| 26 September 2010
I ask Buckeye fans all the time why they get so bothered by the national media, Mark May notwithstanding, I just don't see where there is an anti-Buckeye bias. That is, not until yesterday. I don't know what Terrelle Pryor needs to do to quiet the naysayers. He was in the process of throwing for four touchdowns, running for one and even catching a pass for another, but he is still getting picked apart. It seems it is no longer about him fulfilling his massive potential. It is now about perfection. He is still making mistakes. Correct me if I am wrong but I think Brett Favre, a living legend, threw three interceptions last week. There is no such thing as a perfect quarterback. There is no such thing as a perfect player. I don't know what he is going to have to do to shut them up. He is no longer a Heisman contender. I think he put himself right there with Mark Ingram at the top of the list.
It looks to me like Chris Wells left his stiff arm behind and Pryor picked it up. He is killing tacklers with that stiff arm.
I don't want to hear about the running attack. The line is fine. Hall and Berry are not having any trouble finding plenty of room. The right back fixes the running game immediately. We should at least start Herron. Of the veterans he is the superior back.
Much better in the redzone this week.
Bauserman again has a good outing. That is a good thing considering how close we were to losing Pryor. Adams has to shore up his inside. He got beat again. It is the one remaining chink in his armor. We can't have Pryor taking that kind of hit.
I loved the diversity in the offense. Pryor is spraying the ball all over the place. I mentioned this last week. Dealing with Pryor is enough of a headache for a DC. Now he is throwing underneath to the backs. I don't know how you defense that. Come up and play him and watch him dump off to backs or stay in coverage and watch a 6-6 235 lb guy with 4.4 speed and a teeth rattling stiff arm take off down the field. This offense is impressive. It would be even more impressive with one of the younger backs in there.
The defensive line remains the strength of the defense. I think it is as good as we have seen. I thought Heyward had his best game of the year. I don't care about his stats. He is disruptive on every play. That a likely first round draft pick might be only the third best lineman on the team is what tells how good this line is. Dexter Larimore is the best defensive lineman on the team. John Simon is not too far behind.
I see the line moving around again. Heyward played three positions again this week. What I find most interesting is that we are flopping the ends quite a bit with Heyward on the weak side and Williams on the strong side. I don't know if that is about getting Heyward in a position to have more of an impact on the game coming off the quarterbacks blindside or if they want to give Williams the opportunity to attack against a right tackle who is going to be not as good a pass blocker.
Now the bad. What is going on with our coverage? I voiced some concern about the hip pointer Torrence picked up. Look at how he gets tied up on the pass interference call. He showed no burst on the touchdown pass he gave up. Very concerning in any circumstance but with how banged up we are in the secondary it is flat out alarming. I was one calling for Corey Brown to get in there and get some reps even with his less than impressive performance last week. Talk about alarming. He is just lost out there. If he were a true freshman it would be concerning but he has been in the program for a year. He should not be that lost. I think we need to add some players to the mix. Brad Roby needs to get some reps with the first team in practice. Lets get Christian Bryant in there and take a look at him. How about James Louis. He is buried at wide receiver and looked just as good as a corner in high school, and maybe he was a better defensive back.
Notice I said coverage. It is more than the corners. How many times do we let the tight end hurt us before we fix it? Linebackers are biting hard and the safeties are not coming up to pick up. I saw a big hit out of Ohrian Johnson. That is about it. I am still waiting on this kid to impress me. We have to figure this out and we need to do it now. With Wisconsin coming up in three weeks and the way they use the tight end, we have to have this ironed out.
I saw more evidence this week that we need more Klein in there, or more Sweat in the middle. Again I look at the Wisconsin game and see ominous signs. Rolle is not the guy we need in there against a run first team with a big back. On the goal line play on the first touchdown he was blown back into the end zone. This is not Wisconsin or Iowa or even Michigan. This was against E. Michigan. We can't afford that against Wisconsin. They can and will run that all day.
Special teams was better but still not what I expect from a Jim Tressel coached team.
There is alot of buzz out there about the Alabama-Arkansas game. Lets keep in mind that Arkansas was a top 10 opponent. The big news for me was UCLA kicking the stuffing out of Texas at Texas. UCLA was beaten so badly at home last week that coach Rick Neuheisel felt the need to address the home crowd and apologize. He told them they would be better this week. Were they ever.
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