Grade the Buckeyes: VaTech

[WANG]

Overall B-

Offense - B-: Went scoreless in the second, two turnovers (one in garbage time, but still), struggled getting the power run game going (albeit it's tough to do against the Bear 0). Lots of bright spots, though. Miller is a bonefied threat, Thomas looked great, Jones played a nice game (though he made some questionable decisions and got lucky he didn't turn it over more than he did), Zeke averaged 10 ypc. It was an alright start, but there is a lot to clean up.

Defense - A-: Although they gave up 24, 7 were garbage time, and 17 were off of turnovers. Forced 2 turnovers, both at crucial junctures in the game. Just over 300 yards given up, very nice. Gave up one long drive, however, and got burned several times due to blown coverage.

STs - D: Would be lower if not for great KO coverage. Missed FG, KO out of bounds, almost no punt return yards, a shanked punt, and a muffed punt. Ugly, ugly STs outing.

Coaching - A-: Good game plan, took advantage of the Bear 0 look, the team was ready and pumped. The second quarter was an unmitigated disaster, but adjustments were made at half and OSU dominated.

[Deleted]

Overall: B

Offense: B - Two turn-overs definitely hurt, but the O got going outside of the second quarter. I am also taking into consideration the suspensions and the impact they may have had on the dropped balls/space issues

Defense: B - The secondary scares me - Conley played stellar (though got away with a PI in my opinion on the OSU pick in the second half). Bosa will make a huge impact and I anticipate he is going to cause a lot of issues through proxy as he is double teamed leaving Washington 1:1. Bring Lee or McMillan in and holy crap. Still, that secondary...

STs: C - How do you kick the ball out of bounds on a kick off!!!! Eze gets a pass for me on his muffed punt. Shouldn't have happened, but that isn't his forte, plus a left footed kicker

Coaching: A- - this would have been a B had Meyer not gotten the offense going again in the second half. No more speed option with CJ though....

[victor2111]

Give them a B.

Offense was good but could have been better and that is saying a lot since they went against a really good defense.

Defense was good but also had a few mistakes in the secondary.

ST was bad.

Coaching was alright. Not a huge fan of the play calling.

But road night game to start the year off, against a decent team, and you win 42-24 WHILE missing a few starters....have to give them at least a B for that. Just shows the potential this team really has.

[Deleted]

Okay, I'll do it....

I give them an A
First game of the year in one of the most hostile environments on a Monday night against a good VT team and come out with a win, gets an A in my book.
Sure, tOSU looked sloppy at times and had some mistakes, but looked like they were in mid season form for the most part. I never felt like we weren't in control and in any danger of losing. The second quarter was mostly tOSU's doing and I expected to see some bumps in the road from time to time throughout the game, given it was the first game. There's some things to work on, but not terribly concerned about anything, really. It's going to be an amazing season and tremendously fun watching all these athletes make other teams look silly.

Biggest disappointment of the night for me was ST. I expect that to improve dramatically starting next week.... this week.

[angrybaldman]

Offense: The playcalling was a bit suspect at times. A Heisman potential running back getting so few carries. Urban calling JT plays for Cardale. Despite those handicaps I think the team on the field performed very well. Miller is obviously a devastating weapon. A-
Defense: "It will take more than that to get me off the field. I'm from Texas" Michael, meet Adolphus Washington. A-
Special Teams: A couple crappy punts, a fumble, a missed field goal. D

Overall Grade: B+ (curved up for the first game and being on the road)

[WANG]

Sept 8, 2015 10:13:06 GMT -5 angrybaldman said:

Offense: The playcalling was a bit suspect at times. A Heisman potential running back getting so few carries. Urban calling JT plays for Cardale. Despite those handicaps I think the team on the field performed very well. Miller is obviously a devastating weapon. A-
Defense: "It will take more than that to get me off the field. I'm from Texas" Michael, meet Adolphus Washington. A-
Special Teams: A couple crappy punts, a fumble, a missed field goal. D

Overall Grade: B+ (curved up for the first game and being on the road)

I never like to laugh at a player getting injured, especially a college kid, but a chortle snuck out after they showed that speech from halftime, and maybe 5 minutes later he gets his collarbone snapped.

