Ohio: Game Thoughts

cyclone1209

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Nov 5, 2010
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Denver
The great, the good, and the just so-so.

I. Defense
  • Their best total game I thought. B/C SEMO is more limited and Iowa on offense is just plain pathetic. We made a good offense look poor today.
  • Orien Vance's best game this year: 1 sack, a qb hurry, and a tackle for loss. Great to also see Will McDonald get a sack.
  • Young pups: #6 Myles Mendezoon is going to be a good one. Had the great sack forced fumble play. He is also an absolute terror ons special teams and has 3+ tackles I can think of on the coverage units. Mendezoon I cannot wait to see next year more. Joey Peterson #52 had a sack. It was also great to see #23 Will McLaughlin get tackle for loss (he has serious talent), and Jayden Gray freshman DE get a tackle for loss. We have a bunch of dudes in the two deep who would be starters at other schools folks. We've done a great job replenishing talent at LB and the D Line I feel.
  • Speaking of young pups. #95 Dominique Orange could be the best noseguard we have recruited since Atyba Rubin. He is playing well as an 18 year old on the d line, amazing.
  • Anthony Johnson solidifying his spot as a NFL draft pick with a total beauty of an interception
  • Myles Purchase to me is Brian Peavy. He is not flashy. He does not get beat. And some games they are just going to avoid his side. He's been a dawg so far.
  • Malik Verdon was solid I was very worries about his neck/concussion but he returned later in the game, which is positive. We would also benefit from Beau Freyler being back next week.
  • Is this the best defense under Campbell? It is early but it's easily the best D we have seen in the non conference in his tenure
Offense
  • Hunter continues to impress me. The bad snap I thought was a rocket by Downing so don't put that all on him. He throws in such tight windows. The one to Shaw for a TD, the one to Deshawn Hanika for a TD, just beautiful throws. He's a top tier Big 12 QB already.
  • WR: Hutchinson makes corners defend the whole field laterally, we really really really need an extra guy to be a deep threat.
  • Noel had some nice catches. Still waiting for a big breakout game. He's averaging about 29 yards a game so far.
  • TEs: Tyler Moore had a beautiful catch in mop up duty. Deshawn Hanika I did not know was this quality, he now has two td's on the season and appears to be a quality receiving TE for us. someone absolutely lit up Easton Dean on a cheap shot and I hated to see that.
  • RB: Jirehl Brock is just consistent and steady, love his game. I think Deon Silas is really starting to take over the #2 RB spot. He makes more miss than Sanders and shockingly has the ability to move a pile with his stout frame. If it's in the red zone and Brock is out, I just trust Silas more than Sanders to get 3-5 yards.
  • OL: I think they had an off game. Penalties, missed blocks in certain parts of pass protection. Campbell seemed very pissed with them all game. But hey, we had 160 yards rushing and won by 33 pts.
  • Manning - I know this is not a loved take on this board, but his offense at the moment is balanced, unpredictable, and plays to our strengths. He is leveraging Hunter's arm to open up the run game, that needs to be our go to all season long.
Special Teams

- The punting was better the first two games where we averaged about 45 a punt (on the non blocked ones). This unit still terrifies me gong into conference play.
- The kicker Gilbert is perfect on the year. But good grief get the punt unit under control. After a few games this should not be so shaky.
 
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clonedude

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Apr 16, 2006
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JMO but the punting issues are more about the formation and less about the punter.

The blocked extra point today was because one of the lineman got his ass blown up.

Agree completely on both points. Our punter isn’t really that slow IMO, just horrible blocking scheme.

And someone really got blown up on that blocked xp.
 

StLouisClone

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Apr 16, 2006
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St. Louis
I didn't watch today's game, but I noticed we had trouble again scoring touchdowns in the red zone. I know against Iowa we got into trouble at times by trying to change the play call which puts too much pressure on our OL.

Our scheme on punts makes no sense at all. Why don't we just emulate what everyone else is doing because they rarely ever get a punt blocked or even get close to having one blocked.

We could have won 10 games the last 2 years in a row with better special teams. Remember the kick returns by Louisiana. I noticed Ohio had a long return today.
 

stewart092284

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Sep 22, 2021
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Agree completely on both points. Our punter isn’t really that slow IMO, just horrible blocking scheme.

