing YPG with 205, 106 in passing YPG with 288, and 116 in points per game with 45. This is a defense ripe for the plucking if Ohio State chooses to take advantage of it. Given that we still manage to beat inferior talent fairly easily, I expect the offense will look quite a bit more competent this week, even with the vanilla, and ultimately poor, playcalling.
Now, this isn’t supposed to be a dissertation on how we’re going to piss it away to Toledo. The point you should be taking away from this is that while it is Toledo, they are most certainly ready to play us. The coaching staff has the inside scoop on Tressel’s philosophies (although, really, who doesn’t?), giving them enough knowledge to out think us. Though they definitely don’t have the players to out-play us, we’ve all seen small scale teams with limited talent beating better teams by simply having a better game plan.
I believe we’ll come away with a victory, but this is clearly a trap game and may not alieviate any of the fears that many of us are probably having. In fact this very well could turn into a major shootout all over Browns Stadium. However, just like with Navy, this team is quite a bit better than their name gives them credit for. Just keep that in mind when you’re thinking about committing seppuku on Saturday night.
*Do not go over and peruse Men of the scarlet and gray right now. At least don’t do it if you want to maintain your current level of sanity.
** I’m expecting another coaching change here soon. Colorado is apparently quite a bit different than Boise State, eh?
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