The Buckeyes managed to put together a decent 17-7 win on the strength of some great defensive play, and some solid running from the offense.
Seriously, who needs a passing game? It’s not like anyone really asked for it anyway.
Mali:
Lower The Boom. I don’t think the balance was quite right, but you simply cannot argue with 23 carries for 114 yards and a touchdown for his first appearance after suspension. It would have been nice to see a bit more Carlos Hyde in this one, but I’ll take a 100 yard rusher and a win any day.
Solomon’s Wisdom. We got him involved, and he was involved quite a bit. Unfortunately, he wasn’t involved in good ways from what we could see. Clearly Thomas was suffering from the rust.
No Injuries. The jury is still out on Travis Howard, who was injured during his interception return. That may be the only significant injury of the day.
Smooth Jazz. OSU was never in control enough to risk putting any other quarterback in the game, nor were they forced to do so due to injury or poor play. Braxton Miller got the job done and did everything that was necessary to net the win.
NFS. Well, apparently abbreviating it managed to keep JB Shugarts from false starting! That’s something! Too bad we had 2 or 3 other flags for it too…
Eric:
Continue to expand the offense. Expansion it was not. We certainly retracted a bit, though we did continue to effectively run some of the counter running plays. Considering I was hoping for a bit more passing, though, this certainly didn’t happen.
Start looking to Carlos Hyde. Carlos Hyde was virtually ignored in favor of Boom Herron and Jordan Hall. I feel like this was a mistake, though we did win and Herron and Hall combined for 170 yards on 35 carries. We didn’t see Carlos Hyde until the 4th quarter – which was clearly what we planned for. It looked like the coaches wanted to use his fresh legs to attack the tired Illinois defense. Unfortunately, the Illinois defense was stuffing the box at that point, making running tough for Hyde.
No Joe Bauserman. I did not see Joe Bauserman at this game at all! I know he was there, but #14 did not impinge on my eyes. Success!
Buckeye Football. I got to watch a great game of Buckeye football. I couldn’t be happier right now, and getting the win was icing on the cake.
Chris:
Jordan Hall in the Slot. While we had seen it occasionally in previous weeks, we did not see it much at all today. In fact, I can’t point to a single play that we actually had Jordan Hall in the slot. He was used almost exclusively as a runningback.
Defensive containment. For the most part, we successfully contained Scheelhaase. He did pick up 49 yards on 16 carries, though most of those were scrambling when his receivers didn’t open up. His running was not a threat in this game, and that’s what matters most.
Carlos Hyde carry the ball 15+ times. As mentioned earlier, we did not get to see this. In fact, Hyde only had 4 carries for a grand total of 3 yards with a long of 6 yards. Very disappointing for the young power back.
A win. Success! The Buckeye defense played tough all game and managed to force 3 turnovers, including 2 interceptions, to make life difficult for Illinois. In fact, the defense nearly netted themselves a shutout, but Illinois managed to score with about 7 minutes left on the clock.
Jim:
I want to see the Buckeyes win a football game. If you watched the game, then you saw the Buckeyes win a football game. Congratulations.
Joe L:
I just want to see a win. See above.
Improvement from the coaching staff. I think we’ve begun to see improvement from the coaches. As we mentioned in this week’s postgame show, consider which team looked like it was the one coached by the first year coach. The answer is not Ohio State, by the way. Zook’s decisions and game management were confusing at best.
Joe D:
Lower the Boom. You asked for 15+ carries, you got 23 for 114 yards and a touchdown. I think that’s a pretty successful request!
The Third Element. The special teams did ok, and Ben Buchanan’s punting was good enough to get the job done. It was the play of the defense that really made this win possible, though.
Two 100 Yard Rushers. We had enough yards for it, and we got half of what you wanted. Boom Herron did pick up more than 100, but Jordan Hall only had 56 while Miller had 34 and Hyde had 3.
Stop the Pass. It may have been the wind more than our defense, but give the secondary some credit for playing tough, aggressive coverage. Scheelhaase was limited to 20/34 for 169 yards – 5 yards per pass, and 8.5 per completion. He also ended up throwing 2 picks and only a single touchdown, with one of those picks being clearly caused by the wind. All in all, a great day for the secondary.
OMG Please Play Kenny! Well, we had no reason to play Kenny, so Kenny didn’t see the field. Neither did Bauserman, nor Graham. Braxton Miller played the whole game, and played fairly effectively, particularly in the most important aspect – leading the team. He is quickly learning to be a great field general, and that will only help him in the future.
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