Care: Jeremiah Smith is the best first-year player since Orlando Pace

I'm going to get this out of the way quickly. I think the only other player in contention for this is MoC and I believe Smith is better. End stop.

It remains to be seen if JJ can come up with plays as meaningful as Clarett's strip of Jonathan Taylor in the title game, but JJ is a better overall player. He has the size, speed, catch radius, hands, etc.

I would be confident in saying he's a top 3 receiver in the country right now and have the arguments to back that up. He's unreal. I know Chip has plays drawn up specifically for him, like tonight's running TD, and Smith is going to be a pleasure to watch for three seasons.

He will go down as the best receiver we've ever seen at OSU if his career just continues at this level. If he improves he's approaching college football GOAT. I'm sorry if that's hyperbolic but I don't think I remember a freshman coming in with his level of hype and meeting it, or even exceeding it. I love having him here and he isn't a diva either. He's a great Brotherhood teammate which is even more amazing to watch.

Don't Care: For Peacock's production team

Peacock deserves some praise. Their "Key Plays" feature is awesome. I had to step away a few times tonight and I was able to catch up afterwards for any major gains, scores, or turnovers and jump right back into the game. I haven't seen that anywhere else before and I love it. I also enjoyed some of their field-level camera angles on replays that allowed us fans to see the game in a new way.

That being said, the commentator audio was shit and they didn't have much to say of value. It just felt like this was low-budget and I'm happy we only had the one game on it. There's no reason to keep pushing this because nobody is going to become a long term subscriber for a single game.

Care: Knowles' timidness.

Jim Knowles was a great hire. I believe this wholeheartedly and haven't thought of wavering from that belief. But everyone is open for criticism in his position.

Right now it feels like the entire first half of games is focused on "feeling out" the other team, instead of starting immediately with attacking them and catching them off guard. We sit our corners back way off the line and keep the plays in front of us. We allow yards but not points. But against better teams those yards will end up resulting in points.

We aren't soft. But we have holes in our defense and our passivity early in games reveals those holes to OCs who can then target them (Sonny Styles, I see you). We need to start the games more aggressively, within reason, and adjust if need be.

We make great second half adjustments, but what happens when we play a team with equal talent that can continue trotting out guys who keep up with ours? We'll end up giving up points early on, then end up exhausted trying to stop them in the second half.

Against Iowa next week I would love to see some press man, more Arvell Reese, and more blitzing on early downs in the first quarter.

I do feel required to mention the lack of Tyliek Williams this week as well. He's one of the best DTs in America and his absence is notable. But I felt like our line played better this week than last week, which was great to see. And the snaps the backups are getting in these games are invaluable.

Don't Care: Michigan's success

As an OSU fan I don't give a damn for the whole state. End stop.

But as for their football team's success...they had a second week in a row in which they got extremely lucky they escaped with a win, at home. Minnesota is a not a good football team and should have won the game if PJ Fleck could have sold out to stop the run earlier. Even with Loveland back in the game it made little impact because Minnesota was able to shut Michigan down when they actually tried.

Mullins is a great running back. Will Johnson is a top pick. The DTs are exceptional. Beyond that Michigan kind of blows. Just fucking coach better, everyone who plays Michigan, because they are extremely beatable.

I fucking hate them and them winning anything, and they are getting lucky right now. I can't wait for that to come back around.

Care: Our passing game and Will Howard showed some life

MSU defended the run really well tonight. I'll have to watch some replays and rely on some great coverage from the 11W staff (and community) to explain in more detail, but the first half was especially tough sledding.

Will Howard looked great once he needed to pass the ball a bunch. Yes, he had the interception and the other dropped INT in the end zone.

The interception was a bad read, but the corner was actually covering JJ (I think) and peeled off before the throw. It was great coverage and if the ball was fired a bit faster, or held half a second longer, the throw would have either not been a turnover, or completed to JJ for a much longer gain. I'm not as disappointed in it after looking at the replay.

The dropped INT was just a bad pass. No excuses. But it was a learning experience and no QB is immune to those throws. I trust Howard and I'm not loosing hope because of that throw.

For the rest of the game our passing offense was on fire. We had great routes, world-class blocking, and outside of two inexcusable drops by Egbuka (what the hell, man), Howard was picking MSU apart. It gave me a lot of confidence in our ability to throw the ball when relied upon, which was a question I had this week leading up to this game. I'm happy to see Howard throwing accurate balls, throwing anticipation routes, and hitting our guys in stride.

Don't Care: Speical Teams drama

Unless I missed something, we're back on track with special teams after this week. Our return game wasn't crazy explosive but it was flawless, and our kicking game was flawless as well. I'm inclined to believe Fielding really did have a tweak of some kind last week because his kicks looked great tonight.

Special teams is not going to be a worry this season and I love that. Even if there is an error or two, they appear to be true flukes and not consistent issues with our personnel. That makes me very relaxed and happy.

Honorable mention: Caleb Downs is a terror

I had to mention him. His ability to tackle in the open field and come downhill and hit people is better than anyone I've seen since Mike Doss. Truly. His hype was legitimate as well and wasn't just a product of a sub-standard secondary around him at Bama last season. He can clean up almost anything and his heads-up plays that reduce the yardage the offense gains (at least 3-5 per game) are so fun to watch. The first tackle he truly misses will be the first I remember seeing, and he hits hard.

We are lucky to have him.