Thoughts from the Shoe

Since I had the opportunity to attend the game in the Horseshoe today, I wasn’t able to do my usual recap. Because of that, I instead took a series of notes and jotted down some thoughts from the game to share. Hopefully I can provide some insight that wasn’t obvious from the television broadcast.

Also, I want to thank Joe D for covering me so ably on the recap this week. Without him, I might not have even been able to make the game!

Pregame

• Let me tell you, the back 4 rows of B deck in the ‘Shoe are half as wide as nearly every other row of the stadium. It’s pretty tough to squeeze in back there, particularly if you’re near 6 feet or taller.
• Despite being 50/50 for the game, Corey “Philly” Brown came out in his jersey and warmup sweats with no pads. Apparently the injury is still worrying the coaching staff.
• If anyone from the University reads this article, I hope they take away this one point. OSU has this new “Zero Waste” initiative for the stadium, attempting to make something like 90% of all of their waste either recyclable or biodegradable. While this is great, the ad they used during the pregame show will be a disaster if they run it again. At the end of the ad, the guy over the loudspeaker says “GO GREEN!” as loud as he can. For those who know something about Big Ten cheers, Michigan State’s version of “OH – IO” is “Go Green! Go White!”. I can see all of the Michigan State fans going ballistic about our stadium announcer saying “Go Green” before the game, and getting to yell “Go White!” back.
  For the love of all that is holy, do NOT run that before the MSU game!! If they do, I hope you students figure out something pithy to say afterwards to cover up the obvious “Go White”.

Defense

• The defensive line got great pressure all game on 3rd and long situations. While they didn’t net many sacks, they were making life difficult for Hanson, particularly by drilling him moments after the pass was released.
• I’m impressed by the number of fumbles the defense forced, or nearly forced in this game. That’s a great sign of good tackling and good backfield pressure.
• The interception numbers were a little disappointing, but not terribly surprising considering Hanson’s experience. The defense was flying around, though, and should have been capable of jumping at least one of Colorado’s passing routes.
• The defense seems to have an issue of over-pursuing plays this year and giving up bigger plays than they should. I saw at least four instances where the first defender on the scene ran past the ball carrier and took themselves out of the play. This occasionally bit the second defender as well. It’s something to keep an eye on as we get into Big Ten play.
• On the near touchdown reception that Howard broke up in the right corner of the south endzone (while we were up 17-0), Howard did not turn to look for the football, and seemed slightly out of position on the coverage. He did, though, make a great play to cause the incompletion.
• In general, the first team defensive coverage was good, but it would often breakdown as Hanson scrambled. While this is normal for a defensive secondary, it’s a concern that Hanson could get out of the pocket and direct traffic a little on occasion. He was particularly able to do this on their first touchdown reception.
• The first thing we’ve heard of Tyler Moeller all season long – and it’s a 15 yard facemask penalty. I’m beginning to wonder what’s going on with him.
• While people have generally been worried about Travis Howard in the last couple games, he did a fantastic job reading and destroying one of the few screen passes Colorado tried to throw. He, and another defender I didn’t manage to identify, were all over it. It’s nice to finally see that after getting torched on the screens by Toledo.
• While Hanson is a 4th year Senior, and is more than capable of making the throw, it’s a tad concerning that he was able to go over the middle into the center of our zone coverage repeatedly. In fact, that was the only throw that was regularly available to Colorado all game, and we just couldn’t seem to stop it. Good QB’s will make that happen, but it was still way too easy for them.

