And now, for an actual recap
by Sam @ WWAHT on Sep 5, 2009 4:54 PM EDT
12 comments
Alright, enough p***ing and moaning. What went wrong, what went right?
The Good
- Pryor is definitely improved as a passer. He's no longer getting happy feet after he stops dropping. He's looking downfield, even if he 's not even seeing the open man. He's willing to hit the backs when everyone else is covered. He's putting the ball where only his guy can get to it. Yeah, that late pick was ugly and we could've gone without that, but overall, he has made some serious strides.
- Run blocking up until the fourth quarter. Justin Boren wasn't dominating, but Michael Brewster did a fairly good job, and in general, in the interior moved the smaller Navy line back, which is what we wanted. Remember: against Ohio, Northwestern and even Youngstown State, we didn't see this early last year.
- The defensive line frequently got penetration, but when they did, they went a bit too hard after Dobbs, allowing the pitchman to take the pitch and get outside.
- Rolle is a little ball of mean intentions. He was all over the field, and that INT runback was sensational.
- Saine looked good. Still a little hesitant to take a big hit, but he looked solid both running and catching the ball.
- Sanzenbacher also looked solid in two respects: catching and returning punts. Taurian Washington should borrow some of his hands.
- Kurt Coleman. Rough start, getting bowled over by that Teich kid at one point, but he finished solidly, with a pick and a forced fumble.
- Gibson was solid, but not quite as dominant as I expected him to be.
The Bad
- Anderson Russell. As good as Coleman was, Russell was frequently equally bad. He gave up that late long touchdown pass, he frequently misdiagnosed plays - biting on the fullback, not follow the pitchman - and if it wasn't for that downed punt (was that before Navy's 99 yard touchdown drive?), it would have been the worst day of his career.
- The offensive tackles. Jim Cordle and Andy Miller were pretty bad in pass pro. No on one the line could pick up a blitz, but these guys also struggled when the Middies brought pressure with four, and sometimes three. Keep in mind Navy was operating out of a base 3-4; meaning that these guys were frequently matched up against linebackers, and neither displayed the footwork necessary to slow them down.
- The run-blocking in the fourth quarter. Ohio State got absolutely no push whatsoever on that fateful fourth down play, and neither Saine or Herron could consistently get loose when Ohio State really, really badly needed to run the ball.
The Downright Confusing
- Chimdi Chekwa looked like the exact same guy he was last year. I noted in the live thread that he appears to have improves his tackling, but he's stinking up the joint in coverage. When Navy picks on you, something's up. This kid needs help.
- Missed extra point? Where did that come from, after booming that 52-yard field goal?
- Taurian Washington. Dude couldn't catch a Peter North-used Hustler magazine with Velcro gloves. Yeah, I said it. Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but you get the point.
- Who expected Navy to literally ram it up the middle of the Ohio State defense with such frequentl success? The Navy fullback could be counted on for five yards on every first down.
- Ricky Dobbs. Dude scored on the same play twice, following the fullback lead for a touchdown run, and Ohio State never adjusted. In fact, they looked progressive more lost each time Navy busted it out.
- Justin Boren. No, he didn't do awful, but where was the dominance? The fire he was supposed to bring to this line?
What does it all mean, Basil?
That there is a very real possibility this could be the longest year since 2004. The secondary has issues. The pass protection has issues. The defensive line still can't stop anyone on 3rd-or-4th-and-fewer-than-4. As much progress as Pryor showed, the other returning starters - outside of Brewster and Coleman - seem to have regressed. I'm willing to chalk the overall uncomfortable closeness of this game up to three things:
1. The team is young. Twenty-two first- and second-year guys on the two deep.
2. Playcalling was pretty vanilla up until the second half. I don't expect Tress to pull out all the stops against USC - in fact, I'm not sure he'll get the chance to - but we didn't break out the option, no-huddle and misdirection until Navy made the game interesting. I think the playbook has opened up a bit.
3. Navy is probably just really good. I'll be banking on this for the rest of the season. If they finish 8-4, this is a better-looking game than say, the Ohio game from last year.
Still, I can't help but be perturbed by all this. Perhaps I'm overreacting. Your thoughts?
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I only caught the first half, but I am definitely worried about pass protection. We dwarfed their line and still couldn’t keep their front four from getting pressure. Pryor looked good, especially when he hit Sanzenbacher for the first TD, but a faster team most likely would have gotten the sack.
by CraigD on Sep 5, 2009 8:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, Pryor was able to run away from the Navy defense to buy more time to throw but he won’t be able to do that against USC. I do like that he’s looking down the field better and he made some really nice throws while running. I was surprised to see Duron Carter in the game so much and he was thrown to quite a few times. Posey wasn’t much of a factor, outside of that one nice catch over the middle for a first down.
USC is going to be running the ball all night long on us if our D-line doesn’t improve. I can only hope that we were confused by the triple option and we’ll have better containment against USC’s backs. Our running game will need to look a lot better next week to have any hope of winning the game. We should have been able to run the ball much better against the Navy defense. I have a feeling we’re going to realize that Herron and Saine aren’t Beanie.
by Buckeye Brad on Sep 5, 2009 9:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Tressel was saying Posey had an ankle injury so I think that is why he wasn’t in there and probably why there was more Carter.
