OSU - MSU - Game Thoughts...and Rants

Well...they exorcised the demons of past OSU #1's against MSU. The 1998 "Black Saturday" has been replaced with the 2006 "Lansing Beatdown."

I really believed that MSU had already packed it in for the year, but you just never know with Sparty...you never know...

The game was pretty much over after Chris Wells' mother$#cking fumble was not converted into points. So here we go...

OSU Offense

• Troy Smith - Heisman (Earned and By Default). Peterson is done for the year. Quinn had a good week (by "good week" I mean that he didnt play and increase fumble and interception stats against a service academy). Wolfe decided to lay an egg against another MAC school, which was a terrible idea. Both of Troy's TDs were great...great...great throws and displays of fine quarterbacking. Stepping up in the pocket, breaking tackles, and making throws that just dont look like they should have a chance to be completed are turning into descriptions of a lot of Troy Smith's TD passes. I dont see a secondary out there that has the ability to stop him...and we are talking about UM as well.
• Pittman. Tough game for the Pitt. He had 48 yards on 18 carries, and dinged up one of his ankles early in the game. While he didnt have the yards, Pittman still made some tough runs and kept the MSU defense honest.
• C. Wells. Hold onto the damn ball. I dont care about anything else that he did in the game.
• Maurice Wells. I hope that we never recruit a player like Maurice again. This is not to discredit Maurice, as he is a great player, but OSU doesnt use him outside the tackles, which makes me sad. We should have let him go to Georgia Tech where he would have been used appropriately.
• Ginn. Finally, another punt return for a touchdown. 3 receptions for 58 yards...ho hum..wait until teams start keying in on Gonzalez
• Gonzalez. Looking forward to seeing Leon Hall try and cover this guy, because they wont put Hall on Ginn...well...at least if they dont want Gonzalez to put a repeat from the Texas game on the Wolverines.
• Robiskie. The best 3rd Wide Receiver in the Big Ten. He would probably be a #1 or #2 on most of the teams in the conference. Prototypical WR that OSU has not had on its roster, since Michael Jenkins.
• O-Line = Incomplete. MSU didnt put a lot pressure on the OSU backfield. I think that this has a lot to do with MSU not being good...

OSU Defense

• D-Line. The D-Line looked good and didnt really miss a step with Joel Penton stepping in for the injured David Patterson. Pitcock should be an All-American this year, and it would be a crime if he didnt end up with a buckeye tree in the grove at the end of this year.
• Linebackers. Another solid game for Laurinitis, but with no interceptions (Slacker). Freeman is starting to look very comfortable, and his ability to read and react to the MSU screen play was huge, as it led to a momentum changing interception (I know...MSU didnt have any momentum, but just for argument's sake). Curtis Terry also had a big stick near the goal line, which was nice.
• Secondary. Jenkins was all over the place. You kind of get the feeling that the OSU secondary is lying in wait for 11/18, but there are still a couple of decent challenges for the youngsters in the defensive backfield to get a little more experience before Chad "deer-in-headlights" Henne comes to Columbus for another "go-around."

MSU Offense

• Bright point of the day = Brian Hoyer got some snaps for the Spartans. He will take over for Stanton next year, and should be a good one.
• You gotta feel bad for Stanton. He took beatings from the likes of Pitcock chasing him around the field to a stationary water cooler on the OSU sideline.

MSU Defense

• Incomplete. They are not playing defense in East Lansing this year...check back next year.

It was a good day to be a Buckeye, and it sounded like Spartan Stadium was really Ohio Stadium North...even on TV.

In other big news of the day...

• Auburn-Florida was entertaining. Chris Leak sounds like he is a great practice player until someone wants to tackle him..then everything changes.
• Penn State - Michigan = The Michigan defense was pretty damn good, but PSU still made a game of it. I dont care how good UM's defense is this year. If UM plays that same type of game against OSU in November, OSU wins by two touchdowns...maybe three. The UM D-Line is good, but using PSU to compare the teams is not a good idea. UM will see a complete team on November 18th...not the patsies that they have been building up their stats against over the last seven weeks.
• Vanderbilt - Georgia = Georgia is bad. I dont care what the governor says. Good for Vandy. They have a good young QB and WR in Nashville and hopefully they can pull out a couple more wins this year.
• The SEC is still overrated as a conference. ..and the Big-10 isnt much better...Iowa losing to Indiana...geesh...
• USC is just a normal college football team. With each passing game, the aura of invincibility is leaving the USC program. Sure, they are still winning, but it is not coming as easy as last year against a standard mediocre Pac-10.