2020 Game #1 | #5 Ohio State vs. Nebraska | October 23rd, 2020 @ 12 PM EST

[Rich]

Teague is my big concern.

I wasn't terribly impressed last year.

He runs with power. And that's it. His vision is below average. If the hole isn't right in front of him then he isn't gonna go find it.

 

[MGMT]

JK Dobbins didn’t dominate FAU last year in the opener but either way it’s obvious no rb on the roster is close to his talent level. Would like to see Chambers get more touches and Crowley when he’s ready.

And yeah, I’ve had it with Borland. I was interested in seeing how he looked since some coaching were touting some improvement in his running but it’s just the same shit with him.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

You look at Nebraska, and Florida State, and Texas (and now likely Michigan State)...and just remember it can always get worse.

So enjoy this ride while we have it. We arent always guaranteed to be a national power every single year wherein 52-17 is expected.

If Nebraska can fall this low for this long, anyone can.

Nebraska is not as surprising IMO. They are not in the best location to recruit, and have been irrelevant for so long. They have not competed for really anything since their split title with Michigan in 97. There last 1 loss season was in 1999. The have lost 4 or more games every year since 2004.

Florida State does surprise me, as they were on a roll until Fisher left. They recruited fantastic and always had the players. But from what I read the culture was not good and things were starting to breakdown when Fisher left. I think Fishers power grabs at FSU is what helped bring them down, and when he left there was a huge gap in recruiting. The tough part with all the Florida teams is that they all recruit the same pool, and you had Clemson became a national name and power house during the end of their run. If you think of the teams in the South, you have Bama, Clemson and Georgia all recruiting at a high level. To me it similar to what happened to Florida when Urban left, the difference is Urban is a much better coach then Fisher and was able to come to OSU who has a very strong culture and AD.

OSU definitely has been lucky as we have had 3 elite coaches in a row, and even Fickell has turned around Cincy. We have been blessed with good coaching and assistants during our run. I also think OSU has done a great job adapting to CFB, we had Tressel with great defense and ball control, then Urban with the run option, and now Day as more spread/pro offense.

 

[Kbiz]

Teague benefitted from Dobbins quite a bit last year letting him wear teams down. I just feel Chambers looks more explosive. I do like Teague in the red zone though.

I feel our O-line didn't do a great job of run blocking but can't really complain about the offensive production. Fields looked lights out, as is tradition.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

Teague is my big concern.

I wasn't terribly impressed last year.

He runs with power. And that's it. His vision is below average. If the hole isn't right in front of him then he isn't gonna go find it.

I agree 100%. Granted it was only game one, none of the RB seems to have that burst like Dobbins did. If there is one fault the past 2 years is our recruiting at the RB level. While I loved the focus on 5 star WR, the ability last year to count on Dobbins to burn clock and help the time of possession was huge. I was not a fan of how much Fields ran yesterday. Last year we had to keep Fields in the pocket because we had no backup, but this year, we need to keep Fields healthy because we don’t have a good enough run game if he gets hurt.

Let’s hope the OL can make a few adjustments and maybe Sermon gets back in form. I did not realize he has not played in almost a year. We also did not get to run many screen plays yesterday either to see his catching ability.

 

[Ohio]

Teague benefitted from Dobbins quite a bit last year letting him wear teams down. I just feel Chambers looks more explosive. I do like Teague in the red zone though.

I feel our O-line didn't do a great job of run blocking but can't really complain about the offensive production. Fields looked lights out, as is tradition.

Yeah, the run blocking was not good at all, which was a big surprise. Hopefully that gets cleaned up after reviewing the film.

 

[Rich]

Nebraska is not as surprising IMO. They are not in the best location to recruit, and have been irrelevant for so long. They have not competed for really anything since their split title with Michigan in 97. There last 1 loss season was in 1999. The have lost 4 or more games every year since 2004.

