Well, after having a little time to reflect on the debacle that was last night’s game, I’ve come to the conclusion that these are the things that went wrong:
- Emotionally flat and rusty team, and the 51 day layoff clearly did not help.
- Field position in the first half. When giving a team fields of 5, 6, 32, 34, & 46 yards in the first half it’s no surprise that it leads to 27 points.
- Penalties. See above. Big contributing factor to field position on two drives.
- Ted Ginn’s injury. It shrunk the field dramatically.
- Turnovers. The Bucks turned it over through fumbles and interceptions. Florida did not.
- Befuddled defense, thinking too much rather than reacting. Applying no pressure to the opposing QB. It’s a mystery to me why we were only rushing 3 and 4 and not blitzing.
- Offensive play calling, we weren’t attacking their weaknesses nor were we taking advantage of the mismatch in the run game to free up passing lanes.
- And the key problem: Offensive line play. Tackles Alex Boone and Kirk Barton didn’t stop the Florida defensive ends all night. As a consequence, any advantage held by the Buckeyes of receiver vs. secondary was negated. The O line flat out stunk it up last night.
To their credit, the defense got it together and played a strong 2nd half holding Florida to 7 points after the bloodbath that was the first half. But the offense, and in particular, the line, never got it together. Credit Florida, they played a great game. But I think the Bucks contributed to their success.
That’s it, no more about this game until next season.
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Tune: Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2
Technorati Tags: Ohio State | Florida | National Championship | Mike Harding Blog
Well, I was at that game. from 2:00 in the afternoon, through Script Ohio and through til the bitter end. We were on the field all day until the game started. It was very exciting – right up until the second kick off.
Its like OSU did not show up. My hubby calls it the Heisman trophy curse. (He’s an OSU athelite alum)
So sad…
Holly