Grading The Defense: Ohio State
by Run Up The Score on Oct 27, 2008 11:09 PM EDT
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Beanie's favorite meal.
It's been well-documented already, but the amount of holding by Ohio State's offensive line was beyond comical. Aaron Maybin was held practically all night, and the interior linemen didn't fare much better. We're talking blatant stuff here -- grabbing fistfuls of jerseys and whipping defensive linemen to the ground. It was happening in the very plain view of multiple officials, and guess what? Not one holding flag against Ohio State all night. Sometimes, it truly does feel like 11 vs. 18 on the field in this conference.
Need an unbiased opinion? Allow me to quote Mr. Orson Swindle, during Ohio State's final drive:
And then there's this picture.
Anyway.
Defensive Line: A
Okay, one last example as long as we're on the subject. On Pryor's first scramble, no less than three Penn State defensive linemen (Odrick, Okoli, and Evans) were clearly held. The good news? If holding is such a widespread problem throughout a game, at least defensive line is raising hell. The PSU defensive line was in the right place virtually all night. Beanie Wells ate spoonful after heaping spoonful of stuffing. Pryor made a few plays with his feet but didn't change the game in any meaningful way. Maybin and Odrick were the stars of this unit.
Linebackers: A-
Josh Hull and Tyrell Sales got the starts, and both played rather well. Hull was getting a little more downhill than in previous efforts, and was more than eager to take on Beanie Wells. Still, he keeps getting stoned on blitzes. The defense may as well play with ten players instead of forcing Hull to awkwardly dance with a random offensive lineman.
Sales made two especially great plays. The first was sniffing out a screen pass to Robiskie and making a great open field tackle. The second was throwing Beanie Wells to the ground after Mark Rubin knocked the ball away from Terrelle Pryor. Oh, and then he poked the ball toward his teammates.
Navorro Bowman, as always, was everywhere. In the backfield taking down Wells, deflecting passes. Truly awesome. Now, imagine him and Sean Lee on the field together next year.
Secondary: A-
They all played pretty well, but let's face it. This is about Mark Rubin, who was tough from the very beginning. He fought off a block on the first screen pass and stuck his nose between Beanie's numbers. Then made the next tackle. After a while, you expected Mark Rubin to always be the last guy in the dogpile to be peeled off Beanie Wells. Rubin was occasionally lost in pass coverage, but against such a run-heavy, one-dimensional offense, he was outstanding.
Coaching: A+
Stop Beanie Wells and let the chips fall where they may. Not the most complicated gameplan you'll ever see, but it didn't have to be exotic. Just effective.
Oh, and waaaaaaaah, holding!
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Woo hoo!
I’m the first to comment, unless another person hits send before me! I’m glad that someone else noticed all of the holding going on (i.e., the entire nation except for the refs). Well, I don’t know if the commentators noticed since I didn’t have any sound, but it felt like the whole game I was saying, “where the $#*&’s the holding call??!!!” Our men played an excellent game. I thought our linebackers looked out of position a few times or blew some coverage, but I can’t tell you which ones since I didn’t DVR the game. But what the hell do I know, I’m just a chick. I did spot the holding, though :o)
On a completely unrelated topic…Holy shit! Kerry Collins has gray hair in his beard!! I was a junior when he was a senior. I can’t be that old!!!! But go Titans!
For the glory
Don't worry Paige2...or should you...
I graduted from PSU the same yr as KC…and uhhh, the gray came rolling -in on my beard too.
(maybe you should look a bit closer in ’09) HA!
" We need MORE cowbell !"
by BlueWhiteLife on Oct 29, 2008 2:56 PM EDT up reply actions
The sad part is
that a bunch of OSU fans think that the officials hosed them. Whatever. I hate them for ruining the Big 10’s image.
I like that Orson said it
that being said, it’s still insane that we had zero flags for the whole game. I wonder if orders from on high were to swallow the whistles for the game…it just seemed like one of those “eh, let ’em play” sort of games. I’m just glad to be on the correct end of it.