I guess a broken bone = "a lot more"

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2015 10:30:15 GMT -5 WANG said:

Sept 8, 2015 10:13:06 GMT -5 angrybaldman said:

Offense: The playcalling was a bit suspect at times. A Heisman potential running back getting so few carries. Urban calling JT plays for Cardale. Despite those handicaps I think the team on the field performed very well. Miller is obviously a devastating weapon. A-
Defense: "It will take more than that to get me off the field. I'm from Texas" Michael, meet Adolphus Washington. A-
Special Teams: A couple crappy punts, a fumble, a missed field goal. D

Overall Grade: B+ (curved up for the first game and being on the road)

I never like to laugh at a player getting injured, especially a college kid, but a chortle snuck out after they showed that speech from halftime, and maybe 5 minutes later he gets his collarbone snapped.

I guess a broken bone = "a lot more"

I agree - I don't like it when anyone gets hurt, but when he initially went down had the thought 'well that will teach you to run your mouth'. I don't think there was any malice in the hit, (I'm sure the D didn't even know he had said it), but it was hard, driving tackle.

[buckeyebikerbabe]

B- Too many turnovers and a missed FG. Both Tyvus Powell and Eli Apple got burned a couple of times, but also had some good plays.

[WANG]

Sept 8, 2015 10:40:28 GMT -5 @grumor said:

Sept 8, 2015 10:30:15 GMT -5 WANG said:

I never like to laugh at a player getting injured, especially a college kid, but a chortle snuck out after they showed that speech from halftime, and maybe 5 minutes later he gets his collarbone snapped.

I guess a broken bone = "a lot more"

I agree - I don't like it when anyone gets hurt, but when he initially went down had the thought 'well that will teach you to run your mouth'. I don't think there was any malice in the hit, (I'm sure the D didn't even know he had said it), but it was hard, driving tackle.

For sure, it was a clean play.

[Deleted]

I give them a C+. VT is simply not a good team, even with Brewer. The O looked explosive at times, but as some pointed out, the play calling at times was bizarre to say the least. The main concern I would have is the defense. The middle of the field was pretty wide open, and if not for a few VT drops, the deficit could be more at the half. Also, if Brewer stays in the game, I still think OSU wins, but it would have been very close.

I would also be concerned about Cardale. I know he is a hoss, but man he took a lot of low shots last night. Those add up as the year goes on.

And I would not worry too much about the special teams other than the FG unit. Elliott should have never been back there, and that will be remedied with Marsahll coming back.

All in all, a decent win against an average team at best, but you always feel good walking away with an opener on the road like that,

[Deleted]

Also, the WR core deserves an A for sure. There was a drop or 2, but between Braxton and the new guys, they looked very tough last night.

[mauricxe]

Special teams: F.
missed FG, punts aren't so good, but our kick coverage is 2nd to none. Fumble by Elliot was a disaster.

Defense:
A
For the most part, they controlled the line of scrimmage. They bottled up the Vtech run game. You're doing your job when the opposing QB gets knocked out.

Two hiccups on pass defense allowed Vtech back in the game.


Offense:
B-

Playcalling was atrocious. This game was closer than it had to be. Speed option with Cardale....really? Direct snaps to braxton were meh aside from the TD run. Eze needed more carries.

This team executes and never quits. I'll give them an A overall. The coaching staff gets an F.

[keln]

Well, "Nine Units Strong", so I'll grade that way (combining the DBs and adding STs as a unit). Using Meyer's philosophy, the lowest graded unit will be the overall grade:

Quarterbacks: B+ - The QB play was pretty good. There were some bad decisions by Cardale which could have led to turnovers, but for the most part he and JT executed well.

Running Backs: A > Against a defense designed to shutdown the run, even with less power running plays than normal, Ohio State managed to put 360 yards on the ground, 160 of which were by the RB unit. I didn't see any indication that there are any issues with the RBs, especially Elliot, continuing to eat up yards from here on out. Receiving by the RBs was also pretty solid.

