Well, by this point, I’m pretty certain things like 406 punting yards are pretty entertaining. But that’s only because we all know that at this point laughter is all that is left.
Let’s see how the crew did.
Malibuckeye
Return Of The Burn. Jake Stoneburner did catch two passes for 8 yards. We even tried to go for him in short yardage routes!
Hungry Hankins. He scooped up a fumble that he may have consumed. Does that count as hungry enough? In fact, the defense as a whole was very impressive, particularly up front. The Buckeyes D-Line completely devastated the MSU running game, leaving them with only 71 total yards.
Defensive Score. And we still don’t have one, though the defense did prevent a couple of scores with their turnovers. There were also two near pick-sixes, but near pick-sixes don’t put points on the board.
Special Teams Savvy. Special Teams was fairly pedestrian today, though Jordan Hall did have a couple of exciting returns to give us decent field position. Not that the offense could do anything with it, of course.
Need I Say More?. Shugarts, as usual, led us off with the false start party. He was, however, not the only one today.
Joe L
20 Completions. We got closer, picking up 12 completions on 25 attempts. But we’re no-where near 20 completions. Though, MSU got 20 completions, so does that satisfy you?
Better LB play. Big runs weren’t the problem. Tackling and coverage of the receivers underneath was a bigger issue.
Big Plays. We only saw 2, both for 33 yards. Surprisingly, both were in the passing game
Continue the special teams play. Well, it wasn’t quite as spectacular as it was against Colorado, but it was good. Special Teams may be a big strength of ours this season.
Eric
Continued excellence from the running game. The offensive line struggled at blocking all game, and Jordan Hall gained only 2.5 yards per carry (45 yards on 18 carries). That’s definitely not excellence. On the plus side, though, Carlos Hyde did pick up 33 yards on 5 carries (6.6 yards per carry).
Three receptions from the TEs or RBs. Ok, that’s it, I’m never asking for this again. It is a jinx and a curse for the team. Even if we did get five receptions from those units (3 for Carlos Hyde and 2 for Jake Stoneburner).
Sacks, sacks and more sacks. Not so much. John Simon did his usual thing, but lots of sacks were not available in this one.
Solid linebacker coverage play. The linebacker coverage could have been better, but it certainly didn’t hurt us in this game. Michigan State did take advantage of it, but it’s not like they moved the ball with impunity because of it.
Jim
Field position domination… again. No, the field position battle was pretty well tied between the two teams. Though Michigan State did get excellent field position leading into that field goal, that was certainly the best field position they had all day.
Young defenders making plays. The young defenders played reasonably well, and in fact we grabbed two big interceptions from Bradley Roby and CJ Barnett, along with a huge fumble recovery from Jonathan Hankins.
100 yard rusher. Surely you’re joking. Le’Veon Bell’s 50 yards was the closest any team got to a 100 yard rusher today.
Braxton Miller to Devin Smith. We only actually tried to throw this once, and it lead to our only turnover of the game because of a great play from the defender. That was nearly the huge play that put the Buckeyes in the game.
Joe D
Shut Down the Three Headed Backfield. Done and done. Michigan State succeeded in picking up only 71 yards rushing today, I would call that a shut down. In fact, we held one of the three, Larry Caper, to -1 yards. Big win.
Win the Turnover Battle. Won in a huge way. OSU picked up three Michigan State turnovers while coughing up only one of their own, and that had to be yanked away by the defender in a fantastic play.
Contain Cunningham. 9 receptions for 154 yards and a touchdown is not “contained”. Quite the opposite.
Control the Football Game. If there is one thing that could be said with certainty about this football game, it is that we most certainly did not control it.
Chris
Rush the Passer. We tried, and we got some pressure on him, forcing 3 turnovers from him alone, and nearly forcing two more. Though, you might argue the fumble was more due to his own inability to hold onto the football during his throwing motion.
Improvement in the passing game. You got what you asked for. We got 12 receptions for 143 yards. Too bad we needed more due to the failures of the running game.
Get off to a good start. Well, Michigan State’s lead certainly wasn’t sizable by any reasonable definition, but for all intents and purposes the 7 points was certainly insurmountable.
A few big plays. Two plays for 33 yards is the most we got. It’s a couple of big plays, but certainly far from what Chris was looking for.
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