John Madden told me 90% of the game was half-mental...
by TheK-GunNeedsReloaded on Oct 28, 2008 1:18 AM EDT reply actions
it still sucks though
b/c when we play a clean game (and I’m not saying we didn’t have a hold from time to time, it just wasn’t as obvious) it sucks to have to put up with that BS…on a side note maybe LJ told the O-line coach for OSU to hold us back (think about this for a second) if we weren’t held we would have blown past their lineman so fast and been out of position, hold us actually helped our line play…(sarcasm over)
Fowler
mentioned the lack of laundry on all of the obvious holding penalties during half-time. It was ridiculous!
Poll
You’re obviously missing somebody on the Defensive Player of the Game Poll. Where’s Laurinitis? Aren’t we supposed to vote for him regardless of whether he’s even on our team or not?
Also, I think Zug needs to be on there every week. I bet he’d still get votes just for kicks.
i love the classic laura-nitis stat line
2 solo tackles (finding these on game film would be like finding waldo on the waldo look alike page), 10 assisted tackles (does not mention he was probably the 3rd or fourth guy there)
by PSUgavemeAnAlcoholproblem on Oct 28, 2008 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions
There was one play
where they said “Laurinitis in for the stop” and he was standing next to the pile -
RUTS didn't forget about Laurinitis...
I think we’re renaming the defensive player of the game poll after him at the end of the season
If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.
by TheMightyErik on Oct 28, 2008 10:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Linebackers Next Year
Yeah, really. I’m lovin the picture of Lee in the middle, flanked by Bowman and Mauti.
pax et amor
Lost in all of this...
…check out the starting field position for Ohio State. Not easy to keep digging out of those holes.
by Run Up The Score on Oct 28, 2008 9:09 AM EDT reply actions
OSU avg. starting field position was their 19.
I’d like to think that had a lot to do with our offensive playcalling but I don’t know what to make of it.
Overall, our run/pass ratio was skewed more run than usual (70/30) vs. (60/40), but if you look at the two drives with Devlin where we wanted to eat up clock, 14/0 (not including PI play), we were right on our average. Additionally, Mike noted that we were 30/15 run/pass on 1st and 2nd downs, but 11 of those runs were on the last 2 drives. Although it didn’t afffect our playcalling to mix it up, it did affect our aggressiveness. But I digress, this is a defensive review.
by Screen Name 20 on Oct 28, 2008 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions
Really, it was their only hope of stopping the DL
But that doesn’t make it legal.
by Run Up The Score on Oct 28, 2008 9:44 AM EDT up reply actions
next year
Tear away Jerseys, remember back in the day when they were popular for a few years. The problem was that by the end of the game no one is wearing a Jersey, oh well.
I don't know, Mello Yello is pretty awful. What's the worst that could happen?
I like in your LB analysis how you say
Hull got stoned on blitzes….
I thought Evans and Koroma were the ones who got stoned on blitzes (and tuesdays after Coastal Carolina games!)
I bleed Blue and White.
Screaming "HOLDING!" at the TV
while I was drunk and fired up was pretty much how I spent a lot of Saturday night. Good thing Mrs. GOOS was out of town. I’m sure I was downright unfit for human consumption that evening.
by GLORYOFOLDSTATE on Oct 28, 2008 10:04 AM EDT reply actions
Something of a philosophy, outlook
Don’t just accept, EXPECT aweful officiating when we play Michigan and Ohio State. EXPECT that we get no help from the refs in those games. This goes back to sitting in the stands with the old-timer alumni for my entire life — they don’t bat an eye at this stuff because it’s expected.
