Week 8: Calm before the storm

Standings
 1) Schweinfurth   23-5   (3-4 upset)
 2) Hoying            19-9    (2-5 upset)
 3) Draper             18-10  (2-5 upset--missed 2 pts conv!!)
 4) Auer                15-9    (0-6 upset)

Louisiana State Tigers @ Texas A&M Aggies
Draper: The Aggies have been electric on offense but terrible on defense.  LSU has been the exact opposite.  Were this game in Death Valley, I'd call for a blowout, but the 12th Man evens the playing field a bit.  Manziel has put up stupid good numbers but hasn't faced a defense like this.  Mingo and Montgomery pull LSU solidly back into the national title hunt. LSU:20--TAMU: 10
Auer: A huge game in College Station, a place where LSU has never won. The Tigers missed out on a lot of scoring opportunities last week and still came away with a win over South Carolina. LSU is the real deal and will win a close one. LSU: 34--TAMU: 28
Hoying: Give credit to Texas A&M for a win over a ranked team, but is anyone feeling good about their chances after a WAC opponent took them to the brink of disaster?  LSU's defense won't be giving up 59 points, even to Johnny Football, everyone's newest blip on the Heisman radar.  LSU has a little trouble scoring, but that rarely seems to be a problem for them (anyone remember watching the 2003 Buckeyes?)  The Aggies continue their nasty "Welcome to the SEC tour" as another quality opponent kicks them to the curb.  LSU: 22--TAMU: 16
Schweinfurth: So far this season, Texas A&M have held their own in their first SEC season.  This will be LSU's first trip into Kyle Field, but I think it will matter not.  LSU is the all around better, and oversigned (sorry I couldn't help myself) team. Tigers win close, but that is their identity this year.  LSU: 17--TAMU: 13


South Carolina Gamecocks @ Florida Gators
Draper: The schedulers certainly did South Carolina no favors with back to back road games at Death Valley and the Swamp.  Sometimes, a loss can tell just as much as a win.  LSU is almost unbeatable at home at night, and the Cocks brought it to an onside kick.  Driskell has been very good at QB but no one is blown away by the Gator offense.  Lattimore and Shaw were able to score some on the Tigers but couldn't push it over the edge.  Florida has an excellent defense, but while some predict the Tigers softened the Gamecocks, I think it strengthened their resolve.  Also, I can't pick Florida (they are 4 of my losses I believe). Go Cocks! USC: 20--UF: 13
Auer: USC may be without Lattimore and the Gators are at home... this may get ugly. Factor in a revenge factor of Florida, and this will certainly be another big statement game from the Gainesville Gators. USC: 17--UF: 35
Hoying: South Carolina fans were feeling Cocky after their a big win over Georgia but got a sobering dose of reality at the hands of the punishing LSU defense.  SC QB Connor Shaw is probably better than Florida QB Jeff Driskell, but the Gator D might be even better than LSU's.  Going to the Swamp is no fun for anybody, and the ol' ball coach is going to get another reminder of why he never should have left. USC: 13--UF: 21
Schweinfurth: This game could have been epic if South Carolina could have held on last week.  Both of these teams sport efficient offenses and stout defenses.  I expect the same offensive formula that has worked for the most part from the Gamecocks: Lattimore, Lattimore, and and then Shaw over the top.  Unfortunately I'm not sure if that will be enough.  The Gators get a roughed up USC in Gainsville, which is huge for this game.  The Head Ball Coach throws his visor at the end of this one. USC: 21--UF: 24


