cmarlow's Blog

STL:

I'm an admitted life-long Buckeye fan ... and wow, did they look like crap today!  And I don't want to hear anything about Beanie Wells not playing.  Ohio State should be able to beat Ohio at home by 30 without him.  The Bucks looked extremely average, didn't dominate the lines of scrimmage, poor in the kicking game (which you never see out of a Tressel team), and consistently gave up big plays on third down to a mobile Bobcat quarterback.

I never once thought that they would lose the game but it does have me worrying a bit for next Saturday at USC.  I think the one saving grace is that the Trojans have a dropback QB in Mark Sanchez, because the Bucks defense (even though it made some big plays) didn't do a good job of containing Ohio's QB ... "Boo" whatever his last name was.

Then again, a wake up call against Ohio may be just what OSU needs, a good kick in the behind a week before their biggest game of the season.  But after losing rather lopsidedly (sp?) in the last 2 BCS National Title games you'd think they wouldn't really need any extra motivation.

Bottom Line ... Ohio State wasn't good today.  But if it's close in the 4th quarter next Saturday against USC, I'll take Governor Tressel every time.  Since 2005 the Buckeyes have only lost 2 close games: to Vince Young and Texas in '05 (Troy Smith's 1st game that season) and last year against Illinois (I don't want to talk about it). 

So now I want to hear from all you Buckeye haters!  Do they have a chance in LA next week?  Could Mizzou beat them?

Charlie Marlow