Tight Ends: A > The Tight Ends did their part, mostly with blocking which was important with how many players VT was stacking the line with. Vannett had a solid 11 yard reception to get a first down on a 3rd and 7 play to keep a drive alive (which terminated with a missed FG).

HB/W Receivers: B > For the most part, the receivers did a great job making some big plays. Miller especially made a couple key plays (albeit one from the Wildcat position) and Michael Thomas of course made his presence known as a deep threat to keep the VT defense honest.

OL: C > Considering the type of defense the Offensive Line was up against, I'll give them a C instead of a D. They didn't allow any sacks (which is a big deal really) and they kept most things in front of them. They did allow penetration to Cardale a few times, forcing some bad passes (especially the deflected interception), and they didn't exactly push the VT line around like they were other D lines late last year. They did still manage to open up some holes for a little bit of power running, which is impressive against that defense, but it's probably a good thing the Buckeyes didn't have to depend on that too much. Also, there was a lot of holding going on that wasn't being called, as well as a couple that were called. Add to that Jacoby Boren's unsportsman-like conduct, the O-line was solely responsible for most of the Buckeyes' 58 penalty yards. Not good.

DL: A > The Defensive Line did an excellent job. VT had 44 rushing attempts and the D-Line held them to only 128 yards for a measly 2.8 ypc. They also got a couple of sacks as well as some brutal hits on the VT quarterbacks (the biggest of course knocked their starter out of the game). They kept up the pressure and pretty much dominated the VT offensive line the whole game. Great job.

Linebackers: B- > Mostly a good job adding to the pressure the defensive line was giving and also playing the under pass coverage, with the exception of allowing VT to burn Ohio State with a couple bootleg/misdirection passes, getting suckered to one side of the field and leaving a VT player wide open. Maybe the DBs share some of the blame, but the linebackers are the first line of defense in coverage. You don't need the entire defense to stop a potential running play (unless the runner is named Ezekiel or Braxton), so this was simply blown coverage that led to huge plays for VT.

DBs: B > Overall the defensive backs did a good job. The new kid Conley had some 8 tackles and even half of a sack, and while VT did have some limited success on some big passing plays, the DBs truly did keep that "limited". Eli Apple getting juked by a fullback who went into score was pretty bad though. That has to be a sucker-punch to any corner's pride.

Special Teams: C > Special teams were overall average. I'm not going to say they were horrible, because for every muffed punt (1) and missed FG (1) and kickoff out of bounds (1), there were more positive plays on special teams. Overall the kick/punt coverage was pretty good. Kick returns were irrelevant since the ball was being kicked so deep. Punt returns were average, other than Elliot's fumble. Kickoffs were all fine other than the one out of bounds. And the kicker never tried another FG, so it's hard to rate based on a single kick since all kickers, even the best kickers, miss single kicks they "should" make. They make up for it by making most of them. Obviously, the turnover thing on special teams has to be dealt with, but then Elliot won't be the one returning punts when Jalin Marshall returns Saturday off of suspension. And we know how Jalin Marshall "adjusted" himself after his own bout with fumbles.

Overall: C

So the Buckeyes did average. I know by an eye test you could make the case for better than average, but when you break it down unit by unit, you can see the apparent issues. Any one unit can lose a game, and so those are areas that need to be fixed. The biggest are obviously turnovers, the defense reading misdirection plays, offensive line holding and other mistakes, and special teams play. I can't say I'm worried though. Last year during this same game, same time, at home, the team was an F. They then went on to be an A+ and win a championship. Now they're starting at a C.

That ain't too shabby.

[cwerph]

Special Teams - F; Missed FG, Kickoff out of bounds, Kickoffs resulting in touchbacks, fumbled punt return. Get it fixed before it matters in a real game.

Offense - B+; playcalling was a mystery; Cardale still tosses the ball up for grabs sometimes; blocking broke down big time, 3 bad snaps; 2 drops; otoh, Braxton Miller - as special as could be expected.

Defense - C+; looked lost several times; stats would have been much worse had Brewer not been injured.

Overall - B