Unfortunately, backs like Beanie are hard to find. I actually thought Saine looked a lot better than last year, it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up starting.
by Big Red Dog on Sep 6, 2009 9:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Oh yeah, I know that Beanie was a special kind of running back; his blend of power and speed was very rare. What I meant by that comment was that our running game is going to suffer this year more than people think it will (unless our O-line plays much better). It was obvious watching Herron run that he just can’t make the runs that Wells did. Saine did look better; maybe he can be the guy to get the bulk of the carries.
by Buckeye Brad on Sep 6, 2009 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Not sure about some of your analysis.
First, how can you give a positive rating on the run blocking. All day they couldn’t open many holes or push back the small Navy D-Line. Not to mention, they were in a 3-4. We should have been able to win this game by calling 50 straight runs up the middle, but we couldn’t get the push or open the holes.
Making this problem even more apparent- Herron looked terribly mediocre. I think he broke about 1 tackle all game. Saine looked better, but I was pretty disappointed in the effort by the running game.
Agree on Pryor, he looked very good. The INT wasn’t totally his fault and otherwise he seemed to have things under control and hid the mistakes of our pass protection.
Defense was the real problem though. I expected Navy to put up a some points, but they couldn’t get stops when they needed and made fewer plays that I would have liked. The secondary had a weird assignment with the option attack, so I’m not going to read too much into their performance. Great linebackers can kill an option offense. Too bad we played Navy with the most suspect group of LBs at OSU that I can remember. The were a step (or five) slow all day long. Really disappointing.
All that said, Navy is a good team. They were 8-4 last year including a close loss to Notre Dame and a win at Wake Forest. And I think they look better this year. Are they Big Ten caliber? Probably not, but let’s put it this way- they are closer to BYU than they are Southern Charleston (or whatever that school Florida played tonight was called).
All-in-all, this is was a win. Against a gimicky and solid team, we allowed it to get interesting in the 4th, but we were never trailing, in control of the game the entire time, got some experience for our guys, and get to go into the SC game 1-0.
by Ryan Kelsey on Sep 6, 2009 1:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I was considering moving the run-blocking to the "downright confusing" category
but kept it in the “positives” category because I genuinely think it was leaps and bounds ahead of where it was against say, Ohio last year. There was a push, but the backs – especially Boom – weren’t always reading it.
As far as the LB’s, I think Spitler is just flat-out slow. I was expecting the staff to have worked a bit on his speed – or at least have developed a method to compensate for it somehow – but instead, he was just getting outworked by every Navy ballcarrier. That leg injury may still be causing a hitch in his giddy-up.
www.wewillalwayshavetempe.com
by Sam @ WWAHT on Sep 6, 2009 2:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Justin Boren. No, he didn't do awful, but where was the dominance? The fire he was supposed to bring to this line?
He ingested four Serious Meat pizzas from Donatos right before going out on the field… it was gas.
by Brodie on Sep 6, 2009 2:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
he is mean, and he swears like a real family.
by Chrisgocomment on Sep 6, 2009 2:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
You left out under "the bad"
The Tressel decision to go for it up by 15, when a field goal would have put us up 3 scores. Don’t let him slide. I am pretty sure the game would have looked much different without that.
Though to balance it out, why was Navy passing for the 2 point conversion? It seemed like they made 3 yards every time on the ground throughout the game.
by Big Red Dog on Sep 6, 2009 9:43 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Good stuff Sam
I thought this game reminded me a lot of last year’s navy/nd game in how navy came back and nearly caught the Irish in the end. So, I hope that makes you feel better.
by jamiemac on Sep 6, 2009 11:37 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
the d wont do as bad because they wont have to break down and read where the play is goin because usc will run more conventional off. unlike army who runs the trip option better than any 1 and gibson will be let loose instead of having to read where the play is goin
Pow Right In The Kisser!
by Cutch is the chosen one! on Sep 6, 2009 4:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I'm apparently not as panicked as everyone else.
I think Navy will go 8-4, or at least 7-5. They are a solid team, not San Diego State.
Our run blocking was mixed. We had far too much trouble getting short yardage, but there were also quite a few ten-yard runs where the backs got some good space to run.
Boom and Zoom both hit the first hole hard and kept going if there was anywhere to go. They both seem to be the sort of back who isn’t going to make plays out of nothing, but I noticed very few negative yardage runs – that is to say that if there’s nothing there, they’ll push into it and get 1-2 instead of trying to make something up the other direction. At this point in their development I’m ok with that. I think both of them showed some good moves when they had a hole to hit – I’m not as worried as I would be with Mo Wells or Ross at all. They still had almost 200 yards combined between the two of them.
For as bad as our run defense looked, we still held Navy to 100 yards below their rushing average from last year.
We moved the ball and scored on most of our possessions. We’re one horribly play by a safety away from most people feeling like this was a nice happy good opener.
I think this game was close because a young team eased up in the second half and started playing around a little bit. It’s their first game, they escaped, and most importantly, they learned from that while escaping. You can bet any time we have a two-possession lead in the second half the captains are going to be reminding everyone of this game.
Finally, I <3 Rolle. That’s the longest I’ve ever seen someone run for two points, and just about the loudest I’ve ever screamed. The bar I was in was going crazy over it.
by yrro on Sep 7, 2009 8:21 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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