I’m pretty certain the answer is “no”, but let’s look at each individual point anyway just to be sure.
Mali
Brax Attack. Well, he saw the field. That’s about all we can say.
Jacory Harris’ New Name. Jacory Harris played better than last season, though he did hand the ball over a few times – and nearly put OSU back in the game in the end.
Florida Pride. Hyde and Sabino played tough, does that count?
Game Commentary. The commentary was absolutely focused on the game. At some point, though, I think Buckeye fans almost would have rather been thinking about the offseason.
No False Starts. Keep asking Mali.
Jim
No turnovers. The young gun gave it up twice – though both were due more to great play from the Miami defense than his own failings. However, he still tried to put the ball where he shouldn’t have on the tipped interception, and he left the ball floating out away from his body on the punched out fumble.
Enthusiasm and hitting. It took a little while but we saw it eventually. Though, it disappeared more often as the defense wore down.
Big time players making big time plays. I’m pretty certain Joe Bauserman cemented his name in Buckeye History, but not in a good way.
Jordan Hall in space. He certainly was a nice change of pace! Early in the game, Hall was averaging more than 13 yards per carry, and ended above 6. That’s some great running from a solid back.
Braxton Miller on the field. He was there, that’s about all we can say on that account.
Eric
Fans in the stands. A packed house it was not. That said, it was more full than I’ve ever seen it.
A pass interference call on Miami. Nope, there wasn’t a single PI call the entire game on either team.
OSU’s defense making Miami zero dimensional. This went out the window when Miller picked up 53 yards on his first carry. For large chunks of the 2nd and 3rd quarters – and even the beginning of the 4th – the defense made this happen. They just couldn’t do it forever.
A Jonathan Hankins sack fest. I know Hankins didn’t pick up any. In fact, I don’t think a single Buckeye netted a sack yesterday.
Three passes to the TE’s and RB’s. Hah, that’s funny. We kept trying to go to Stoneburner, and that was consistently one of the worst mistakes the OSU quarterback’s were making. Good job by Miami to seal Stoney off and force the OSU QB’s into bad decisions. I promise I won’t ask for this again until we’re looking for the other receivers again.
Joe Dexter
Represent the state of Florida the Right way. As I said with Mali, Hyde and Sabino did a good job there.
Stop the Run. Lamar Miller gashed the Buckeyes for 100 yards in the first quarter before we finally worked out how to slow them down. We clearly did not stop it enough.
Shut Down Secondary. The secondary was solid, and at times spectacular. There were a few too many open receivers to give you “shut down” though.
Control the Clock. For a while, that looked to be the only way the Buckeyes were going to make things happen. Unfortunately, it’s hard to control the clock with a strong running game if the defense doesn’t even need their secondary on the field because your passing game is so atrocious.
Jeff
Four quarterbacks. Jacory Harris played all night long and, despite his mistakes, made enough plays to win.
Jordan Hall play, but not start. Wow, someone got one. Carlos Hyde got the start, but Jordan Hall saw plenty of playing time. Both backs looked pretty good during the game, but it’s clear that Jordan Hall is the more experienced player.
5 sacks for the Buckeye defense. Nope, nope nope, nope. There was lots and lots of pressure, and John Simon may have scared Harris into his second interception, but there wasn’t a sack to be found all game long.
Joe L.
Most importantly a win. Do we really need to say it?
Defensive Line controlling the LOS. They certainly didn’t do it early, but they figured it out eventually.
Jordan Hall being a big time playmaker in his return. And he certainly was. He was the most impressive OSU offensive player on the team tonight, and absolutely should have broken 100 yards on the day. OSU coaching staff deserves some leers for the play calling that prevented that, considering Hall barely touched the ball in the 3rd quarter.
Outperform Miami in the Special teams game. This might be the only phase of the game that we remotely broke even with Miami. The return blocking was unspectacular, but the returns were solid, and the coverage units were approximately equal. The punting was tremendous; give Ben Buchanan a helmet sticker for helping keep Miami in poor field position all night. Lastly, Drew Basil scored the only points for the night with his 2 field goals. Hopefully that builds him some confidence.
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