As fate would have it, someone didn’t want me to see the debacle in Happy Valley Saturday night as I was enjoying two hours plus of Garth Brooks in Charleston, WV. Came out after the concert and couldn’t get a signal to bring up the play-by-play on an app on my phone because of the thousands stuck in traffic in a parking garage trying to leave. I am going to let the staff and regular fans take the wheel this week as I don’t have a whole lot of positive to say!
Offensive
tOSU Offensive MVP
Scott – JT Barrett. Had good numbers and a good grasp of the offense despite the offensive line being, uh, offensive.
Ben v. – Curtis Samuel was the best offensive player all night. From his 74 yard scamper (on a nice block from Mike Weber), to his clutch route running on 3rd downs, he again proved why he needs the ball in his hands.
Brandon – J.T. Barrett. Despite being under pressure all night, Barrett managed to have a pretty decent throwing night. He is still very hesitant but that comes with not having any chance to develop rhythm or rapport with your wide receivers because they are constantly being switched out. With guys like James Clark and Terry McLaurin getting a majority of the snaps on the outside, Barrett was still able to throw for 245 yards and one touchdown…all underneath routes or dump offs to the RBs.
Jeremy – I honestly am giving this to Baugh. Sue me! We finally use the TE and he rewarded them with a great TD and fought thru injury for a pedestrian stat line. I can’t give it to JT. He’s the leader of the team and at no point did I see him getting his OL face and demanding better protection and the last drive with the non chalant demeanor drove me insane! So no I can’t vote for him
Ryan – JT Barrett. With the atrocious line play, he was still able to run, and throw and complete passes, as Brandon said, all to underneath or dump offs, and not anything over the top… still, he handled the pressure the defense was bringing him as best he could. Weber had a decent evening, and fought and clawed his way for every yard he ran. He’s also turning into a decent blocker and made a nice block that sprung Samuel.
Jim – I guess i will have to go with JT. Although most of his plays were made or broke by his offensive line.
I question very much the play calls on both sides which will make it hard for me to grade.
Chris – Man…… Oh man… Here’s the thing about football that always gets me… We as fans have a tendency to put WAY too much on quarterbacks. I understand that completely. When one guy touches the ball every single play, it’s easy to blame that guy when things are going poorly. Great QBs know that and are fine with it. Nothing about that game last night made me think that Joe Thomas Barrett did not do everything possible to win that game. Ohio State has a wide receiver problem, a serious one. That isn’t Barrett’s fault. The offensive line got beat badly, repeatedly last night. That also is not his fault. Sure, he could yell at the guys and demand they step up and block better but in the heat of a game, that doesn’t really work. The line would still have the same physical, scheme, and mental issues that they did before. Joe Thomas Barrett did absolutely everything that he could do to win that game.
Brad TBU – A couple of players had moments. No one unfortunately stood out. It was nice to see the use of Baugh last night. Samuel had a couple of clutch catches.& Weber was a workhorse early & The block he made on the Samuel TD should have been a game changer. JT statistically will probably be the pick. However he missed on some glaring reads & was late on several throws & under threw on several plays that could’ve put the game away. example the Red zone throw to Baugh that should’ve been a TD.
JT Barrett, gets it this week and is probably still a Heisman front runner in spite of the loss!
tOSU O-line MVP
Scott – Nobody. Absolutely nobody.
Ben v. – Yeah the consensus is noone, on the touchdown run by Samuel the best block came from Weber, so he gets my O-Line MVP.
Brandon – Really no one deserves this award. The offensive line was an absolute mess last night. Barrett was pressured on almost 50% of his drop backs. Outside of the Samuel long run, the rushing attack was held to 94 yards on 39 carries. I was continually baffled why the coaching staff refused to help Isaiah Prince while he was getting dominated all game.
Jeremy – This shouldn’t even be an option this week. My god it was a horrible game for them. Not even the reliable vets stood out. I have to think RT starting job should be open to competition again. Prince has been shaky all year but was finally exposed the past 2 weeks. Coach Stud better be fixing this issue this week stat!
