-Don't take anything away from the Buckeyes, they were good value for their win. We got a little taste of Terrelle Pryor's upside Friday, didn't we? We expected him to be mobile, to move around in the pocket and make tacklers miss, but I don't think many people (apart from Jim Tressel and his coaching staff) envisioned Pryor throwing the ball 37 times, and completing 23 of those passes.
And when Pryor and the Ohio State offense came up short, the Buckeye's defense bailed them out. The D-line pressured Jeremiah Masoli almost every time he dropped back to pass, and didn't allow the Ducks running game to wear them down. The secondary held up well too: Masoli only had 81 passing yards on the day.
-Moving on to the Ducks, you have to say that, given the performance of the offense, they had little hope of winning this game. I haven't seen Oregon's offense look that toothless and one-dimensional since the very beginning of the year. One stat (apart from Masoli's 9 completions) that perfectly captured the game was the number of Duck first downs. 12. For an offense that prides itself in moving the ball, and going on long but fast drives, that's a number that kills you.
The Ducks had 26 first downs against Cal, 31 against USC and 25 against Oregon State in the Civil, their three biggest wins of the season. But they couldn't get that momentum going on offense. 12 first downs, that's approaching Boise State territory (they had 6 in that game).
Ohio State managed to keep the Ducks in third-and-long all day, and Masoli does not yet have the vision, poise and touch when he passes the football to beat a defense as good as Ohio State through the air in obvious passing situations.
To me that's something that Chip Kelly has to work on this off-season. Get Masoli a package of plays that he is comfortable executing in those obvious passing situations (from the shotgun if necessary). And that doesn't mean he has to throw a lot of long balls either. Utilize the team's speed by throwing good screens and tossing LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner the ball out of the backfield. Oh, and get the offensive line to work on its pass as well as its run protection. Masoli needs more time back there in those situations.
-Given the team's woes on offense, and the resulting extra time they had to spend on the field, I thought the defense actually gave a fairly good account of themselves. The secondary did get beat a number of times by the explosive DeVier Posey and Pryor did rack up over 70 rushing yards, but the front seven did also get to Pryor quite a bit (Kenny Rowe, my defensive MVP this year, picked up three of Oregon's four sacks) and held Brandon Saine and Daniel Herron to under 100 yards on 28 rushes.
-Finally a quick mention for special teams. If there was one huge positive to take from Friday's game it was the performance of special teams. Time and time again, they gave Oregon a lift with a big return, and prevented Ohio State from doing likewise. 204 yards of kickoff and punt returns: that's a huge number. They did a fantastic job of setting the table for the offense and giving them great field position.
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