5 Things from Mich St.
By Chris Lauderback elevenwarriors.com
BEST GUNNER I'VE EVER BEEN AROUND
In Urban Meyer's world, every one is the best he's ever been around at something. Yesterday, Terry McLaurin was handed the crown as the best gunner Meyer's ever been around.
“It’s with great reverence I say that, because you go back all the way to Brad Roby to Devin Smith to Denzel Ward, Gareon Conley (other gunners that Meyer has had at Ohio State) … Terry’s as good as there is,” Meyer said. “Terry’s taken over the title as the best as I’ve ever had.”
Indeed, McLaurin showed awesome awareness and hand-eye coordination downing a handful of Drue Chrisman punts inside the 6-yard line during Ohio State's big second half.
What might get lost in those heady, athletic plays are the contributions he made on offense as part of a 5-catch, 63-yard outing.
McLaurin's toughness and strength turned three receptions into first downs as he fought for yards after the catch including a really impressive 3rd-and-6 haul in which he spun over and through a defender, outstretching the ball to move the chains on Ohio State's final scoring drive of the day.
I just love the way the dude goes about his business, always willing to do the dirty work and he's a great leader by example. The icing on today's win came as McLaurin's efforts pushed him over the 1,000 yard receiving mark for his career.
He now stands at 1,011 receiving yards on 66 catches with 16 touchdowns in his Buckeye career.
Terry McLaurin now has 1,011 career receiving yards after a 5-catch, 63-yard day against the Spartans.
ON GUARD
Ever since Meyer's arrival he has noted this is an offensive line driven program. And over the years he's had some damn good ones. This year, he has his worst. Michael Jordan has been serviceable as a blocker but his snaps as a first-year center are still unpredictable and a pair of seniors in right tackle Isaiah Prince and left guard Malcolm Pridgeon continue to struggle.
Yesterday, even with a Jordan snap causing a turnover near the goal line and Prince getting worked by Michigan State's Kenny Willekes, Pridgeon really struggled.
Beyond issues in executing his blocking assignments, Pridgeon committed two costly penalties, vaulting into a tie for the team lead with seven through 10 games.
On 3rd-and-7 from the Spartan 17 after having already given up a sack on the drive, Dwayne Haskins appeared to pick up the conversion with a 12-yard run to the 5-yard line but Pridgeon was whistled for a 15-yard hands to face penalty wiping out 1st-and-Goal, instead putting Ohio State in a 3rd-and-22 at the 27-yard line. Two plays later, Blake Haubeil pushed his field goal try right to keep the game scoreless.
Early in the third quarter, after Ohio State had moved the ball from its own 35 to Michigan State's 35, Meyer decided to go for it on 4th-and-1 but Pridgeon committed a false start forcing the Buckeyes to instead punt the ball away.
Like it or lump it, left guard has been a problem against virtually every legit opponent and coupled with Prince's struggles in particular, the Buckeyes are running out of time to shore things up in the trenches if they don't want to get exposed in a few weeks.
CHRISMAN PUTS HIS FOOT IN SPARTY'S...
It didn't look like it would be Drue Chrisman's day after his first punt of the day traveled all of four yards, setting a new Buckeye record.
Chrisman would settle down after the shank, going on to drop six of nine punts inside the 20 with all five of his second-half efforts downed inside Michigan State's own 6-yard line including efforts to the 5, 6, 3, 1 and 2-yard line, respectively.
Two of those final five were also key field-flippers traveling 53 and 44 yards.
Forcing Sparty to start with awful field position the entire second half was huge as it only further exposed the tragedy that is Jim Bollman's offense.
Backed up against its own goal line and rotating between a quarterback with a bum shoulder and another with a bum haircut, Michigan State gained a total of 27 yards on four of those five possessions, fumbling for an OSU touchdown to end one possession and taking a safety to end another.
On the season, Chrisman has dropped 26 of his 44 punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line.