And someone really got blown up on that blocked xp.
Both are true. He is slow getting the ball off but not excessively - and the scheme is poor. Put the two together and well, last week happens. I'd have to look up how tall he is but he also seems to take huge strides. I haven't checked the depth of the up man but that could also be part of the problem depending on how far he steps towards the original LOS


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I agree that there were plenty of good plays and a lot of guys stepping up.
9 penalties is way too many though and we're going to need to tackle better.
Agree on the depth - I'm not sure when we had so many players who seem ready to contribute.
Very impressed with Verdon.
Thought maybe Shaw's best game I've seen.

Offensive line - I thought played OK. I can't say we didn't maul them up front because we were so pass heavy at times but I do think it wasn't a great game but the 1st sack was on Dekkers holding the ball.

Dekkers - continues to impress though obviously coach is correct on the turnovers. He's got to continue to value the ball.

Running backs - my word, do we have some guys. I'm good with all of them playing. I think Brock's the clear #! at the moment but they are all good enough IMO. Good for Hanika and Moore to have some nice moments. Bitter quietly becoming a reliable depth option at receiver is nice and nice to see Gaines getting his first catch.

Defensive line - really great versus the run again, hope that continues. But we need to get a better rush - I know its difficult in a 3 man front but if its needing MJ Anderson out there, IDK, but QB's have at times seemed to have far too long unless we were blitzing. Someone else needs to do something so Will can get a couple more one on ones than he's currently facing.

Linebackers and secondary were good. Very happy for Anthony Johnson to finally get that first interception. Looking forward to getting Beau back.


------------------------------

Hopefully Beau, Remsburg and Norton are all ready to go for next week. With Kansas serving notice that they aren't an easy out this year, starting 4-0 would be massive. Gonna be tough but I think possible.
 
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CloniesForLife

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Apr 22, 2015
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I didn't watch today's game, but I noticed we had trouble again scoring touchdowns in the red zone. I know against Iowa we got into trouble at times by trying to change the play call which puts too much pressure on our OL.

Our scheme on punts makes no sense at all. Why don't we just emulate what everyone else is doing because they rarely ever get a punt blocked or even get close to having one blocked.

We could have won 10 games the last 2 years in a row with better special teams.
At one point I saw we were 6/7 for TDs I thought. That seems pretty good
 

Aclone

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Dec 14, 2007
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Des Moines, Ia.
The great, the good, and the just so-so.

I. Defense
  • Speaking of young pups. #95 Dominique Orange could be the best noseguard we have recruited since Atyba Rubin. He is playing well as an 18 year old on the d line, amazing.
Offense
  • RB: I think Deon Silas is really starting to take over the #2 RB spot. He makes more miss than Sanders and shockingly has the ability to move a pile with his stout frame. If it's in the red zone and Brock is out, I just trust Silas more than Sanders to get 3-5 yards.
Special Teams

- The punting was better the first two games where we averaged about 45 a punt (on the non blocked ones). This unit still terrifies me gong into conference play.
- The kicker Gilbert is perfect on the year. But good grief get the punt unit under control. After a few games this should not be so shaky.
Edited for brevity.

A. I seem to recall that Tuba actually joined the team after the semester started, and yet played the first game, and was starting shortly thereafter. He was in horrible shape when he arrived, but two years later when the NFL Draft rolled around, was sculpted.

Dominique reported in poor shape in January, but is clearly in solid shape now. In summer camp, Eli Rasheed was just delighted about him being “down to” 6’4” 350. Called him an SEC type DT.

With 2 1/2 more years in the weight room, Domonique is probably looking Tuba in the rear view mirror for “best NT”.

B. Not sure I agree with you about Silas “moving the pile”. He’s not really that listed 5’8”. Sure, he “ran over” one guy, but that guy took a horrible, low angle, and didn’t even try to grab anything.

One of the last couple of games, a defender ran solidly into Deon behind the line as he tried to go left, and just plain rag dolled him.

C. One of the “bad” punts was on the pooch punter, Garbarini. And Perkins missed hitting one solidly, but still got a little roll. His other two (including the one tackled at the two) showed plenty of leg.
 

WhoISthis

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Oct 6, 2010
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As CMC said going into halftime, we’re better than that. Even though the score was a blowout.

I don’t know if Wilson and Jackson will get their reps back. More for these TEs/Rus and RB. X, Noel, Shaw, Stanley, and Bitter should be able to handle the WR duties.

We have the weapons on offense to be very multiple and diverse, perhaps harder to defend than a year ago if Dekkers plays like a veteran.

The Ohio DL had some size, but we struggled to get to second level and to the outside. Would love to see us use Sanders more in space and designed runs to the edge.