Be happy they threw the flags for pass interference and facemask, I was shocked every time they did!
the only way I see this being bias towards OSU this year
is if they met beforehand and decided to not call penalties (holds especially) as often, as it would likely help their O-line more than ours (since our O-line presumably has a bigger “fair” advantage over their D-line than vice versa), and figuring that in a clean game we would dominate them. I don’t know if that would be the case, even if an accusation like this were true, but generally with biased reffing you’d see them call BS on us, while let them get away with it, which didn’t seem to be the case here.
by The JuggerNitt on Oct 28, 2008 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Holding
The refs definately decided to not throw flags on those kid of plays, and just let the players play. I like this attitude, but when you could spot a hold from 50 yards away, you got to throw a flag. Your right though, the lack of holding penalties helped OSU more, but I remember watching a replay when we were on offense, and we were like, “Thank God Stephen didn’t get flagged for that”
The jersey pulling went on all game
as did the blocks in the back – even on the last tosu play -
there was one play where the tosu lineman had his arms around the PSU defender, from the backside, and was being dragged along – how in the name of all things football is that not holding?
However – I do think that you need to give the secondary a few demerits for soft coverage – just about every pryor pass was a moon ball -
That said, ’m very happy for Mark Rubin – tenacity must be his middle name.
I can partially explain
They tackled pretty well, and forced a lot of throws to be completed four yards short of the sticks. They came up with one interception, broke up some other passes, and were great in run support. I think it was only natural that some of the moon balls would be completed, given how hard we were selling out to stop the run.
by Run Up The Score on Oct 28, 2008 10:22 AM EDT up reply actions
Also...
When I originally wrote this in a haze last night, I had a short paragraph about Scirrotto. He missed Pryor in the open field twice and was victimized by a horrible Pryor underthrow on the long ball to Robiskie, but I couldn’t really kill him for any of those incidents.
by Run Up The Score on Oct 28, 2008 10:23 AM EDT up reply actions
Another off topic question...
but did anybody else notice the amount of Buckeye stickers on Pryor’s helmet? Do they just give them away for showing up to practice now?
by Screen Name 20 on Oct 28, 2008 10:46 AM EDT up reply actions
Stickers on the Helmet
I know, right? How come I’ve never read anything about this tradition, and how they are given out? It’s a perfect story for Andrews/Dales/Salters type role, right?
I spose if I cared enough, I could drop coin on Tressel’s website:
Today, Ohio State gives them out for key performances on special teams, offense or defense. Coach Jim Tressel’s website — available for $49.95 per year — keeps a complete list of how many Buckeye leaves each player has won and the criteria for winning them.
pax et amor
there was an article about this very thing on ESPN not too long ago.
you can probably search for it just as easy as I can
by The JuggerNitt on Oct 28, 2008 3:03 PM EDT up reply actions
$
where does the money go for subscribing? Pryor’s corvette or for paying players for “jobs” a la Maurice Clarett?
Pride stickers...
Are the gayest things on the planet… Yeah, I liked playing Pop-Warner football just like the next kid but stickers are so damn lame in anything at or above high school level, IMO…
If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.
by TheMightyErik on Oct 28, 2008 10:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Speaking of uncalled penalties
How about that missed roughing the kicker call? I’m all for “letting them play” but when we get nailed with it when the opposing kicker kicks out guy in the head (different game/team/year), but then when they bowl over out punter, and there is no call, I just don’t get it.
They should!
That’s some restaurant quality stiff-arm. Totally legit, in my opinion.
by Run Up The Score on Oct 28, 2008 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions
I’m not sure that’s really a penalty
Which I never really understood. Stiffarmers are often allowed to do pretty much whatever they please, include very strong blows to the head and sometimes even grabbing the facemask. Maybe someone with some officiating experience can help me understand the logic; this has always seemed like a very strange exception to me.
Kevin @ Black Shoe Diaries
Looks to Me Like Scorots has a fasemask there
Should’ve been a call against PSU!
by The IC Lion on Oct 28, 2008 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions
Looks good to me
If Evan Royster put a stiff arm like that on Malcolm Jenkins it would have been at the top of the Offensive Grades post.