Kansas State Wildcats @ West Virginia Mountaineers

Draper: No one is giving Kansas State any credit.  Collin Klein (in my opinion) is the clear frontrunner for the Heisman.  West Virginia is the flash and Wildcars are the grind it out hardworking 'Mericans.  Geno and company will put up points, but the defense can't stop anything.  AARP Bill Snyder's team makes a few stops to win a close one in Morgantown.  KSU: 30--WVU: 28
Auer: I haven't watched KSU play, but WVU was exposed in a big way this past weekend and it makes it very hard to be confident in their ability to win against a real opponent. Then again, I kind of question the legitimacy of the Wildcats. What the hell, I'll call for the home team upset. KSU: 38--WVU: 41
Hoying: West Virginia was exposed in a BIG way last week, both by their dismantling at the hands of Texas Tech and the discrediting of their previous vanquished opponent, Texas.  The Mountaineers seem to have a problem with teams that can play defense.  What's that thing that Kansas State does really well?  It may be old man football, but KSU will pull out a big road win as they finally prove they can handle the spotlight. KSU: 27--WVU: 23
Schweinfurth: Texas Tech showed the world how to beat WVU last week: score and don't let Geno Smith beat you.  While I haven't watched enough (or any) of KSU this year, Bill Snyder is a smart man and has been around the block a few times.  Geno will get at least 2 TDs but Collin Klein busts out and takes the lead in the Heisman race after this one.  KSU: 42--WVU: 21


Purdue Boilermakers @ THE Ohio State University Buckeyes
Draper: Let's be real: we play like last week, we lose.  Thankfully, we're at home and I think last week was a giant notice for the defense (coaches and players).  Purdue can play (sort of), but the Shoe makes the difference here.  The crowd's electricity will prevent apathy from seeping back in.  Purdue has beaten OSU 2 of the past 3 years, but the year we beat them, was an absolute beatdown at home.  I expect a repeat of 2010.  Braxton and Hyde will tear apart the Boilers and the defense, while still not worthy of being called Bullets, will do enough.  Bucks get back on track at home.  PU: 20--OSU: 48
Auer: Another closer than expected game. The defense is still bad, meh. PU: 31--OSU: 44
Hoying: Let's take a step back from the horrendous defense we saw last week.  Before the last 4 minutes of the game, there wasn't an actual fear the Buckeyes were going to lose.  And after the fear set in, Braxton never touched the ball until he ran out the clock.  A consistent pattern has emerged of this Buckeye offense making plays when it has to, and I reiterate that as long as Braxton isn't busted, Ohio State will not lose another game.  (Qualification: he has to be on the field.  Multiple onside kicks void my prediction.)  What about our worthy opponent?  Ehhh, it's Purdue.  We've lost to them once at home in the last 44 years.  Plus they've been exposed in the last two weeks as the mediocre team they are.  Bucks win big.  Probably.  PU: 27--OSU: 44
Schweinfurth: Another week, another spread offense for the Silver Pop Gun.  While Purdue is bad defensively, this is the type of offense that has confounded Luke Fickle and Everett Withers.  The focus this week was on minimizing the big play and it may show up in softer secondary coverages.  Purdue WILL move the ball, and the Boilers WILL score...just not enough.  The Buckeye offense is putting up just sick rushing numbers.  Braxton Miller can become the first Ohio State QB to rush for 1000 yards, and this is only game 8!  Carlos "El Guapo" Hyde has been a beast since Hall went down and I expect nothing less than 150 yards out of him.  Bucks win and put up 50+ for the third week in a row (and I puke over the points given up again, bleh) PU: 38--OSU: 54


Upset Special
Draper: Cal over Stanford
Auer: Virginia Tech over Clemson
Hoying: Baylor over Texas
Schweinfurth: Tennessee over Bama (!!!)
 

Rankings post Week 7 /Heisman Ballots

Heisman Ballot
Draper
1) Collin Klein--QB KSU
2) Johnny Manziel--QB TAMU
3) Geno Smith--QB WVU
(Braxton Miller is a close 3a)

Hoying
1) Geno Smith--QB WVU
2) Johnny Manziel--QB TAMU
3) Collin Klein--QBKSU


Schweinfurth
1) Geno Smith--QB WBU
2) Braxton Miller--QB OSU (close second)

3) Collin Klein--QB KSU


Top 25 Ballots
Draper
1. Bama
2. Oregon
3. Florida
4. Kansas State
5. Notre Dame
6. LSU
7. South Carolina
8. Oklahoma
9. Oregon State
10. Ohio State
11. Mississippi State
12. USC
13. Florida State
14. Louisville
15. Rutgers
16. Texas Tech
17. West Virginia
18. Ohio
19. Georgia
20. Clemson
21. Cincinnati
22. Texas A&M
23. Michigan
24. Stanford
25.  LA Tech

