From: doel@bae.bellcore.com (Michael Doel)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Re: OSU-Wisconsin and such
Date: 5 Oct 92 19:55:04 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Bell Communications Research

In article <1992Oct5.153122.9223@cbnews.cb.att.com> ddn@cbnews.cb.att.com (david.d.nason) writes:

>   Congratulations to Wisconsin for beating the Buckeyes. 
>   However, what a horrible game - neither team played
>   well and Wisconsin, in particular, seemed intent
>   on giving the game away with all those silly penalties.
>   Wisconsin got it done when they needed it though, with the
>   two opening drives of the second half and the defensive 
>   stop in the last few minutes.

Agreed.  Ohio State's defense looked awful during those two opening
drives.

>   It appeared to me Wisconsin was greater than or equal to
>   Ohio State's physical strength.

Maybe

>                                    Ohio State's advantage
>   in the skill positions was neutralized by injuries.

The affect of this was minimal IMO.  Herbstreit looked a little hobbled,
but no worse than he was against Syracuse.  Stablein was fine for all but
about two minutes of the game.  Smith was out, but Harris and By'note
should have been able to pick up the slack.

>   Wisconsin is a much improved team, and could do very well
>   in the Big-10 race.  But they're going to have to eliminate
>   the penalties and other sloppy play to do it.

agreed

>   Ohio State's problem is pretty simple from my perspective ...
>   they need to get healthy.


Here, I disagree.  I think Ohio State needs to get emotional.  I
don't want to take anything away from Wisconsin, but we flat out
stank in that game.  There was zero emotion on either side of the
ball, the hitting was nowhere near as crisp as it was against
Syracuse, and both offensive and defensive lines were completely
dominated.  Is Wisconsin's offensive line that much better than
Syracuse's?  Is their defensive line?

Ohio State has enough talent that it should be able to beat these
teams, even with a few guys hurt.  The offensive line was rated
in the top 10 nationally at the beginning of the season.  I didn't
see that Saturday.  The running backs are still loaded, even without
Smith.  The looked pretty mortal against Wisconsin.  The receivers
are the only position where we've really been hurt this year by
injuries (with the loss of Galoway).  Herbstreit would be better
at 100%, but he's still playing better than expected.

I don't expect the team to be as "up" for every game as they were
for Syracuse, but we'll lose to just about everyone if we show
up flat like that anymore.  Somehow, someway, John Cooper needs
to find a way to motivate this team week in and week out.  Maybe
some guys on the team need to step forward and kick some butt if
their teammates aren't playing well.  Herbstreit seems to be able
to do that with the offense; we just need someone on the defense
and get these guys to do it more often.

Another thing.  I don't want to hear about Tovar being a Butkus
candidate anymore until he starts to prove it.  He's been very
average this season (including the Syracuse game).  I'm not saying
he's a worthless bum or anything.  I just think he's not playing
to the level he did in previous years.

Having said all this, I hope the home crowd supports the team
against Illinois this week.  The emotional problems should be
worked out by Cooper & co. during practice.  The fan's need to
fuel that emotion with positive support during the game.

Go Bucks!  Beat the Illini!

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Doel				<doel@bae.bellcore.com>
444 Hoes Lane RRC 1B-209
Piscataway, NJ 08854

"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat
 and wrong." - H.L. Mencken
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college