Mike
Black Shoe Diaries
Get some of that! lol
If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.
by TheMightyErik on Oct 28, 2008 10:51 PM EDT up reply actions
No facemask
On offense your allowed to give a stiff-arm to the facemask. The only time you get called for it is if you hold on and drag a player down like a tackle. That’s why its not a penalty, you more pushing the guy off rather than grabbing his facemask and taking him down by the neck. I’m not a ref, so that’s not official, but I played several years of football
Holding
I know you guys didn’t notice it, but Penn State was giving as good as they got. After the fiorst quarter, they just started tackling Thad Gibson, and Cam Heyward got tackled from behind a couple times. I have no idea why the refs didn’t flag either team, though.
I actually did notice it
However, I’m not sure the holding by the PSU offensive linemen was as frequent or blatant.
(Call me a homer for that one if you must, I’d understand.)
by Run Up The Score on Oct 28, 2008 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions
"after the first quarter"
so basically after they noticed how badly OSU was getting away with it, and figured, “all’s fair”
I actually did think it was pretty even on both sides on the amount of holding being done (that I could see), but I think OSU’s were much more blatant
by The JuggerNitt on Oct 28, 2008 3:06 PM EDT up reply actions
first
you have to realize no matter what level of football you play (pee-wee to the pros) some form of holding happens on the line…it’s just a matter of how you get away with it…now I played in high school (linebacker and lineman, granted I’m not an expert) but I do know how to get away with stuff when I need to and as a lineman when you come up to block your power is at your core so your arms should be in tight and ready to explode out like a push up or a bench press…well if the D-lineman gets into you and you can’t explode out, you simply just keep your arms in and grab them under thier shoulder pads, its a classic situation and it happens more often then not…now that usually doesn’t/shouldn’t get called for holding b/c that is just part of the game…however blatent holding,grabing jerseys from behind and tackling is just awful and should be flagged everytime and I think that was the most obvious thing in the game is that OSU wasn’t even trying to hide the fact they were holding/tackling
I don't think anybody disputes that holding happens constantly
And this is just a “me too!” comment to yours, so I’ll keep it short. The point of the complaining is the “outside the shoulders” holding we saw. Think about Pryor’s game-ending interception. Maybin was chasing him down from behind, and an OSU OL who was trailing Maybin simply reached out and grabbed the back of his pads/jersey, DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE OFFICIAL, who did nothing.
Nobody expects holding to be called on every play. Jesus, it would be intolerable. However, I think all reasonable football fans expect referees to make the easy calls.
by Run Up The Score on Oct 28, 2008 4:57 PM EDT up reply actions
I think the around the waist, let's call it, "hugging"
and the blocks in the back were also a bit beyond the “inevitable” variety.
I’m all for “letting the kids play” – I hate the “ticky tack” calls – but come on – if you’re going to have a rule book – why not enforce it occasionally.
Damn you sound hot!!!
I love when girls (and women) know what they’re talking about.
Rubin
The most encouraging thing I saw in Rubin is on run plays he’d square up directly and tackle like a man. Especially on that fumble, he just manned up and went right at Pryor (who at 6’6 235 is not a small guy) instead of diving at his legs or trying to tackle high and get stiff armed
I guess this is what happens when there's no game to focus on this week.
People sit and nit pick and bitch over insignificant things. To me, the lack of holding calls is no big deal because one: we won, and two: we had no penalties against us (other than the offensive pass intereference that was declined). But the running into the kicker was very iffy. Makes me wonder if I need to send letters to Delany and Perry at the Big Ten offices after Michigan 2005.
The problem with saying "Ignore it, we won!"
is that if you mention it after you LOSE, people think it’s just being a sore loser. We need to call attention to the sucky refs even though we won, because next time they might have a greater impact on the game and we could lose. Michigan State is lucky they won, because I think that awful review decision would not be getting the same amount of attention.
When you lose, it sounds like an excuse. When you win, you have a chance of people actually paying attention.
by whiteoutonly'sbitch on Oct 29, 2008 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions
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