reddogrjw

October 15th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^

Still, this was a performance that now has people talking about Michigan and the Playoffs, and not in a “Ha Ha” sort of way.

You know, kind of how they used to talk about Penn State and Wisconsin.

Harbaugh's Lef…

October 15th, 2018 at 9:01 PM ^

I always look forward to Michigan Monday. These two parts are a little telling from the other side:

And it also means that Ohio State doesn’t match up very well with Michigan right now.

&

The only difference this time is that the Buckeyes have more ground to make up than Michigan for a change.

DrMantisToboggan

October 15th, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^

Watch the play: Gentry is on the line, in the slot to the side of the Evans screen. He runs out to stalk block, but slips past the OLB, Van Ginkel, who was in coverage in him, to go stalk the corner on the outside who was playing way off. He purposely let's his man get by him to go block a guy further downfield, because they want the deep DBs to read screen and jump up.

If they have another trick off of this, and it's not just something they're putting on film to fuck with teams, I'd bet anything that Gentry runs a bit of a block-to-wheel and McCaffrey throws it back to him in the opposite corner of the endzone.

I don't really trust that they're going to do anything further with this because A) a real screen to McCaffrey is unnecessarily dangerous for your backup QB, and B) that throwback to Gentry would be across a lot of field. That's a guaranteed INT if it's read correctly.

evenyoubrutus

October 15th, 2018 at 9:11 PM ^

Lemme get this straight. Our coach, who:

Turned San Diego into a D2 power

Took a 1-11 Stanford team (Pac 10 version of Indiana) and made them 12-1 in 4 years, turning them into a Pac 12 powerhouse

Made his QB into a first overall pick

Was the hottest coaching candidate on the market in 2010

Won an NFC championship 

Took the 49ers, who hadn't had a winning season since Will Smith's testicles descended, to three straight playoff appearances

Rejuvenated Alex Smith's career

Made Kaepernick a viable NFL commodity 

Was the hottest coaching candidate in NFL and college in 2014

Has made Michigan into a playoff contender? Who could've seen that coming.

DrMantisToboggan

October 15th, 2018 at 9:26 PM ^

I am getting the sense that Buckeyes currently have an underlying dread that 1) their defense looks (relatively) horrible, Bosa isn't coming back, and it's only a matter of time before playing poorly costs them a game, and 2) the best team on their schedule is Michigan, and if they don't lose by The Game, they're going to be more nervous for that one than they've been in years.

Also, something quirky I saw today: Bill C has updated the stats profiles, and our percentile performance for Wisconsin was 90%, but our offensive and defensive percentiles were 51% and 68%...wut. This means that the Wisconsin game was our 4th best overall performance (behind WMU, Nebraska, Notre Dame), but that it was our second-worst offensive performance (behind Notre Dame) and our worst defensive performance.

Did we just beat Wisconsin by 25 and actually not play very well in doing so?

DrMantisToboggan

October 15th, 2018 at 9:32 PM ^

At least 44, for sure. It's just a little quirky - nobody really had a bad game from looking at the box score, but we definitely left some things on the board. Even Shea, who didn't have a great game, was mostly fine save for the two bad sacks he took. On defense, we couldn't really stop Taylor, but they kind of inexplicably stopped going to him, so we didn't need to.

DrMantisToboggan

October 15th, 2018 at 10:28 PM ^

Depending on your definition of a game, I don't think there's anyone left on OSU's schedule that can't give them a game. Their defense is not top 40 in S&P, and gives up so many big plays. Minnesota was in a great upset position for a while, and every offense left on the schedule has a better offense than Minnesota - who are they going to pull away from?

Ali G Bomaye

October 16th, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^

Jonathan Taylor averaged 5.9 ypc, but only got 17 carries, and as has been covered, they went away from him on every third-and-short.

If Wisconsin runs him 30 times, converts its short-yardage situations, and doesn't run over Cheeseman on that punt, we might be talking about a one-score game in the fourth quarter. And if that's the case, we might not have gotten the pick-six or McCaffrey's TD run.

Heywood_Jablome

October 15th, 2018 at 10:37 PM ^

OSU fans are concerned with Purdue. Has nothing to do with us. 

That said, they are banged up and will start to get more guys back at full strength as the season goes on.

OSU has tons of talent and they will be fine. And until Michigan they can prove they can play a complete game on the road, I think it's laughable for people to feel "confident" for that game. We haven't won a game there in nearly 20 years. Going on the road and winning in a hostile environment is one of the hardest things to do in college football.

mGrowOld

October 15th, 2018 at 9:52 PM ^

I had us at 9-3 with losses to ND, either MSU or PSU and then OSU.  If the team that played this past Saturday shows up this coming Saturday and beats State (and i think they will) then I think you're right.

Still a wee bit nervous though that we have not played well on the road yet.  Dont forget we were down 17-0 to a crappy Northwestern team before we woke up and pulled the game out.  Start real slow again against MSU and i dont think the outcome will be the same.

Very, very critical game this weekend for a LOT of reasons.