Buckeyes 45, Spartans 7

Well, after two weeks away, it was nice to come back to that. The Buckeyes team we saw in that game against the Spartans was barely recognizable...thank goodness.

The Good
Offense
The offense was tremendous. I mean, the Buckeyes scored 21 points in the first quarter. Woooo! Beanie and Terrelle were both awesome running the ball. Frankly, there just aren't enough O's in smooth to describe TP. When he runs the ball, it looks effortless. I thought Beanie's best run was his second TD. It was a giant hole, but the way he exploded into and through it was great. I'd say his foot has healed. And of course, a good running game starts with solid offensive line play. more importantly, the wide receivers showed up. Granted, Pryor only completed 7 passes, but those passes were completed to 4 different receivers. And the receiver with the most completions was the fullback, Brandon Smith. You read that right. Hartline's one reception was awesome. He stayed with the ball all the way and fought off 2 defenders to catch it.

Defense
Wow! Now, that is what I have expected from the defense. The defensive line was able to get some pressure on the QB. That is the first time all year I have seen Robert Rose make a play. Laurinaitis, Freeman, and Jenkins finally showed themselves to be leaders on the field this season. Seeing Laurinaitis and Freeman meet at the QB was incredible. Ross Homan had a solid game. Jenkins, Kurt Coleman, and even Chimdi Chekwa were really good in the secondary. OK, so maybe the Spartans don't have much besides Javon Ringer, but when the defense can hold the opponent to 7 points AND score 2 TDs, it has done its job.

The Bad
Aside from the defense giving up an easy TD at the beginning of the second half, I can't think of anything else that belongs here. Normally, you can count on seeing penalties here, but 5 penalties for 45 yards is not horrible.

The Ugly
Hard to believe, but I have nothing to put here either...except maybe for Bob Griese's golf sweater.

Under the Radar Player of the Game
By now, you know my philosophy on this. If I have been particularly hard on a player or a group of players, I am willing to make that up here. I have been tough on the defensive line this year because it has seemed nonexistent. That being said, the guys showed up in this game. In fact, the entire defense did. This week the UtR players of the game are the Ohio State defensive players, with a special mention to Ross Homan, who caused the fumble in the first quarter that got the Buckeyes rolling.

Buckeyes 34, Golden Gophers 21

Now that looked like a team that showed up to play...for the most part.

The Good
Offense
When your starting quarterback only throws 13 passes, you must be doing something right. Terrelle Pryor showed why he was the top recruit in the country, running for 97 yards on just 8 carries. Beanie needed only 14 carries to get 105 yards. Dan Herron chipped in for another 51 yards. It was nice to see Brian Robiskie again. Someone must have gotten him the message that he needed to make himself noticeable if he plans on getting drafted. (Or maybe he saw my question of the week.) The offense also had some bona fide highlights. Beanie hurdling that defender was pretty sweet. I absolutely loved when Pryor got to the sideline and lowered his shoulder to knock a defender to the ground before he went out of bounds. Robiskie's second TD grab was pretty impressive.

Defense
Speaking of players showing up again...it was nice to see Laurinaitis have a big game. The defense was actually able to get some pressure on Weber, and come up with some tackles for a loss. We haven't seen enough of that from the defense yet. I don't care who the opponent is, if you allow only 80 rushing yards, you've done pretty well. Malcolm Jenkins had a pretty solid game, as did Ross Homan and Curtis Terry. Nathan Williams didn't show up with a lot of big numbers in the stats, but I liked what I saw from him.

The Bad
I've found this year that it's easier to group all of the bad together instead of dividing it between the offense and defense. This wasn't a horrible thing, but I wouldn't have minded a little more variety on first down. The Buckeyes threw (to the tight end!) on the first play of the game. After that, on nearly every first down for at least the rest of the first half, the Buckeyes ran the ball right behind the center. There were a few times when the defense could have done a much better job of containing the runner or receiver. In the first half, the Buckeyes once again settled for field goals. Granted, they got away with it, but it would be nice to see them put an opponent away more definitively.

The Ugly
Penalties. Frankly, that's all I need to say about that. Sure, some of the penalties were questionable, but 10 penalties for 90 yards is unacceptable. As far as I'm concerned, only one other thing goes here: Beanie's fumble. It was a good play by the defender, no question about it, particularly since Beanie was more or less tied up. Still, that's the kind of thing that can swing momentum.

Under the Radar Player of the Game
In a game like this, it's not easy to pick an Under the Radar player of the game, simply because there was no play that turned the tide. But, in this case, it is relatively easy. When the offense can rack up nearly 300 yards rushing, that means the offensive line did its job. I've been critical of the offensive line so far this year, so I feel I should recognize the guys up front for a job well done in this game.

I will not be able to catch the next two games, so I would like to enlist your help. For the Wisconsin and Purdue games, perhaps you could e-mail your comments about the game to me, and I can compile and post them here. If you want, send me your thoughts and let me know who you think is the UtR player of the game.