Now for some real analysis of the game out in L.A.

I recall watching an NFL highlights film of the very first Superbowl, I think that it was Green Bay v. Kansas City and that guy with the great voice was giving out the high points of the game.  I will paraphrase:  Kansas City had some stars on its team, but Green Bay was a team of stars.

That’s what it felt like tonight as a Buckeye fan.  I felt that on any given play, we had three or four players that could play for USC (Terrelle Pryor being one of them), but USC had 11 players who were just simply faster (for their size) than the remaining OSU 7.  And that was true on offense and on defense.

Two plays heralded the outcome for me.  On the opening kickoff, four USC guys hit our return man at the 13 yard line.  It looked like blocking was either suspect, or that those USC guys were too quick to be blocked.  The second ill-omen was when USC got a 15 yard penalty, assessed on the kickoff after they scored an extra point, and they kicked off from their own 15.  Their kicker still kicked it all the way to our five yard line.  Their kickoff guy was kicking balls 7 yards deep in the endzone.  That isn’t supposed to happen after the powers that be moved the kickoff spot back 5 more yards this year.


The OSU players, after the game, were saying that mental mistakes did them in.  And mental mistakes were a big part of it.  But if you eliminated the OSU mental mistakes from the game, it would only have made it closer, rather than given OSU a chance to win.

The offensive line did not block well.  USC does a lot of blitzing, and Boom Herron let us down a few times when he did not pick up the rusher.  More on Boom Herron later, almost all it positive.  Because of the poor blocking, the absence of Chris Wells did not really hurt us that badly.  He would have been swarmed under like anyone else left unprotected. 

Something is going to have to change on the offensive line if we are going to win games against top ranked opponents.  Doing what we are doing is fine for the Big Ten and the non-conference patsies we have been playing heretofore.  But it just isn’t good enough against the quality.  I don’t know if it is coaching or lack of technique, or what.  But our guys are getting smoked on the pass rush and they can’t open up holes for the running backs.  If you can’t run block or pass block, there’s something wrong.

OSU’s defense never did get to Sanchez.  We sacked him one time when it didn’t matter late in the second half.  He had all day to throw, but he didn’t need all day to throw.  His guys were running open in the OSU secondary throughout the game.  Our one interception saved a touchdown, but the half ended and they got the ball back right away anyhow.

Todd Boeckman can’t be blamed this game for being ineffective since he wasn’t getting any blocking, but he can be blamed for throwing two interceptions.  Usually, Todd gets picked off when he throws into double or triple coverage.  But today, he got picked off by a linebacker he didn’t see and he got picked off when he couldn’t get enough mustard on the ball to throw it far enough out of play.  He didn’t cost us the game, but he sure didn’t help us out much.  His one good TD pass was called back on a holding call.  The fumble was not his fault as he got blind sided as he was about to release the ball.

Were there any bright spots for OSU?  Sure.  Hats off to Jim Tressel for innovative use of Terrelle Pryor.  There were a few wise folks out there who told everyone that Tressel was hiding the playbook from the likes of YSU and OU.  From where I sit, the playbook looked pretty impressive.  It was just that we were playing a team that had so much speed, it made our fastest guys look average.

Boom Herron impressed the heck out of me.  He didn’t break any long runs, but he hit the hole running hard, and when the hole closed on him, he carried that closed hole several yards forward.  There will never be another Earl Campbell, but Boom Herron showed some flashes of that type of running.

Wide Receivers Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline were breaking free on most plays, but the OSU QBs were under such pressure that they either did not have time to get the ball to them, or were so busy trying to stay on their feet that they could not spare the nanosecond needed to look up and see them.

Putting the inevitable snide comments aside, losing to USC on their home turf this year without our star running back 35-3 does not make the Buckeyes a bad team.  I think that we would kill Notre Dame on any field anywhere.  We’ll certainly fall in the polls (likely somewhere in the low teens) but that does not concern me if the Buckeyes win out.  I think that we will be in a BCS bowl this year.  While the National Championship is still possible (lots of teams are going to have some losses this year), I don’t see the point of putting us in the National Championship Game is our opponent is USC. 

Next year’s match up with USC will be a bit more interesting.  It will be on OSU’s home field.  Todd Boeckman will be gone and the team will fully be Terrelle Pryor’s.  USC’s status next year may be in question now that it is pretty clear that Reggie Bush and his family were accepting an apartment in L.A. with all expenses paid.

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