The Buckeyes remain undefeated and are now the #4 team in the country (more on that later). Here are some observations from Saturday night's 30-7 victory over Minnesota.

Offense/Special Teams: The Buckeye offense got off to a fast start, with Chris Wells scoring twice in the first quarter to give the Bucks a 14-0 lead. Wells has really gotten his game together after a slow start. The line is opening holes and he is hitting them with authority. Every game this year he has run over or stiff-armed a defender to his back at least once.

{mosimage}It is premature to call him a Heisman contender, but if OSU can run the table in the regular season and he continues to put up 100+ yards a game and be effective in the red zone, he'll slowly work his way into the discussion. At the very least, he looks like an excellent candidate to be an early favorite for the award next season. Junior wide receiver Brian Robiskie had another excellent outing, finishing with 99 yards on five catches and a touchdown. His touchdown was a beautiful thing to watch as he hauled in the 52-yard Boeckman bomb with one hand as the Minnesota defender hit the deck. Robiskie continues to fly under the radar, but he has tremendous skill and has become the go-to target on intermediate and deep routes. Robiskie is 8th in the nation in receiving yards (530) and tied for 5th in touchdowns (6).

Everybody was bemoaning the losses of Ted Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez, but Robiskie and the sure-handed Brian Hartline have been quite a receiving duo, and they don't exactly have Troy Smith throwing to them. Looking at the numbers, Robiskie is on pace to outgain and outscore each of those two first round receivers with ease.Ray Small took over on punt returns, and I like the move a lot. Small didn't call for one fair catch, which could be a problem if he gets crushed and fumbles in a big game, but he makes the first defender miss every time. He reminds me a bit of Ted Ginn as a freshman because he'll make one lateral move and then explode through whatever seam is there. I wouldn't be surprised to see Small break one against Purdue next week.

Defense: Another strong defensive performance anchored the Buckeye victory. James Laurinaitis led the D with another excellent performance. In addition to Laurinaitis making tackles all over the field, Marcus Freeman looked very good this week. I have called him "No Wrap" Freeman in the past, but he made me look silly Saturday. Freeman made several good defensive plays and wrapped up the ball-carrier every time he had the chance. If he continues to improve his tackling, he can be a star. When JEH told me a few weeks back that Donald Washington graded out well against the Washington Huskies, I was surprised. He didn't look very impressive at all, and every pass Jake Locker completed seemed to be to his side of the field. Of course, not all of those were man coverages, so he can't be to blame for all of those completions. After taking another look at Washington this week, I again came to the conclusion that he is the focal point of the opposing passing game. Malcolm Jenkins is an All America quality corner, so I can't blame teams for going after Washington instead. Still, it seemed that he was giving an exorbitant cushion to the outmatched Minnesota wide receivers. Hopefully his play will improve this week as Purdue's high-powered passing attack awaits. Both of Malcolm Jenkins' interceptions this year have come as a safety rolling over the top. I like the coaching staff mixing it up and getting their best secondary player in space and allowing him to make plays. Nobody wants to throw at him in man coverage, so why not throw him in at safety from time to time and let him be a ball hawk?A hot topic in college football this week is the rankings.

With five of the top ten teams in the nation falling, including the supposedly invincible Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners, the college football world is in disarray. The Buckeyes moved up four spots to #4, followed by Wisconsin at #5 and USF at #6. If this seems like the Twilight Zone to you, you are not alone. I've heard people say that OSU is the #4 team in the country by default, but I don't think that argument holds any water. Why is it their fault that they have won the games they were supposed to win, and gotten better every week? They are ranked right where they should be according to their record and quality of play. Then again, nobody knows anything about college football right now because everybody who thinks they do has been proven wrong so far. Every week there is at least one so-called "elite" team falling at the hands of a lesser one. The Bucks are justified in their #4 ranking, but they will have to play their best to win at #23 Purdue this weekend. If they don't bring their A game, then another top 5 team will fall. The again, would that surprise anybody? At this point, I don’t think anything would.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (6)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