Florida State does surprise me, as they were on a roll until Fisher left. They recruited fantastic and always had the players. But from what I read the culture was not good and things were starting to breakdown when Fisher left. I think Fishers power grabs at FSU is what helped bring them down, and when he left there was a huge gap in recruiting. The tough part with all the Florida teams is that they all recruit the same pool, and you had Clemson became a national name and power house during the end of their run. If you think of the teams in the South, you have Bama, Clemson and Georgia all recruiting at a high level. To me it similar to what happened to Florida when Urban left, the difference is Urban is a much better coach then Fisher and was able to come to OSU who has a very strong culture and AD.

OSU definitely has been lucky as we have had 3 elite coaches in a row, and even Fickell has turned around Cincy. We have been blessed with good coaching and assistants during our run. I also think OSU has done a great job adapting to CFB, we had Tressel with great defense and ball control, then Urban with the run option, and now Day as more spread/pro offense.

That's my point with Nebraska.

They weren't just A power for a long time. They were one of THE powers. For many, many decades.

They're 8th on the all time wins list and they were like 6th as of last year until both Oklahoma and Notre Dame passed them.

So they weren't a program that found success with one coach, kinda like Florida State and Bowden. They were good for a long, long, long time.

And now they've been down for a long, long, long time. It hasn't just been a short-term blip. They played for a National Title in 2001 and had a Heisman Winner.

Since then, they've been largely outside of any national title contention. Oklahoma took over the Big 12 and Nebraska hasn't found it's way back since. That's a long time for a blue-blood program to be down.

 

[-Akronite-]

I think being a Cleveland fan, it's hard not to appreciate every win for the Buckeyes. I'm not going to take these years for granted because even if we never reach Nebraska's depths, we're simply not going to dominate the Big Ten at this level forever.

That said, since Hayes' exit we haven't had a single significant slump. That Fickell year was our bottoming out and we went to a bowl game. Every other program, including Bama, has faced tougher times. It's may not even be in our lifetimes that we become a Nebraska or Tennessee, even if it's inevitable at some point.

 

[Rich]

I think being a Cleveland fan, it's hard not to appreciate every win for the Buckeyes. I'm not going to take these years for granted because even if we never reach Nebraska's depths, we're simply not going to dominate the Big Ten at this level forever.

That said, since Hayes' exit we haven't had a single significant slump. That Fickell year was our bottoming out and we went to a bowl game. Every other program, including Bama, has faced tougher times. It's may not even be in our lifetimes that we become a Nebraska or Tennessee, even if it's inevitable at some point.

Yea, I just think when it looks like this it's hard to envision Ohio State going a decade w/o being in the national title hunt.

That's been Nebraska for two decades.

 

[Rich]

As for the game, Borland is what he is. He's slow. That's life.

Teague is a red-zone and short yardage back and as of right now, I think that's about it. Need to find a guy who is better on 1st and 2nd down right now.

Olave looks like a 1st rounder. OSU is definitely gonna make it's bread throwing the ball this year.

 

[Chris]

The stud LB class of 2022 seems lightyears away right now. I agree, our LBs as a unit leave a lot to be desired.

 

[Huber.]

You look at Nebraska, and Florida State, and Texas (and now likely Michigan State)...and just remember it can always get worse.

So enjoy this ride while we have it. We arent always guaranteed to be a national power every single year wherein 52-17 is expected.

If Nebraska can fall this low for this long, anyone can.

Ohio State has a rare advantage of being the only power 5 school in a state where football is king. They might not always be championship contenders but their down years will always be short lived

 

[Stark]

Tell me what the LBs were doing for the first half. Seemed always out of position.

Man, I don't know if it's because they're kind of slow at that position or the just overall positioning was off, but that was a brutal showing by the LBs all around.

Marcus Hooker made a few bad plays too.

Outside of that, thought the team looked really good after that possession by Nebraska. Would like to see Teague maybe get a bit better in terms of vision/decision-making. Seems like if his first gap gets filled, he'll just try to bully through anyways instead of trying to find another opening.