October 8 - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Bowling Green Recap

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. It’s my weekly critique of The Ohio State University football performance.

Ohio State entertained Bowling Green last Saturday. It was originally a scheduled bye week, however, when the NCAA voted to allow 12 games this year, Ohio State filled the void with Bowling Green.

In the game, OSU beat BG 35-7 to maintain it’s #1 ranking and improve their record to 6-0. It was the first time in 13 games that OSU did not cover the spread (34.5 points). I had mentioned it in last week’s blog. It will now be known as the J3 Jinx (J. Jay’s Jabberwocky) ala the Sports Illustrated Jinx.

Ohio State achieved “bowl eligibility” with their sixth win of the year. We will always have the Motor City Bowl to fall back on should the apocalypse happen for the next six weeks in a row.



THE GOOD

• Scoring Defense – OSU allowed 7 points. It is now ranked as #1 in the country at 9.3 points per game. That number should only get better in the next few weeks.

• Turnovers – OSU recorded their 12th interception of the year to pass last year’s mark for total takeaways (fumbles and interceptions).

• Special Teams – A blocked field goal attempt and one excellent punt return were nice extras. I can’t remember the last time OSU blocked a punt. Maybe we should watch some Virginia Tech game film to see how they do it so often.

• Troy Smith – 17-20 and 3 TDs. He was named the Big Ten Offensive player of the week for the 2nd time this season. Smith’s 34-yard run on a 3rd and 25 play was inspiring. He REMAINS the Heisman frontrunner. Although that feisty Northern Illinois running back is making a strong case.

• First Drive – OSU did not come out flat against BG. They took the opening kickoff for a convincing score.

THE BAD

• Poor tackling – OSU continues to exhibit less than stellar tackling techniques at times.

• Injury – Two starters on defense had to leave the game early (Kirk Barton and David Patterson). Their status for this week is unknown.

THE UGLY

• The New Turf – The footing looked less than ideal. The new turf will have two weeks to take root before the next home game.

My WTF moment came when the local Cincinnati ABC affiliate (WCPO) decided to carry the Oklahoma –Texas game instead of the OSU game. The Dayton ABC affiliate had the wisdom to realize there were a lot more OSU fans in Ohio than Texas fans. This is the same network that titles shows Wife Swap and Ugly Betty, so we know that they aren’t the brightest.

I called the station to complain but the voice mail was full, huh? What do you think caused that? WTF.

Ohio State travels to dangerous Michigan State this week. The early line has OSU favored by 14.5 points.

GO BUCKS.