Ryan – NOBODY. Not one of the 5 deserve to have MVP associated with them this week. Prince got BLOWN UP EVERY SINGLE PLAY. I have not seen an offensive line play that bad for us in a long, long time.
Jim – there needs to be more of a physical/ aggressive line before I can grade anyone one the line.
For the most part most the defenses we have been playing against are running the same stunts for the past 3 games and we have not figured out how to stop the stunts.
Chris – Usually when a unit plays poorly, there is at least bright spot. Usually. I didn’t see a bright spot last night. There are intricacies to offensive line play that I certainly don’t get. I am smart enough to admit when I’m dumb. I can’t imagine that, all of the sudden, the Slobs forgot how to block other large humans. That makes me think that it was either Ohio State’s scheme or Penn State’s defensive scheme. I hate that not even one guy stood out.
Brad TBU – Going along with the consensus here. No one the line was dominated the entire 2nd half. No push in the run game & Abused in the pass protect. Stud needs to go to work on these guy’s. The penalties were absolutely atrocious.
Nobody wins it, think the staff and fans were clear?!
tOSU Offensive Unsung
Scott – Marcus Baugh. See Brandon’s explanation.
Ben v. – Marcus Baugh by default. He made some good catches, and the touchdown run after catch was beast like. However he came up injured late and never really seemed the same. We only brought two TE’s on the road trip and the inexperience of A.J. Alexander hurt when Baugh went out.
Brandon – Marcus Baugh. This was a very up and down game for Baugh. He had big plays, he had dumb drops, he battled through injuries, and he ran bad routes. It is a tough environment to play in but Baugh gave Barrett a semi-steady presence to have as dump down option as he was running for his life. Barrett and Baugh seem comfortable with each other…which makes sense because Baugh is the only receiver that plays consistently.
Jeremy – Curtis Samuel. Who should not be unsung ever! 10 touches!!! 10! Where did he go in the offensive game plan? Last week Weber was MIA in it this week it was Samuel. Can we go back to what was working and stop trying to overthink things?
Ryan – With so few shining moments for the offense, it’s hard to pick an unsung. Baugh perhaps? Noah Brown catching a clutch pass late? I honestly cannot hand an Unsung award to any one player.
Jim – Mike Weber is throwing some nice blocks out there.
I can’t say anyone stood out in my mind.
Chris – Mike Weber is my pick. Pretty solid job blocking and ran hard all night. He made some nice catches on the WHEEL ROUTE. He missed a few big runs because of either not hitting the right hole or not cutting back.
Brad TBU – Baugh up until the Wisconsin game throws to the Tight End have been nonexistent. The Shuffle pass to Noah Brown was a nice touch how about using earlier than 3rd & 10 though. ( hello Warner & Beck) How about dialing up the Slant pass for Brown like the one you haven’t used since the 2014 East Lansing Game.
Marcus Baugh is growing before our eyes this season and get’s the award!
Defensive
tOSU Defensive MVP
Scott – Rob Landers. He’s turning into a stud.
Ben v. – Holmes gets the nod from me, but it could have been Landers or Bosa as well or even Hubbard. Those guys gave it all, and even though they only had one sack, they still pressured McSorley and held Barkley in check.
Brandon – Jalyn Holmes. I continue to be impressed with Holmes and love what he brings. There were times last night where he completely dominated the PSU offensive line and forced McSorley out of the pocket. Unofficially, he only finished the night with four tackles and half of a tackle-for-loss but his play was a lot better than his stats.
Jeremy – Glad the rest are joining my Jalyn Holmes love fest! Stats won’t always be there but Holmes is by far the most reliable defender and best at getting pressure on the qb.
Ryan – Jalyn Holmes. He seems to be a force each week, and his play gets better and better. His speed makes him appear to be everywhere all at once. His future is bright, and he’s definitely stepping up where McMillan has disappeared.
Jim – The defense as a whole put out a real nice effort to start but no one should ever expect a defense to carry a team for the whole game.