Hoying
1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida
4. Notre Dame
5. Kansas State
6. Oregon State
7. Ohio State
8. LSU
9. South Carolina
10. Mississippi State
11. Texas A&M
12. Rutgers
13. Florida State
14. Oklahoma
15. Texas Tech
16. Cincinnati
17. Louisville
18. Georgia
19. Ohio
20. West Virginia
21. Michigan
22. USC
23. Arizona State
24. Clemson
25. Louisiana Tech

Schweinfurth
1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida
4. Kansas State
5. Notre Dame
6. South Carolina
7. LSU (yes I know LSU beat South Carolina...)
8. Ohio State
9. Oregon State
10. Oklahoma
11. Florida State
12. USC
13. Clemson
14. Georgia
15. West Virginia
16. Mississippi State
17. Cincinnati
18. Louisville
19. Texas A&M
20. Rutgers
21. Ohio
23. Stanford
24. Arizona State
25.Michigan

Grading the Bucks: IU--A win is a win...right...RIGHT!!

I've never felt this gross after a win since...well, UAB or Cal.  Cal has since proven that they aren't total garbage, but the others...woof. This was a travesty of a game for the Buckeyes and truly worries me for the future.  Yes, the win (or lack of a loss) is nice, but the extreme apathy exhibited by the players and coaches is a red flag.

Offense: B+
I give one player a passing grade for this game and he played like an absolute beast: Carlos Hyde.  He ran extremely hard, 2 TDs, solid receiving, breaking tackles, decent blocks (that was the weakest part of his game), etc.  Others trumpet Braxton Miller, but the interception in the endzone was embarrassing for a Pop Warner team.  Miller ran fairly well but refused to feed the beast of Carlos Hyde enough and his passes we still off target.  I have to give him a solid B/B+ grade because 2 nice TD passes were dropped by his number one (and only?) receiver Devin Smith.  Miller could have had a stellar game for the books, but drops, lack of leadership, apathy, and lack of consistency are his Achilles heel.  The O-line is playing well as well so let's not forget them.  Miller needs to improve the decision making A LOT and the play-calling should focus a little more on Hyde.

Defense: F
49 points....let that sink in.  49 points....to Indiana.  The last time OSU gave up more than 40 was the National Championship to UF.  My. Hoying did a stellar exposition illustrating the extreme depths of depravity to which this unit has been relegated. Our leading tackler was a full back who was told he was switching to defense this week....that's pathetic.  The secondary is laughably bad.  I'll make one small excuse as my eyes told me that Hankins was getting held on EVERY SINGLE PLAY (Note: there was not a single holding penalty called the entire game on either team). With that being said, even if our line was handcuffed the whole game, IU shouldn't have sniffed 30 points. The linebacking corps is extremely depleted, but it was INDIANA!!!  I knew they'd score; I had them scoring 20; but 49! This unit was apathetic the entire second half which comes down to coaching and desire.  Weak tackling reared its ugly head.  I can't call them the Bullets until they earn it back.  For now, they're the Silver Swiss Cheese.

Special Teams: C+
I have no clue what to do with this unit.  Giving up another blocked punt is just embarrassing--then they block a punt AND TOTALLY REDEEM THEMSELVES!!  Very solid kick coverage for most of the game (most drives started inside the 15 for IU and around the 30 for us); and then we give up a 60 yard return at the end of the game.  We never kick FGs anymore, so Basil yanks one (but makes another).  And then there was the onside kick.  Bradley Roby, I love you and think you're arguably the best talent on the defense, but what are you doing? The apathy reared its head again and we kept the door open.

Coaching: D
I've spoken of apathy as a recurring theme and this is a serious coaching issue.  The Bucks played as if the game was over with 12 minutes to go.  As a coach, you need to keep stoking the fire until zeros are on the clock, and if you don't keep the intensity up, that's on you (especially in a year with no postseason).  Playcalling has been pedestrian (triple option every time Brown motions into the backfield), but the mood of the team and coaches on the sideline is more of an issue.  I'm calling out Urban on this one.  He trumpets hardnose, no-nonsense style in which any deviation from greatness is punished.  I'm sorry, but I don't see it.  If you want to be no-nonsense, you need to be going CRAZY on the sideline coaching this team as they give up the 7th most points in OSU history TO INDIANA! This is not acceptable in Columbus.  It reminds me of the RichRod cartoon..."But we will score a lot of points".  If we score 52, that's all well and good, but what if IU had scored 53? Is Urban on the hot seat? Probably not yet, but this is offputting to say the least.

