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Offense -
Anytime you can go to Michigan, win and roll up nearly 420 yards of offense, it's always a very good performance. The offense did just that on Saturday. From the opening drive which they promptly took 80 yards for a TD, the offense was humming for most of the day. Only in the 3rd quarter when we were moving into the wind (which had picked up dramatically from the 1st quarter) did the offense ever sputter. In fact, we didn't even punt in the first half. On the downside, we only managed 12 first half points.
Troy Smith and Antonio Pittman were clearly the catalysts in the first half. Pittman broke off 3 or 4 runs of the 10-12 yard variety. Michigan also could not stop our controlled passing game that continually took advantage of our WR speed and agility. It is my opinion, that Michigan put a spy on Troy (#45 of UM) and that caused us to take advantage of the short underneath stuff. Outside of Maurice Well's fumble, we had multiple play drives on each of our possessions.
Michigan does boast a defensive line that huge. Gabe Watson is large and gets a lot of pub, but Alan Branch is about 320 himself and he actually made a 4 yard tackle for loss on the very first play of the game. That was all that Tressel needed to see that we need to buttress the offensive line. Doing the buttressing was little used but brutally explosive, Andre Tyree. Tyree came to Ohio State as a TE and, even at 300 lbs, still practices at that position on occasion. However, against UM he absolutely destroyed pretty much anyone he lined up against. Branch was outclassed and couldn't handle Tyree. Andre continually collapsed the point of attack to allow Pittman a seam to run or to bust it outside. A great move by JT on inserting Tyree.
Then, of course, you cannot fail to mention that final two drives. What is being lost in many conversations is how fast we scored the first of our two 4th quarter touchdowns. In a little over a minute, Ohio State and Troy Smith marched down the field to cut the lead to 2. Smith capped the drive by a tremendous throw to Holmes where Santonio was able to split the defenders and get into the endzone (horrible celebration penalty nearly cost us the game). This quick drive allows us enough time to hold UM to a pooch punt and then give us the ball with around 4 minutes to play. The ensuing 88 yard drive likely never be forgotten in Buckeye memory.
Overall, I thought the playcalling was excellent. I don't like us in the shotgun that often but since it was working, it's hard to go away from it. The only glaring omission was the lack of a deep ball to Ginn or Holmes. Michigan was starting to jump and bite on the short routes in the 3rd and their DBs were rarely doing much more than a standard backpeddle. Other than that, a nicely devised plan with the wild card of Tyree.
Defense -
I may be too hard with only awarding 3.5 Buckeye leaves. These guys played awesome and the only 2 Michigan touchdowns came on OSU turnovers or short punts in our own territory. Michigan could not and did not put together any appreciable drive that ended in a touchdown. This was all done, of course, without the services of Bobby Carpenter. It's a testament to our coaching staff for tweaking the gameplan to account for this huge loss. True freshman James Lauraintis replaced Carpenter, but D-Coordinator Jim Heacock also adjusted Mike Kudla to help in some of Carps old responsiblities. It all amounted to a day that shutdown UM to the tune of 250 or so total yards. (25 coming on a garbage throw at the end of the game).
Without question, the play of Hawk and Schlegel were tops for Ohio State. AJ Hawk was chipped, blocked and accounted for on EVERY play. UM usually sent an OL to the 2nd level to find him and AJ still racked up 7 tackles and 1 TFL where he simply blew up a Mike Hart screen pass. Schlegel, on the other hand, filled the gap as well as he ever has at Ohio State. Tackling was sure and UM was forced to throw as they absolutley could not run. I would be remiss if I didn't mention our down lineman on D as well. Green, Pitcock and others were giving UM guards fits. As these defensive players say, when you can make a team one-dimensional, you are winning the battle.
Perhaps the only downside were some costly penalties. Two pass interference calls, one on each corner, were plays that helped UM sustain drives and eventually score. Truth be told, the call on Tyler Everett was horrible (this goes back to my BigTen Officiating rant of a few days ago).
Special Teams -
I'm going to keep this section short. Succinctly, it was awful. We all know the reasons. Moving on...
::Other Thoughts & Observations::
* I can help it. Let's talk more about the officiating. For one, I'm already sick and tired of hearing Lloyd Carr complain about the Gonzalez reception. He was forced out and that's that. Deal with it, just like we have to on the egregious incorrect or no calls. As an example, this beauty of a Delay of Game that wasn't called:
Or how the 5 yard lateral that wasn't called?
Facemask on Pittman?
Bogus PI on Everett?
Clip v. Hawk on Breaston screenpass?
Celebration on Holmes?
PI on heroic Gonzo's catch?
I'll stop there. :-)
* Moving on, on the 3rd quarter punt by AJ Trapasso, it really wasn't shanked. He just kicked it too high, wind killed it and knocked it down.
* It looks like we have officially gotten through the season with several unexpected redshirts: Vernon Gholston, Jimmy Cordle, Marcus Freeman are probably the most notable.
* Someone teach Ted Ginn how to field a punt. What is that, 6 muffed punts this year?
* JT 4 Carr 1