Chris – Really liked what I saw out of Malik Hooker last night. So much of what a Safety does is dependent on what the defense is running. He made some very nice plays on the run game.
Brad TBU – Malik Hooker & Jalyn Holmes. I also thought Baker was having another outstanding game until he got caught in the wash on the 40 yard Barkley Run.
Jalyn Holmes walked away with this weeks honor, need someone to step when the steadies have an off or busy night!
tOSU D-line MVP
Scott – Jalyn Holmes. Seemed to see him involved a lot. Always around the ball when he’s in.
Ben v. – Holmes, see above.
Brandon – Jalyn Holmes. As I mentioned above, Holmes had another very good game. Coach Johnson has done a very good job at rotating his players and keeping them fresh. This works because he has four guys at defensive end who could start for 99% of college teams…unlike at the WR position where Coach Smith is forcing a rotation involving guys who are nowhere near as good as the starters.
Jeremy – Holmes again! If the rest of the DL was as consistent as him qbs would hate to face this DL. His effort is given on every play! He is Mr No Plays Off
Ryan – Nick Bosa. He should just set up camp in the opponent’s backfield, because he spends more there than anywhere. He’s constantly pressuring QB’s, forcing them to move up in the pocket, or scramble. He got burned on a read option play, but he’s also a true freshman. The force is strong with him, though.
Jim – The defensive front line continues to impress me. And when they rotate, it seems as if we don’t miss a beat.
Chris – Sam Hubbard here for me. I was slightly disappointed in the entire unit last night, to be honest. They knew that the little white kid was quick and had moxie. Containing him was very important and they lost that a few times. Penn State’s Oline is SO bad that it should have been a Sackfest or even a Sack-a-palooza.
Brad TBU – Landers Continues to be a force on the DLine
Jalyn Holmes with the back-to-back walk offs!
tOSU Defensive Unsung
Scott – Nick Bosa. Didn’t hear his name a lot. But he’s always lurking.
Ben v. – Robert Landers. He is small and quick and seems to give opposing offensive lines trouble with his quickness. He doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but he gives 100% every play.
Brandon – Nick Bosa. Just like Holmes, Bosa had a great game without a lot of stats to show it. He caused a bunch of pressure and was in or around several tackles. For the game, he wound up with two tackles, one sack, and one tackle-for-loss.
Jeremy – I’ll go with Nick Bosa. His sack, his disruption on plays made differences. He’s still a freshman and we seen moments last night where it showed. But you cannot deny his potential to be better than big brother
Ryan – Marshon Lattimore. His play is improving each week. He got in on a couple cornerback blitzes, and has definitely shown improvement from game 1 to now.
Jim – I’m a Robert Landers Fan. very disruptive
Chris – Marshon Lattimore. You tend to not hear much about corners unless they do something amazing or something awful. Couple of pass break-ups, decent amount of tackles, and played coverage pretty well.
Brad TBU – Tyquan Lewis & THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL COLLAR TACKLE.
Nick Bosa wins it in a nailbiter
Odds and Ends
tOSU Special Teams MVP
Scott – Ha ha.
Ben v. – Cam Johnston by default, even though the blocked punt was all on him. I knew that sooner or later his lackadaisical kicking style would end up blocked, and sure enough it happened Saturday. He is deadly on most of his punts, but needs to get them off a touch faster.
Brandon – No one. The special teams was an absolute mess. Seriously, not one part of special teams was good last night and each had issues at times. The blocked kicks were obvious issues but there were so many more. Dontre Wilson at punt returner was a complete frazzled mess all night…and has been the last two weeks. Damon Webb picking up the blocked field goal was a complete bonehead play and cost the Buckeyes about 30 yards. Parris Campbell, who I absolutely think the world about, had a drop on a kick return at the goal line which caused the Buckeyes to start with horrible field position. Heck, I thought even Cameron Johnston struggled for him but I think the wind had a lot to do with that. Everyone of these players are very good and have played great…last night they just all happened to struggle at the same time.
