Only two more Saturdays before Buckeye football is back in our lives, which means two weeks of processing every Fiesta bowl scenario and result.
By kickoff, I will be emotionally dead. Nothing other than the local team winning the big game will resurrect my soul. If it loses, I'll walk away from my desk like a guy who just lost $500 of someone else's money on the roulette wheel.
STOPPING CLEMSON. Due to game-day responsibilities, I can't watch as much college football as people think a guy who gets paid to type about college football should watch.
But the only teams I've watched more than Clemson this year are Ohio State, Michigan, and Alabama.
From my view, Clemson's offense has two settings: "Bad" and "Will Run Your Team Off the Damn Field." It's a unique challenge for Ohio State.
From landgrantholyland.com:
1. Get Watson’s jersey dirty. The press-quarters scheme can only work with an aggressive and talented front four. The Buckeyes have that. But Watson has only been sacked 11 times this season (compared to Barrett’s 24), and Ohio State is in trouble if they don’t get to him early and often.
2. Emphasize the “press” in press-quarters. Against one of the best receivers they faced all year, Northwestern’s Austin Carr, the Buckeye secondary was absurdly generous. They gave Carr a 7-10 yard cushion play after play, and Carr gladly chewed up all the space they gave him. That can’t happen against Clemson’s playmakers.
3. Eliminate the home run ball. The Buckeye pass D has shown a slight tendency toward allowing loooong pass plays, coming in at just 45th nationally in preventing explosive passes. Jordan Leggett and Deon Cain made mincemeat of the Virginia Tech secondary on a few long plays, and if Ohio State gives them those same chances, the score might tilt in the wrong direction.
98% of fans love "press coverage," but it's a risky full-time gambit in a game potentially decided by a handful of plays.
But as the assistant to the offensive coordinators, I'd rather die by a Mike Tyson combo than 10,000 slant passes to a slot receiver.
TURNOVER GAME. Turnovers, folks. Teams hate to know them. They're just not good.
While we fans call for the big plays, Urban Meyer stares at his bedroom ceiling throughout the night worrying about a mistake tilting the game against his team. A mistake that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
From si.com:
Could self-inflicted wounds—or the ability to avoid them—play a major role in the Fiesta Bowl? Clemson, by a significant margin, gives back more yards per game via penalty than any other playoff team. The Tigers have been flagged for an average of 59.62 penalty yards per game, which ranks 93rd nationally. Ohio State is the next most error-prone by this measure, ranked 46th nationally with 48.33 penalty yards per game. (Alabama is 11th at 39.38 penalty yards per game, and Washington 37th at 47.54.) Clemson has a penchant for letting teams stick around, and stunting momentum with penalties is one way to accomplish that. The Buckeyes certainly can’t afford to have an uncharacteristically mistake-prone night against a Tigers team that doesn’t need the help.
Numbers about penalties against Meyer's teams shock me because it never feels as bad as the numbers.
But it's also perturbing because the East Columbus mafia assured me my $10 deposit into their slush-fund would keep these zebras off the local team's backs.
CARDALE JONES' MUSIC. The Iron King, Cardale Jones, First of His Name, Poacher of Badgers, Controller of Tides, Slayer of Ducks, Troll Sultan, and 12th Son of Ohio, has yet to start an NFL regular season game.
But the fourth-round draft pick is making moves in Buffalo.
From cbssports.com:
Jones has been impressed the coaching staff with his work ethic and effort to improve and will start splitting scout team reps with No. 2 quarterback EJ Manual, BuffaloBills.com reports. "I don't know what went on at Ohio State," offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn said. "But here, he's picked up the offense well. He's in meetings with all of the other quarterbacks and he comes early, leaves late. I've been very satisfied with his work ethic."
Jones has huge size at 6-5 and raw skills, but he's a major project and had trouble getting up to speed with the pro game this summer. However, it seems he's starting to catch on and if the team falls completely out of the playoff chase it's not out of the question the Bills could put him on the field for some brief playing time to see what he can do.
Sounds like Bills fans should start saving for Super Bowl tickets.
Jones, of course, is the latest Buckeye to impress the NFL with a combination of talent and work ethic.
From nfl.com:
Through the years, a lot of college programs have been cited as football factories, but Ohio State has to be viewed as the cream of the crop in 2016, given how the Buckeyes' most recent draft class has set the league on fire this fall.
Now, I'm sure legions of Alabama, LSU, Miami, USC and Florida State fans will come after me for essentially declaring Urban Meyer as the premier developer of pro football players, but it is hard to dispute the results to this point of the season. Not only are there a number former Buckeyes at the top of nearly every rookie statistical category, but they are quickly emerging as Pro Bowl-caliber players in Year 1.
Joey Bosa and Ezekiel Elliott (deservedly) get the majority of headlines, but don't sleep on Michael Thomas' season, either:
Michael Thomas got a lot of preseason buzz -- particularly from Saints coach Sean Payton -- and he's undoubtedly lived up to the billing in New Orleans. The 6-foot-3, 212-pound pass catcher leads all rookies in receptions (69), receiving yards (831) and TD catches (seven). He has quickly developed a rapport with Drew Brees and shocked opponents with his crafty skills as a route runner/playmaker. In a very talented receiving corps that also includes Brandin Cooks and Willie Snead, Thomas already has established himself as the WR1.
Elliott and Thomas are the only reason other than "I enjoy talking shit to my friends" for my 2017 return to the City of Kings' fiercest computer football keeper league.
Actually, there's a third reason: Picking Malik Hooker in the first round.
GOOD #JOURNALISM HERE. This is one of the best pieces about the Columbus knife attack.
From Holly Zachariah of dispatch.com:
[Kerri Riccardi] Strausbaugh and her husband haven’t watched much news since the attack, haven’t read any reports. They have instead been focused on healing, on prayers for the others affected and on praise for the first responders who rushed in as others fled.
Neither is angry. Strausbaugh said she harbors no hate in her heart.
“One second of trauma was over-washed by every moment of goodness,” she said. “Every moment after ... leaves me in complete awe of how good humans can be when they see another person in need.”
And that, my friends, is why terrorists can never win.
BACK TO THE LOCAL BROADCAST. I should have been a deep fried chicken vlogger and not a blogger with horrible opinions:
LOOL I'm dying, this kid goes around London reviewing chicken shops. pic.twitter.com/dfxeCuVJhJ
— vK (@ThatGuyVaris) December 8, 2016
Did he call that sandwich "Hench"? You're damn right he did.
hench
hen(t)SH/
adjective
BRITISH informal(of a man) strong, fit, and having well-developed muscles.
Definitely tucking that one into the lexicon.
THOSE WMDs. John Glenn and the courage of Mercury 7... Florida python ate three deer... Swedish recycling so revolutionary it ran out of rubbish... The Syrian protest singer everyone thought was dead... Romania using satellites to stop loggers from leveling its forests.