Offense

• On the first drive, the Offensive line looked horribly out of sync. I’m not sure if they were having a bit of nerves, or responding to the nerves of Braxton Miller’s first ever start, or even if Colorado just had a good early gameplan dialed up. Whatever it was, the fans were obviously not thrilled.
• Braxton Miller had a nice, but tough, option keeper for the first first down of the game. The crowd gave a big, mostly sarcastic, applause. It was the first sign of good things for the day, but at the time, the fans were still a little uneasy.
• We used nothing but runs, and I don’t even believed we called a pass, in the second drive of the game. It worked beautifully, and Jordan Hall punched in the first touchdown of the game. The crowd felt like the offense had finally gotten out of their own way.
• The offensive line looked a lot better on the second drive, and as a whole the offense seemed to start gelling there.
• There wasn’t a defender within 10 yards of Reid Fragel on Miller’s first passing attempt. Unfortunately, Miller pulled the pass too low and got it tipped. Fragel was the only open receiver on the play, and probably would have punched it in if Miller could have gotten it to him.
• Not long after his missed attempt with Fragel, Miller missed another one to Devin Smith in the left side of the South Endzone. Miller’s pass was dead on the money where it needed to be to a player that was in single coverage. Smith tried to make the play happen, but the CU defender made it too difficult. Smith will probably make that play next year, or even later this season, but Miller definitely put it where it needed to be.
• In fact, in general, Miller’s passes were exactly where they needed to be all game long. Other than the first pass to Fragel, and a later underthrown pass in the second quarter, I thought Miller was picture perfect throwing the football. There were simply way too many drops by the receivers.
• Drew Basil hit his first two field goals in Ohio Stadium in his career! Hurrah! The 47 yarder near the end of the game was a thing of beauty. Who would have thought that he could do that after his atrocious misses in the first couple games?
• There was one very interesting formation where we put Jordan Hall in as a slot receiver, and Jamaal Berry in the backfield with Braxton Miller in the Shotgun. For the life of me, I don’t understand why we handed the ball to Berry for a 1 yard gain up the middle. Are we trying to give future teams something to think about?
• A couple of times that Miller tucked the ball and ran it, I felt that he made particularly good decisions. On 3rd and 9 in particular, even though Zach Boren came open moments before Braxton tucked the ball, I was happy to see Braxton trust his feet to get the first down.
• The first pass completion of the game came at the 9:30 mark of the 2nd quarter as Miller hit Reid Fragel for a first down. The crowd went absolutely wild.
• Not surprisingly, this offense seems to prefer two basic sets: The I-form, and Shotgun. We did not run a single ace set like we often used to with Beanie Wells and Boom Herron. My bet is that we desperately want Zach Boren out there blocking as often as we can.
• Stoneburner seems to struggle with the crossing routes over the short middle. He missed another pass exactly like that 4th down miss against Toledo.
• Devin Smith caught both touchdown passes in the game. The first was single coverage that completely failed when the defender either slipped, or totally lost track of the football. Smith found himself wide open and the ball simply dropped into his waiting arms. The fans completely exploded when he hauled that pass in, as if world peace was suddenly achieved.
• The resulting excessive celebration penalty was fine. I’ll give the kids that, if only because they needed to celebrate after the tough game last week.
• On a couple of Braxton Miller scrambles, Verlon Reed was in perfect position to block for him, but seemed a little shy or uncertain about the contact. On one in particular, Braxton may have been able to truck the ball 50 yards into the endzone if Reed had laid the wood on his man. This is something else the receivers may need to work on.
• Despite having a great arm, and good aim, Miller does seem to occasionally hold on to the ball too long. Late in the first half, he took a needless sack because he wasn’t willing to take a shot into single coverage.
• Who ever saw us calling Jordan Hall in the wildcat in this game? We went to it twice, with the first netting us 20 yards on third down. More? Yes, please!
• On Carlos Hyde’s touchdown run, he showed fantastic vision to bounce the ball outside and attack the corner of the endzone. That’s exactly how they teach you to run that play. Hyde is showing huge growth in his ability to read and attack the gaps in the defense.
• The O-Line’s pass blocking didn’t look nearly as good this week as it did last week. That could be a function of Braxton not throwing the ball away like Bauserman was doing against Miami, though.
• Baus and Devin Smith did play some nice pitch and catch on the last drive of the game.
• Is the success that Baus had late in the game indicative of how bad Colorado might actually be?
• The backup O-Line managed to see some time in the game with Bauserman, and looked reasonably good, though I would have liked to have seen some of these guys a little earlier in the game.