Jeremy – I never ever thought I’d see a blocked punt and blocked FG from this team in same game. Add a missed PAT and that sums up our special team woes. We weren’t even killers on kickoff coverage. I’m baffled by this units play
Ryan – Nobody. Special teams killed us. Blocked punt, block field goal (that was forced and shouldn’t have been attempted without a timeout in the first place, but this isn’t the area for me to vent so I’ll stop.) , allowing their returners to get decent yardage each time after kickoffs. Special teams needs work. Wind and rain can account for some, but not all of the mistakes last night.
Jim – Well, at least we didn’t snap the ball over anyones head.
Chris – Liam McCullough. I’m not even going to tell you who he is or what he does. He had a good night, trust me.
Brad TBU – Special Teams were in a word abysmal. I’m going to disagree with Webb trying to advance the blocked kick. IT WAS A LIVE BALL, he advanced to better field position. The block below the waist is what cause the loss of yardage.
Since it’s unanimous I pick regular fan Jim’s pick, the only thing that did not go wrong on special teams!
tOSU Needs Improvement
Scott – what doesn’t? Offensive line was a sieve. Execution was poor. Special teams sucked.
Ben v. – Everything needs improvement after a loss. Coaching, Offensive game plans, the defense looked bad at times, and special teams. Our secondary looked lost on a couple of floaters that ended up as long completions. There needs to be a fire lit under the team this week as there is still a lot to play for.
Brandon – Offense. I’m not even sure where to start with this one. I sound like a broken record but the wide receiver rotation needs to be fixed. While everyone was so upset about the pass interference non-call, I want to know why Noah Brown was not in at all on that final drive. Sure, Meyer said the rotation isn’t affecting anything but he said the same thing last year with the QB debacle. The fact is, quarterbacks and wide receivers do need repetitions together. I’m tired of hearing about keeping people fresh. I’ll take a playmaker at 90% over a non-playmaker at 100%. The second major flaw is the sudden inability for the staff to figure out how to work Weber and Samuel into a game plan. This is three weeks now where they just seem completely baffled on what to do with these guys. Which is really strange because they had no problem doing it in the early part of the season. You would think it would be the other way around.
Jeremy – ok this offense is a train wreck last night. Our OL inspires no confidence. Our wrs outside of Brown have been disappointing. I understand speed is a great thing but what good is speed if you drop passes or can’t use that speed for separation? I continue to be perplexed at game plan of forgetting key components. How can you forget to use Curtis Samuel???
The biggest need for improvement is with coaches. How can you in the conditions last night think it’s even wise to try to rush a FG attempt on Durbins longest try ever? Why aren’t we seeing improvement along the OL as the season goes? Rather it’s getting worse. And don’t think for a minute those idiots up north aren’t salivating at the mouth to see this OL.
Ryan – First, the offense. The wide receivers not creating separation, not catching easy passes, not fighting for the 50/50 ball.
The offensive line was just that “offensive”. Penn State was only rushing 4 and they were still getting pressure. JT had to step up every single play to be able to attempt to make something out of nothing happen.
Second, the coaching and play calling was horrendous. Where was Samuel all night? Why did he have so few touches? Why was Weber lined up as a third receiver when he should’ve stayed home to help block the struggling offensive line? Why let the field goal unit rush onto the field to attempt a long field goal with the play clock running out and not call a timeout?
Third, the defense left me scratching my head. We allowed to make multiple BIG pass plays down the field. Whether it was blown coverage, missed assignments, or failure to adjust to the ball, it was a glaringly obvious occurrence last night.
Jim – game management PERIOD! If we have linemen that are on roller skates, or there is timing problems in pass routes. Then spot-pass patterns. They need to prove to prove that they can pop the top of the middle deep patterns, yes I did see some mistakes in pass patterns where the receiver didn’t clear out to allow the underneath to go to the open area. (Didn’t we recruit young receivers?)
Chris – Ohio State may have a *GASP* coaching problem. A lot of what I see going wrong on offense, comes down to coaching. WRs, OL, use of RBs, CBs on protection breakdowns, etc… all look like coaching to me. Is Urban the problem? Doubtful… I think it more falls on the position coaches and the coordinators.
Brad TBU – We can sit here & point fingers and blame the coaching staff but in the end it always execution & players did not execute. Even though JT had a Statistically good game he missed on some & was off on some passes either under throwing or throwing the deep ball late. For the second week in a row and this now falls on Urban can you please get rid of that damn option play, It doesn’t work Samuel & Weber both have lost yards.
Why don’t we just roll with everything? I will defer to regular fan Brad’s point.
tOSU Next Big Star
Scott – Joe Burrow. If the OL doesn’t improve, Barrett will get hurt and the next man up will shine.
Ben v. – Bosa again this week, he shows flashes of being better than big brother Joey, and for opposing offenses that should be scary.
Brandon – Nick Bosa. I think he is going to be very special for the Buckeyes. His versatility is amazing and he continues to dominate whether he is at DE or DT.
Jeremy – Marcus Baugh. I just hope last night is just the beginning of seeing him used. He can be a matchup nightmare. He can open up things for others downfield. Using him can only help this team sustain drives and move the ball into the end zone
Ryan – Mike Weber. He fought for every single yard he ran for. He held the ball high and tight to prevent the claws of the defense from ripping it out. His blocking is improving weekly, as well.
Jim – If we are relying on the ground game, then let Weber Loose. By the way, where is Demario McCall? TOSU Has speed and receivers, Unleash them.
Chris – Have to use Marcus Baugh more. That touchdown he had was a thing of beauty. If he is used as a receiver and not only as a blocker, he can be a stud.
I see a toss-up offense is Baugh, defense is Bosa
TB1G Coach of the Week
Scott – James Franklin.
Ben v. – Mike Riley. He keeps the Cornhuskers rolling and undefeated into their showdown game against Wisconsin this weekend. If he comes out of that unscathed he gets the Buckeyes in two weeks. If he beats them, it is likely undefeated into the Big Ten Championship. Whoda thunk it?
Brandon – Darrell Hazell. I’m giving a shout out here. Look, Hazell should have been fired after last season…he wasn’t. This season, we all knew he would be fired when the season was over. He knew, his team knew, the media knew…it wasn’t a secret. Anyone looking at their schedule in the preseason would have guessed the Boilermakers would finish the season 1-11. If they were lucky, they’d win two games. With all of the distraction, Hazell still had the Boilermakers start the season winning three of their first six games. It made no sense to fire him mid-season. He had already won more games than they should have expected. Let him finish the season and then fire him after the season and bring in whatever lame-duck coach you can hire to put out the illusion that Purdue cares about football without actually wanting to do good. I honestly think the Boilermakers were afraid of Hazell sneaking out one or two more wins this season and them being pressured to keep him after showing some improvement. The timing just made no sense at all.
Jeremy – Shoot me now.. Jim Harbaugh. Again he has his team steam roll a pushover opponent and do so in impressive fashion. I can only pray to the football gods that Dantonio is my choice next week!
Ryan – Big 10 coach of the year, Kirk Ferentz. Leading his team to another loss, and now a record of 3-2 in conference play, and 5-3 overall. These stellar numbers should clinch the award for him again this year, and another contract extension.
Jim – I will never admit this if asked, Harbaugh is aggressive, don’t care what you think about me and his team (good or bad) Slaps their opponents around and sends them home crying.
Chris – I saw a lot of talk last night about James Franklin out-coaching Urban. I don’t buy that for a second. The game was won on fluky plays and heart. James Franklin had NOTHING to do with that. You don’t get Coach of the Week for running around yelling ‘LET’S GO!” at your players and waving your arms to get the crowd pumped up. Besides, sometimes teams just lose games. Anyway… I’m going with Fitzgerald. Northwestern is looking pretty good right now and I think they may be trouble for a few teams.
Brad TBU – Booger err Harbaugh he’s got the whole Ann Arbor Cult believing this is their year. Which should make the fall all that much sweeter on November 26th.
Think I just threw up in my mouth a little here, but hairball gets it
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