Drue Chrisman turned in a legendary performance with five punts downed inside the 6-yard line.
TATE COMES IN LATE
Talked about for weeks as Ohio State continued its struggles in the red zone, Tate Martell made his first appearance since the Tulane game back in September, helping loosen up a rushing attack that's been gasping for air for large stretches of the season, particularly in the red zone.
Meyer would often pay lip service to reporters' questions about Martell being an option in the red zone but he didn't see the field as the Buckeyes scored three touchdowns in 12 red zone trips over the last three games.
Yesterday, however, Meyer changed things up and inserted Martell as Ohio State faced 1st-and-Goal at the Spartan 6-yard line in the first half. Martell kept for five yards on the play and Parris Campbell would score on a jet sweep – from Dwayne Haskins – two plays later.
Martell also saw action as Ohio State faced a 3rd-and-3 up 19-6 in the fourth quarter. With Mark Dantonio's defense respecting the quarterback run, Martell guided the Buckeyes from the MSU 27 to the 4 where a 3rd-and-Goal play fell victim to a horrible snap from Michael Jordan resulting in a turnover.
Even with the turnover, there's no denying Martell helped create some alleys for the running game and it wasn't lost on Meyer who offered postgame, “I think we’re going to do more of that.”
I'm still astonished at the inability of the braintrust to install straight up running plays with a non-running quarterback that can consistently get some yards but here we are. On one hand, it feels like admitting defeat to install Martell. On the other, maybe that's a good thing because through nine games, they'd really only remotely cracked the code on that approach a couple times.
SIGNS OF LIFE
Keeping in mind Michigan State's offense is a steaming pile, Ohio State's defense still showed some signs of improvement in an effort that limited the Spartans to just two drives of 33+ yards and two field goals.
I can't give the defense too much credit for two of the three turnovers considering two came on self-inflicted fumbles though Shaun Wade did record Ohio State's first interception since October 13th against Minnesota.
The defense did hold the Spartans to 274 total yards (86 below season avg) including just 54 on the ground (71 below season avg), 47 of which came on one play, but some of that was due to the green and white falling behind and throwing it 48 times compared to just 18 rushing attempts.
And while the quarterback situation in East Lansing is dreadful, the coverage was largely solid except for a nice day from Cody White (8 for 115) as the combo of Lewerke and Lombardi completed 18 throws, or 37.5%.
With the passing attack on ice, Sparty converted just two of 16 third down tries.
It's probably not a coincidence the linebackers seemed to play a little better knowing the back line is in much better shape with Brendon White opposite Jordan Fuller instead of Isaiah Pryor who had missed 36.4% of his tackle attempts through eight games.
The defense still allowed eight chunk plays but that's a decrease from 10 last week and 16 the game before that so we'll take it.
In all honesty, I'm still not sure what percent of the defense's statistical improvement is the result of positive changes versus what percent is the result of playing against a terrible offense void of a functioning quarterback.
10 Things We Learned from Michigan St.
by Tony Gerdeman theozone.net
1. As the running game picks up, the pass protection is slipping.
The running game has improved, but I wonder if all of the focus on run blocking played a part in how poor the pass protection was against Michigan State. Or maybe it was a simply a matter of neither Thayer Munford or Isaiah Prince being ready for MSU defensive end Kenny Willekes. Willekes finished with 13 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and a sack. He had both of the OSU offensive tackles spinning. Pass protection has been pretty good for most of the year. Maybe this was just a bad matchup for them, but it is something to watch as the Buckeyes creep toward Michigan Week.
2. The secondary is finally settling.
The Buckeye cornerbacks were finally healthy, which meant that they were back to their normal three-man rotation. The safeties have finally settled, as Brendon White is at boundary (strong) and Jordan Fuller is at field (free). This has also allowed Shaun Wade to focus more on his nickel position. Wade was thrown at six times and gave up just one 5-yard reception. He also came away with an interception. Right now, the secondary is finally settling down, and it’s about time.