Worst defense ever?

I don't write the weekly "Grading the Bucks" column.  But after watching the most pitiful defensive performance from the Scarlet and Gray that I've ever seen, I thought I would provide a little historical perspective for the inevitable "F" that John will award them later.

Just how bad was that showing?  Indiana racked up 481 yards on 78 plays (6.2 yards per play), despite only having the ball for 23:06.  The Buckeye D did have 6 tackles for loss, but recorded no sacks and forced no turnovers.  Indiana broke off a 59-yard TD run and a 76-yard TD pass.  To their merit, the OSU defense forced 5 three-and-outs, but only one of these came in the second half, in which the defense managed to stop Indiana from scoring all of two times.

Don't blame the offense and special teams for putting the defense in a bad spot, either.  Indiana's average starting field position was at their own 29 yard line and they started only 3 of 16 drives inside Ohio State territory (blocked punt in 1st, long kick return in 3rd, onside kick at the end).

But these failings are not the point of this post.  To find the most glaring problem, we need look no farther than the scoreboard.  49 points.  Ohio State gave up forty-nine points.  Let that sink in for a moment.  When was the last time you saw Ohio State surrender (and I mean surrender) 49 points?  If you're drawing a blank, don't worry, it doesn't happen often.  Let's crack open the record books to see how historically awful this performance truly was.

Before we start, guess how many times before Saturday a team had scored 49 or more points against OSU.  Keep in mind that's 123 years and 1,202 games from which to draw.  Ready?  It's seven.  Unsurprisingly, all were blowout losses (0-64 to Wooster in 1890, 6-50 to Western Reserve in 1891, 0-50 to Oberlin in 1892, 0-49 to Western Reserve in 1898, 0-86 to Michigan in 1902, 6-58 to Michigan in 1946, and 14-63 to Penn State in 1994).

You may have noticed from that list that most of these defensive embarrassments occurred when the Bucks were essentially a mid-major team, prior to joining the Big Ten.  The only one of those games you may have possibly remembered was the debacle against an unstoppable Penn State team in 1994.

"But what's the big deal?" you may say.  "It's just one game, and besides, we won!"  That's true; this game was an outlier of historical magnitude.  But it's part of a disturbing trend that has arisen in the wake of Jim Tressel's exit.  For all the scathing abuse the offense took last season, the losing record fell squarely on the shoulders of the defense.  The 2011 Buckeyes gave up 23.25 points per game in Big Ten play, their fifth worst effort of all time.  The only worse conference marks were produced by the 1999 (26 ppg), 1988 (24.875 ppg), 1946 (24 ppg), and 1943 (26.8 ppg) squads.  Those of you with long memories know that 1999 and 1988 were the last two years before 2011 that the Bucks did not have a winning record (thank you John Cooper).  The worst effort came in last year's Michigan game, where Ohio State exploded for 34 points...and lost, the highest score the Buckeyes have ever attained in a loss.

So 2011 was bad.  How is 2012 going?  In 3 conference games, the Silver BB's have given up 16, 38, and 49 points, good for a 34.3 ppg average.  In other words, the 2012 crew are on track to be the worst defense in Ohio State history, and by a wide margin to boot.  Remember, this is Ohio State.  5 years ago the Buckeyes led the nation in scoring defense.  Ohio State has had 27 seasons in which the defense allowed less than 49 points or less total in Big Ten play.

Perhaps the game has changed.  Perhaps the balance has shifted toward offensive efficiency and defensive futility.  But what occurred in Bloomington on October 13th was an embarrassment.  OSU defensive coaches, you're on notice.

Oh, and I don't know whether this is a glimmer of hope or a sign of how far we've sunk, but the leading tackler yesterday?  Zach Boren.  The fullback who became a linebacker 5 days ago.