JEH45 said:

Onearmed: I thought the Bucks played a pretty vanilla game last saturday. I don't believe they showed much. Can't believe Coach put a fake punt out there for opponents to prepare for. i wonder when, or if we will ever see that again. I still think there is a Mo Wells package that wasn't shown. Remember re Small, this is his fall camp. Loved seeing him contribute to the offense. Hopefully that will continue. I believe spreading the field should help the running game alot. Isn't it great. Bite on the play fake and we have 3 legit deep threats. Safeties stay back and we hand the ball to Beanie. Didn't look for a statistical breakdown, but thought we made a conscious effort to involve the tight ends into the passing attack. Continued offensive development. more pieces-gotta love it. Defensively, I also thought we played vanilla. I have been down on Freeman. The last two weeks he was good and last Saturday he looked real good. I understand he was defensive player of the game. I would love to eat crow re Freeman. Rose does not look like he is getting it done at DE. Gibson certainly looked to be a part of the plan last Saturday. Hopefully he will develop, learn the game and apply some pressure around the corner. I hate playing the spread dink and dunk teams and we sure saw our fill of that last weekend. Seeing we held the gopher offense well below where they are used to being, we must have done a good job. I see Andre Amos is practicing full go, and is in the 2 deep right now. If and when he is ready we have additional options in the defensive backfield. Your man Washington now has a baller behind him. Does Chekwa(sp) continue to play? What a problem! #4 ranking? If you aren't going to put the Bucks there, then who the hell deserves to be there? Immediate problem-For those of you who do not know, UCLA/ND are also on ABC when we are playing Purdue. The ABC coverage map is not out yet, but from what I understand many of us may have an unexpected problem Saturday night watching our game. Be prepared to be pissed. I believe the one day cost for gameplan is $21.95. GO Bucks!

report abuse vote down vote up

October 02, 2007
Votes: +0

Nick Petrello said:

If the game isn't on, somebody is going to die. Keep me posted on the coverage map. Worst case scenario is having to watch the game at a bar, but since it's a Saturday night I think I'll be able to deal. I agree on Robert Rose. He was so effective in spot duty last year, but he hasn't been doing much as a pass rusher now that he's a starter. He may just not be ready to be an every down kind of player. We could really use that threat on the opposite side of Gholston, especially against spread attacks where getting pressure with the front four is paramount.

report abuse vote down vote up

October 02, 2007
Votes: +0

Lloyds Apple said:

The Donald Washington issues goes back to the days of Dustin Fox and maybe further. OSU's DB's under Tressel, it seems, wait for the QB to screw up. This works out well when Will Smith is rushing the passer and is doing well this year too. It also works out when they can tackle. Notre Dame getting coverage in Ohio over Ohio State is crazy. UCLA should get the West Coast and that should basically be it. But, look around at DeathRattle and you'll see we are Notre Dame obsessed.

report abuse vote down vote up

October 02, 2007
Votes: +0

JEH45 said:

Hey, we aren't obsessed with Notre Dame. They deserve it and you can't tell me charlie Weis doen't deserve it. Again, there are TV listings all around the country, including in Big Ten country, and in Ohio that are listing the UCLA/ND game. Now I am positive that will change, but here in South Florida I am nervous about what the TV Gods will decide. Nick, my problem with doing the bar thing on a Sat. night- the women probably won't leave me alone.

report abuse vote down vote up

October 03, 2007
Votes: +0

JEH45 said:

	I have just read that if the OSU/Purdue game is not on your ABC channel it will be on ESPN or ESPN2-per the Big Ten.
	report abuse vote down vote up

October 03, 2007
Votes: +0

Lloyds Apple said:

	It appears we will all get the game: http://i66.photobucket.com/alb...1191437662
	report abuse vote down vote up

October 04, 2007
Votes: +0

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment