Malibuckeye:
No. False. Starts. Mali continues to jinx the right tackle spot. That’s probably the ghost of JB Shugarts occupying the position now.
Special Forces. Special teams were reasonably good, including Bradley Roby tearing away a poorly snapped football in the endzone.
Quick Cals. There are still some kinks to be worked out here. Only half the students made it, and the PA system blaring AC/DC through the event was less than ideal. We’ll see if they fix some of the bugs down the line.
Janelle:
The “UN-Caged Tiger.” 161 yards running, 207 yards passing, and 3 total touchdowns. An uncaged tiger indeed.
JUICE. Other than Sabino’s first penalized lick on a player, the first quarter was severely lacking in Juice. After that? I think you got your wish.
Noah Spence. Picking up his first career sack (its counted in the stat sheet despite the intentional grounding) was a great way to start.
Joe L:
The forward pass on first down! We saw 4 in the first 4 drives of the game. Three were incompletions. The first completed first down pass was that sweet little number hauled down by Devin Smith.
The unknown. The DLine got better as the day wore on, maybe due to the coaching staff opening things up. There were definitely growing pains early, though.
The pups. We saw quite a few of the young guns, including on the DLine, at running back, and in the receiving corps.
Westy:
Passing Yards. 19-33 (57.5%) passing for 244 yards should tide you over until next week.
Stoneburner Unleashed. I wouldn’t call 2 catches for 28 yards unleashed, but he was targeted a few times. We’ll have to see if he shows us more in future weeks.
M*chigan returning to Earth. In devastating fashion. In a frighteningly familiar score to Buckeye fans, Michigan got pounded 41-14 by the Roll Tide Elephants.
The Debut of our highly touted D-Line. It was a debut, though it may have been hamstrung by our own coaches early. We’ll see how they do later in the season.
A highly enjoyable absence of Jim Bollman. With people asking for Bollman to come back in the middle of the first quarter (mostly jokingly), this was nearly a miss. Gotta admit the last three quarters more than made up for it.
WVaBuckeye:
Speed. Braxton Miller by himself put on a show here, though it was the stutter step that was even more impressive.
Lockdown Secondary. “Lockdown” is not quite what I would describe that evisceration of our cover-2. However, parts were certainly better than last year. Baby steps.
Tradition. Seems like it’ll take time to work out the kinks in the Quick Cals, but other traditions are certainly strong.
Offense. No Offense. Plenty of offense to go around. Just make certain you start watching around the 15 minute mark of the 2nd quarter.
Jim:
Young D-Linemen. Freshmen linemen Noah Spence, Adolphus Washington, and Tommy Schutt all made the field yesterday. They even managed to make a strong showing for themselves – Spence and Washington picked up the only two sacks for the Buckeyes.
Offensive Line v. 2012. There’s some work to be done on the line, but I certainly can’t complain about what we saw. They looked excited and happy to be playing their role for this team, and it’s easier to block when you’re being successful.
Braxton Miller. His stats are above. And that might be a middle-of-the-road game for him. He was apparently jittery in his first outing in the offense and missed a number of throws he’s been making in practice. When he finally settles down? Watch out.
‘Spread Smash’ at rapid speed. It took us a little while to get it going, but it was a sight to behold once it found traction. Carlos Hyde is definitely a force to be reckoned with in this offense.
Tim:
JUICE. It took a while for the Bucks to find it, but once they did it was nothing but excitement and smiles all around. We’ve got Devin Smith to thank for that.
Mr. Hyde. We saw plenty of him with 17 carries for 82 yards and 2 TDs – which would have been 3 if he had kept his feet.
Men in the Middle. Grant did not get mentioned much in his middle linebacker position, but he must have played it pretty well considering there weren’t many short throws over the middle, and the Redhawks lost a yard in the running game.
Jeff:
40 points. Sorry Jeff, you didn’t get your Goldilocks dream. The Buckeyes score 56, enough for you to need to be worried about expectations now.
PAIN. The Cincinnati area must have felt pretty damn good at the end of the first quarter. Thankfully that changed in a hurry. You’ll have to let us know how much crying was done.
Bri’onte scoring. 7 carries for 31 yards….and a touchdown! Congrats Jeff, you got this one.
Eric:
A Wide Receiver Explosion. I asked for 350 yards of receiving, but we only picked up 244. I must say, however, that Devin Smith’s circus catch definitely counts as 106 yards by itself. You’ll buy that, right?
A Strong Day for the Linebackers. 8 tackles for Mr. Shazier, a team high, plus a solid job against the run game. Sabino also impressed with his wicked hit (even if it was a penalty). I’d call it a strong day for the backers over all. Lots of room for improvement, though.
Nathan Williams. We definitely saw him playing a role, and he very nearly picked up a sack too. He’s got a lot more work to do before he can become a significant contributor, but he’s well on his way towards a return.
Buckeyes Running Wild in the Run Game. We didn’t see Hyde breaking a long one for a score, but we did see Miller hit a 65 yarder. The Bucks ultimately picked up 294 yards on 53 carries in the game – an average of 5.5 yards per carry – for 5 total touchdowns. Even Zach Boren managed to find the endzone! It may not have been “running wild”, but it was certainly a wild ride!
A Wedding. I definitely got to see the wedding, and was honored enough to be asked to participate. Congrats Jay and Jen!
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