Fiesta Bowl is Here: Let’s Do This Thing!!!

(A Video from the beginning of the season but it still works)

Things have been relatively quiet here at The Buckeye Blog lately and to be honest, I’m not so sure I missed much. Here we are though, five days after what should be the end of bowl season, getting ready for the Buckeye’s biggest game of the season…on a Monday night.

All that aside, we’ve got a game tonight and nothing short of national redemption is at hand.

This game will come down to two things.

2) Beanie Wells

Let’s start with the D

I think the Ohio State secondary has the ability to keep up with the Long Horn/Big 12 passing attack. If the Buckeyes can pressure McCoy, keep him off balance and pressure him some more, then we’ve got a good shot at this game. Face it, they don’t play defense in the Big 12. When your football scores are higher than your basketball scores, yeah, there’s an issue at defense.

However, the Bucks have traditionally struggled against the spread offense. They held a high scoring Penn State in check (but so did USC) and stopped the MSU running attack but that doesn’t say much about a spread defense.

Practicing against a quarterback like Pryor has to help though.

The Buckeyes need to keep the Long Horn offense off the field. Don’t give them the chance to get the momentum going. Once they do, they will be very difficult to stop.

2) Beanie, Beanie, Beanie

In order to keep the Texas offense off the field, the Buckeye offense needs to perfect the long slow drive. Texas will be ready for the Wells running attack. The question is, can they stop it. Texas hasn’t met a back with the physical presence of Wells and even if they are prepared, he may be able to stiff arm his way to first down after first down.

Just before the holiday’s the big talk was of putting both Pryor and Wells in the backfield with Beockman taking the snap. While that may be interesting and might have caught Texas off guard, at least for a moment, it isn’t much different than what we have with Pryor at QB. It fits the long slow drive theory and I do like the idea of a powerful run coming from either side of the ball.

The Buckeyes need three yard, cloud of dust stuff punctuated with an occasional big pass to keep Texas off balance. Not to state the obvious but Texas can’t win if the offense isn’t on the field to score points.

Key to the game

Keep the score low. If this turns into a shooting match, the Buckeyes won’t be able to keep up. If Texas pushes their score into the 30 pt range (and up), we’re in serious trouble. If the Bucs can hold them, then we’ve got a game on our hands.

The Buckeyes have a powerful class of seniors playing in their last game tonight. The one thing these guys are missing is the big win in the big venue (Michigan 06 aside). Unfortunately, they’ve faced the difficult defeats.

Tonight is their chance for redemption.

If the seniors are up for this game and play to the talent they’ve got, the Buckeyes will end the season with a much needed win.

Prediction:
OSU 21
Texas 17