Here's one thing that still astounds me about this game: alot of the problems that plagued OSU all year still were a problem this year.
- They had a leaky defense all year, and gave up 39 points this game. Now, you could argue that 13 of the points weren't really on the defense. 6 came from the kickoff muff and 7 were in garbage time. And they didn't allow a play over 50 yards, and the only play over 30 yards was on the last drive. So they played somewhat better than normal...but still gave up 39.
- They committed a ton of penalties, especially in the secondary. 12 penalties for 150, and I believe 5 were either defensive holding or PI.
- The offense wasn't great near the goaline. They were 3-5 scoring TDs in the redzone. However, they didn't score their first red zone TD until they were already up 15, kicked FGs their first 2 red zone trips, and only score TDs on 2 of 4 goal to go possessions. After the kickoff debacle, they had a chance to get the TD back with a first and goal inside the 5 right before half, but settled for a FG. At the time, I thought that was killer.
- One place where they ere much better was OLine. Haskins was never sacked and rarely hurried. If you take away Campbell's 78 yard jet sweep (which I believe was officially changed to a pass, even thoughit's essentially a run), theyaveraged over 5 ypc. Not quite as lethal as the JT Barrett or Zeke or Braxton were, but with how well they threw it, 5.2 a carry is fine.
This was basically they same team that got killed by Purdue, got gashed by Oregon State, didn't blow out TCU, Minnesota, Maryland, Indiana and Nebraska. They just executed a little better on the OLine. If we get the same team back next year and fix those flaws....