Special Teams

• Both Nate Ebner and Zach Domicone looked great tackling today, particularly on special teams.
• In fact, Nate Ebner is a freaking missile on kick coverage. He is always the fastest defender down the field, and often makes his blocker miss. He’s a freaking monster, and may very well cause returners nightmares in the near future.
• Ryan Shazier picked up a fantastic open field tackle on special teams. He’s making a name for himself in the special team’s units this year.
• There was one very bizarre punt return formation that we only went to once. While Jordan Hall was constantly back as the sole returner, we ran one where Chris Fields was 20 yards to Hall’s right, and 10 yards ahead. It wasn’t exactly a two returner set, as that usually has the two players around 10 yards apart at about the same yardline. One possibility is that Fields was out there as a safety after a previous punt had nearly been recovered after bouncing into Bradley Roby.
• As a return man, Jordan Hall has absolutely spectacular field vision. He’s totally electrifying every time he touches the ball. It’s only a matter of time before he houses one. On the one he nearly scored on, the only reason he didn’t was because he got so winded that he was forced to slow down, allowing the coverage unit to catch up.
• Verlon Reed is on the hands team for a reason. He did a great job to get up and grab the ball and not even let Colorado have a chance at it.

Colorado

• On defense, Colorado was often running 8 in the box for the majority of the game, but the offense seemed to struggle early on while trying to beat it with the playaction pass. Miller’s ability to scramble was saving drives with the receivers having trouble getting open.
• Rodney Stewart (CU’s runningback) had a very questionable day, particularly for a Senior, and big playmaker for the team. He fair-caught a punt at the 5, bobbled another that became a turnover, and generally disappeared on offense for the entire first half. Colorado eventually got him going in the second, but it was too little, too late.
• The first Colorado first down came with 6:30 left in the first half. They were able to score on that drive, but the OSU defense did a great job of stopping CU early on and giving the offense a chance to take control.
• Jon Embree is a ballsy coach, and is, in my humble opinion, the right answer for this Colorado team. Going for it on 4th and 1 from the OSU 11 while down 17-0 was the right move, and it paid off with a touchdown.
• One of Rodney Stewart’s best runs of the day, and in fact his longest of the season at 27 yards, was mostly due to arm tackling.
• I already mentioned this, but Colorado had no problems carving up our zone like a christmas turkey. A lot of the credit for that has to go to Tyler Hanson, who is a very good quarterback. It’s really too bad he doesn’t have more weapons around him, or this CU team would be very dangerous.

Coaching

• What was Fickell thinking with 6 seconds left in the half? His offense, which is particularly good at running the football, is on the one yardline with a 10 point lead in the game. Fickell decides to kick a field goal instead of trying to truck the ball in from a yard out.
  On further review, I can see the logic. If you fail to get the touchdown, the clock runs out and you send Colorado into the locker room with a lot of excitement and momentum. Not to mention, Colorado received the ball at the start of the second half. However, at the time, it appeared like a poor decision.
• It was a good decision by Fickell to decline the holding penalty and take 2nd and 14 instead of 1st and 20 on the Buffaloes’ 5 yard line. Even though Colorado managed to move the ball and score on the drive, it was still the right choice.
• Stoney just doesn’t seem to be seeing the field very much at all. Is it possible that the coaches are taking him away from the quarterbacks to try to force them to look for other receivers and not constantly target #11? Or is this to keep the defense from targeting him in the secondary? It could also be because Stoneburner isn’t as good of a blocker on the line as Reid Fragel is. It’s hard to know for certain, but Stoney just does not get to play much at all, and it’s a mystery.
• Later in the game, we ran Carlos Hyde up the middle on fourth and 1 for the first down. Going back to the earlier discussion, why didn’t we do that at the end of the first half going into the endzone?
• I liked us playing Braxton Miller late in the game and trying to throw the football. It was great practice for the upcoming game with MSU, and gave him more passing experience in game time.
• I was not thrilled, though, with us putting Bauserman in for the last drive. I don’t care if he is our backup and we need to rebuild his confidence. Getting Miller and his receivers more comfortable is more critical at this juncture.