The good and the bad (vs. aO$U)

[charlespig]

The good:

1. Tyler Trent. The kid epitomizes what it means to be a Boilermaker - fights until there is no fight. And the team just takes on his fight. Heck, even I was inspired and went for a run today, and when I got tired I just thought about Tyler and sucked it up.
2. Rondale Moore. This kid is just special, and I am not talking about just 170 yd receiving and 2 TD. Those are special of course, but just how cool and calm the kid is. First it's his poise. After uncharacteristically dropping a key pass on 3rd down that could have made it first-and-goal, the very next time he got a chance he was money for a TD. Also, after the game when students were storming the field, he just had that look that you couldn't tell whether we won or lost the game. The only other person I remember as calm as that after a HUGE win is ... Brad Stevens.
3. Running to ice the game. One of the issues against Neb/Ill was our inability to run the ball effectively to protect the lead. We became too conservative, disrupted the rhythm, and too predictable. But tonight, we were a lot more creative, with timely jet-sweep call, or designed QB run.
4. DJ Knox. 16 rushes, 128 yards, 3 TDs. Enough said.
5. Zico. From dropping passes after passes last year, he gradually becomes this year's Mahoungou and reliable catching the deep pass. The transformation is impressive.
6. Bailey. 15 tackles and a pick-6 INT to seal the game.
7. Red zone defense. That was probably the major difference when we were scoring TDs and they were either not scoring or getting only FGs. Special mention to Blackmon, who despite his height and being picked on, broke up a lot of those would-be TDs, along with his 8 tackles.
8. Schopper. Got ran into, got roughed, got knocked down on the fake punt run, got to punt from our own end zone. He was harassed all day, but the 1-rush, 4-yards will be remembered forever.
9. Coaching. Brohm and Meyer couldn't be more different. Brohm's first words after beating Nebraska was a shoutout to Tyler Trent, while Urban Meyer is a big time liar during the B1G Media Day. Brohm was already thinking ahead in the Illinois game throwing out all those trick plays, while Meyer was only responding "I haven't studied them yet." Brohm has that magic to pull everyone together and lift the energy up, whereas Meyer just looked tired and needed a break. Brohm was making all the right calls, like the fake punt, or running on 3rd-and-9 that when we were up 21-6 with 11:46 left. I think that run broke the Buckeye's spirit by making it a 3-possession game.
10. Fake punt. What a call, but so Brohm! He is aggressive, and has the balls to take calculated risk. Love his play to win attitude. If we must go down, you can bet we go down swinging.
11. David Blough. He is a rather "unspectacular" 378-yards and 3 TDs, despite completing only 58% of the passes due to aO$U pressure. But his decision-making was excellent, knowing when to throw away. A risky forced pass and a TO could easily be the momentum-turning point for the Buckeyes to win.
12. Officiating. We've had some REAL bad officiating this season (damn that Mizzou TD call!), but we need to give credit where credit is due. They correctly picked up two flags, and even explained why there was no foul (e.g. it wasn't facemask but just the shoulder pad).
13. Luck. Sometimes we needed that. aO$U had someone wide-open deep and Haskins just overthrew him b/c of the wind. DJ Knox's fumble took a fortituous bounce forward and out-of-bounds, and we were awarded the ball at a favorable spot for a 1st-down. On Zico's one-handed TD catch it looked like his toe was just a hair away from the line. We seem to be catching all the breaks. It's about time we get some good luck.
14. Light and firework.

The bad:

1. 3rd-down defense. I don't have the number as I lose count on how many times aO$U convert on 3rd-down. I think at one point I saw 9/17 or something like that.
2. 3rd-down offense. I also lost count but we weren't converting on 3rd. I think I saw 1/7 or 1/9.
3. D-line pressure. I just feel like we can't pass rush without our LBs or safety. Our D-line doesn't generate nearly enough pressure, which allows Haskins to scan the field and complete 3rd-and-long. This is especially obvious when Neal was injured and out of the game.
4. Penalties. How many 15-yard penalty we got? I'll forgive David Blough's late 15 b/c the game was decided, but I thought at one point there were back-to-back 15-yard call, and the one on Jones was inexcusable.

The ugly:

1. If our penalties is bad, aO$U's gotta be ugly. I thought Nebraska was very undisciplined, but aO$U was surprisingly almost the same. They had a roughing the kicker that extends our drive, and another roughing the passer too.