3. Dwayne Haskins does not have the best pocket presence.
There were times on Saturday when Dwayne Haskins had an opportunity to step up into the pocket and avoid the pass rush but it didn’t happen. I would expect him to step forward on a few of those plays, and when he didn’t, I had to remind myself that he just made his 10th career start. He’ll get better at his pocket awareness, but there will still be blind spots this year.
4. Tate Martell is still on the team.
Who knew? It is a very significant development that Urban Meyer has agreed to allow Tate Martell to play in games that are not already decided. If we saw him on the road at Michigan State, then we should also see him against Michigan. And even if we don’t, the Wolverines are still going to have to prepare for him. Perhaps against MSU and Maryland we will only see Martell run the ball. He won’t throw it until Michigan least expects it.
5. Jim Tressel had to be torn.
Jim Tressel loves Ohio State, he loves Mark Dantonio, and he loves his nephew Mike Tressel (who is MSU’s defensive coordinator), but perhaps more than any of that, he loves punting. While Drue Chrisman’s first punt of four yards couldn’t have been pleasing, everything else that he and the Buckeye gunners did on the day had to be appreciated like only a true punting aficionado can do. While Tressel had to feel bad for Mark Dantonio, the fact that the Spartan loss came via the punt perhaps eased the pain.
6. Michigan State’s offense was made for OSU’s defense.
Michigan State’s 274 yards of total offense were the fewest the Buckeyes have allowed since Tulane managed 256. Part of that is because of quarterback Brian Lewerke’s bum shoulder, and part of that is because the Spartan offense doesn’t necessarily ask opposing linebackers to do anything too out of character. There were times when OSU’s man defense forced linebacker Pete Werner to split out past the numbers in coverage, but MSU never went at him to take advantage of what could have been a mismatch. Instead, the Spartans threw the ball a bunch with two quarterbacks who were incapable of being accurate.
7. Mike Weber rushing for 104 is significant.
Michigan State’s rush defense is legit. Ohio State is just the third team to rush for over 100 yards against MSU this year. Beyond that, however, is the importance of Mike Weber rushing for 104 yards on 22 carries. He kept plugging away and rushed for 56 yards on Ohio State’s final two possessions. Last week, it was J.K. Dobbins salting the game away. This week it was Mike Weber. The fact that the Buckeyes have two guys now with recent experience running out the clock shows that they are running as tough as Urban Meyer was asking them to do.
8. This offense misses Austin Mack.
I kept waiting for a linebacker to step in front of a Dwayne Haskins slant pass and take it back for six. At times, it felt like that was the only way the Buckeyes felt comfortable throwing the ball. Gone are the days when they could move the chains with Austin Mack out wide, or perhaps anybody out wide. So they have had to turn their eyes inside to passes over the middle to move the chains. While there is plenty of room to operate, it is not unusual for linebackers to go unseen by a quarterback on some of those slants and meshes over the middle.
9. Dwayne Haskins hears the talk.
Dwayne Haskins hears what people say about his running ability. He was criticized for sliding early against Nebraska, so when he finally showed that he can run hard against Michigan State, he was excited. Of course, the run in question — with his head lowered and him successfully fighting for yardage nearer and nearer the goal line — was called back due to penalty. Haskins said after the game that he was “salty” about that play coming back. It does show that he is interested in proving people wrong about his toughness, which is a step in the right direction.
10. The defense is more confident than it was a week ago.
The Michigan State offense will make most defenses more confident, and that’s exactly what they did for the Buckeyes this weekend. The coaches were excited about OSU’s performance on that side of the ball as well. While the performance is relative to the offense that the defense is facing, we have seen this defense give up plays against bad offenses, so it is a positive thing that the Buckeyes did what they were supposed to against Michigan State’s offense. As such, the defense as a whole is feeling better about themselves. That confidence is a good thing, but if the Buckeyes don’t perform against a twitchy Maryland offense, then confidence could become an issue against Michigan.
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