Wolverine247 Board

There are highlights on MGoVideo if you want to watch.

Their o-line was beyond terrible and Braxton made a ton of mistakes (nobody wants to talk about his awful INT before the half). They have a true freshman receiver who looks pretty good. Basically they're identical to what they were last year before the suspended players came back.

Very amusing you say their offense is identical to what they were last year...... We shall see....I believe Michigan gave up 34 points to Ohio State last year when their offense was HORRIBLE....you better hope they aren't any better on offense this year....

I'm a betting man, and I'll bet their offense is in top 2 of the conference....The next year, when Meyer gets him a couple playmakers, the Big Ten will see a totally different mindset in Columbus....Tressel got a lead, sat on the ball and didn't mind the other team coming back and keeping close....Meyer wants and expects to score every time his team has the ball...there will be no letting off the gas anymore....Luckily, he's not in Columbus to make friends around the conference, if he can score 50 he will not call off the dogs.

You can say your offense was horrible last year (which it was), but was significantly better towards the end of the season, given the gained experience from the younger players, and those who got free tattoos and cash for memorabilia returned from suspension. Totally different offense against Michigan then what you had against Michigan State.

Really? Create an account just to ask about the Ohio spring game on here and you post on bucknuts pretending to be a Michigan fan and saying you watched the spring game and are scared of the buckeye's DL? How did you watch how good the buckeye's DL is but you have to ask Michigan fans what happened in the game? Another buckeye troll

here is this clever fellow's other thread

http://ohiostate.247sports.com/Board/121/Spring-game-thoughts-from-the-other-side-9189137/1

Agree. People who say Miller looked good must be going off the box score. I dvr'd the entire game and watched it later and he didn't look good at all to me. His footwork was terrible and he he regularly threw late into traffic. He should have had at least 3 interceptions, but the defenders dropped the ball on two of them. With hard work, he clearly can improve as a passer but he will almost certainly live and die by his feet again in 2012. Kenny Guiton is a better passer at this point in his development. Still, IMO Ohio clearly has the best athletes on defense of anyone in the B10. I still don't know how we hung 40 on them last year (or FWIW how they scored 34 on us). That was just a bizarre game. If Urbie can get his defense playing up to potential, it should take a lot of pressure off of Miller and provide plenty of breathing room for the new offense.

They scored 34 because Greg Mattison sold out the corners on deep patterns by bringing the safeties up to focus on Miller's legs. The strategy sort of backfired because Bollman got lucky or predicted Mattison's strategy, and Posey ran a lot of deep posts that Countess and Floyd could not keep up with him on.

I'm sure Mattison's butthole was puckering when Michigan TDs started getting called back, but it still went according to plan: Mattison sold out on the run game because he didn't think Miller could beat his defense with his arm. A few miserable overthrows and a game ending interception later, it turned out he was right.

And from what I saw of the spring game, Miller looked a lot like Devin Gardner with bad footwork. Bouncing in the pocket, indecision, and a very inconsistent motion when he wants to put touch on the ball.

Oh, and it appears that their offensive line is more of a weakness than their defensive line is a strength at this point.

Don't care

I'll give you guys an honest opinion reguarding our spring game from a Buckeye fan... Braxton was ok. Not great, certainly not terrible (as some of you stated above) He made some really nice throws. The one that stands out to me is the back shoulder throw to I believe to Chris Fields on the first drive of the game for a gain of 20-25 yards. The ball just looks better coming out of his hand. No wounded ducks. I was impressed with his knowlege of the new offense as well. I don't recall seeing too many broken plays or guys not knowing where to line up, which wouldn't have surprised me being it's a completely new offense..... He did make some bad decisions as well. The INT was a really bad overthrow, and he could have easily thrown a couple more. You do have to remember that basically he couldn't run the ball, which is a big part of his game being taken away. All in all, it was just ok. However, he's a 19-20 year old kid who's still getting better.... As for offensive line, I'm worried. We have no depth. I like the starting 5. Mewhort and Norwell will make up a great left side. Fragel has seemed to trasition really well from TE to RT. But if someone goes down, we could be in real trouble. Decker will probably be our top backup, and he's just a true freshman. A lot of our success this season will be determined my the health our OL. WRs is another positon of worry for me. It was nice to see Philly Brown make some catches in traffic. He dropped a ton of balls last year. Michael Thomas looks to be a player. I just don't see a true playmaker in the bunch. Someone who can catch a 5 yard in or out pattern, make a cut and turn it into a 30 yard play. Still really young at the position, so we just have to hope that guys continue to get better. RBs our the least to worry about on offense for me. We won't have a 1000 yard rusher, but thats just because so many guys will be carrying the rock. Rod Smith ran really well, and Hyde and Hall will be solid. ..... As for the DL, we're in really good shape. Tons of depth. Spence and Washington aren't even on campus yet.... LB's should be solid. Shazier is a beast. The development of Curtis Grant will be key..... DB's are a concern for me. Roby will be an all-conference performer before his time is done. But the safeties scare the heck out of me. I pray we land Vonn Bell in this recruiting class..... All in all, the defense is way ahead of the offense. Our season really depends on Braxton's continued development, and on the play and health of the OL. Schedule sets up really well for us this year. Kind of like the way it set up for you guys last year. Worst case, 8-4. Best case, 11-1. Sorry to ramble for so long guys. Just wanted to give you an honest perspective from a Buckeye fan.

Thanks for the insight

I was able to catch a little bit of it last night. I recall seeing one set of downs where the OL was so bad that Braxton would have been destroyed on 3 consecutive plays. After reading how much I had about how "awesome Mike Thomas" is, I was expecting to see the next Calvin Johnson, only to see some receiver running 5-10 yard crossing patterns over and over and over again.

The DLine looked pretty darn good, but as "those people" always wanted to point out to us when we said our Offense looked good, "that just means your defense is horrilbe!". I'm a firm believer that Defense does in fact, win championships. But if your OL sucks that bad, Braxton can't hit a broad side of a barn, and the offense can't get first downs....your defense is in for some very very long games. Which means, they get tired awefully quick which results in injuries and losing football games.

In a year of transition, I expect Ohio to win 8 games this year and only due to as they again, like to point out: "favorable home scheduling".

Great post and thanks for the analysis. One guy who certainly stood out for me was Shazier that guy is an instinctive playmaker and he laid out some pretty big hits just in that spring game. Crazy that he's only a true sophomore. It makes me excited to see which of our new LB recruits can maybe have an instant impact like that although we have pretty solid depth returning at the position this year. Still hope guys like
Bolden and RJS can shine through cant wait to see them in the fall.