The 2002 BCS Championship season brought us some great games. Games built upon a solid defense and some amazing play on special teams. It was the year when the punt became an offensive play – drop the ball in the three yard line, back them into the endzone, pressure the three and out punt and suddenly we’re in scoring position. And while the offense sometime struggled, the defense was a thing of beauty.
Mark Dantonio, who lead the Buckeye defense to Pheonix in 2002, now leads Michigan State. I’ve been saying for some time that sooner or later this team was going to be a threat and this may be the year.
Michigan State comes into this game 6-1 with their only loss coming on opening weekend to Cal. They are currently ranked #20 and find themselves in a three-way tie for the Big Ten lead with Penn State and the Buckeyes. With this weekend’s game against the Buckeyes, Penn State and Wisconsin (and yes, Michigan) still to come, it’s unclear if they’ve really been tested. They did however end Northwestern’s 5-0 run and won a close one over a much improved Iowa.
Like the Buckeyes (at least last week’s version of the Buckeyes), they have a powerful defense with an offense struggling to find its stride.
No question the MSU defense will be putting the pressure on Pryor from all sides. The Ohio State offensive line will have to step up and slow down the MSU attack. Two weeks ago, we heard that Tressel was letting the defensive line have it and it worked. In Tuesday’s press conference, it there were signs that the offense was getting the same treatment. There were no offensive awards given for the game against Purdue and in a Coach Tressel way, he was pretty hard on them.
So it comes down to this. Can the offensive line open up the passing lanes to let Wells and Pryor through. If so, then we’ve got a game on our hands. Not to state the obvious but Pryor needs to loosen up with the ball and not be afraid to pass it or even through it out of bounds. However, don’t think for a minute that Dantonio won’t put everything into stopping the run.
The MSU secondary has been somewhat banged up the past couple of weekends. Pryor needs to take advantage of the situation and show some confidence in his passing game. If Pryor can connect, the Buckeyes have a chance of winning comfortably. If not, this will become a defensive struggle that could be anybody’s game.
The Buckeyes are only favored by 3. Let’s hope we can put more than a couple of field goals on the scoreboard this week.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Mark “Dontello”….. I think it’s Dantonio
Yep, I even checked the spelling before I wrote the post.
Sorry about that.
MSU is currently 6-1, not 5-1. The secondary is also much healthier all ready than it was even last week.
OK. I need to just start over with this post.
I do think that the secondary is where the Buckeyes can capitalize.
Pryor needs to really learn from last week. He had some reads he didn’t attempt , and a option play that had he handed it to Beanie……Beanie would still be running right now. Also Pryor needs to stop taking sacks……..more reps , more reps. And the one thing Pryor isn’t doing is turning over the ball.
The recievers need to #1 Get open……..and #2 Catch the ball.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Tressel commented on the missed option play saying that he told Pryor, “…if you’d have handed that one to Beanie, he might be in St. John’s lobby.”
That was one of the better Tressel comments I’ve heard in a while.
(The press conference is linked in the article above.)