A very cool day for our opening home game today. (60 degrees) Buckeyes on top of Northern Illinois 35-12. Troy Smith and Ted Ginn pick up where they left off in the Fiesta Bowl. Smith was 19-25 for 297 yds and three TD's via the air. Ginn ran some excellent routes and and was the recepient of two of the three touchdowns. Pittman ran for 111 yards. Chris Benie Wells, the top freshman tailback looked good, but did fumble on a almost certain TD. Defense was very agressive and a lot of speed. Heacock was shuffling players in and out all day on the defensive side of the ball. A little disappointed in our missing two field goal attempts, although one was from 52 yards. The two fumbles inside the 10 yard line were also disappointing. Northern Illinois has one fine running back in Wolfe, who racked up close to 175 yards and 111 in receiving. He is small but 4.5 speed and a very deceptive water bug! On to Austin next week and Colt McCoy, who had a very auspicious start with 4 TDs. Don
Congrats <t>Nice game,<br/> <br/> That Wolf is a great one and will be playing on Sundays. He had a similar game against UM last year.<br/> <br/> So far the Big 10 is looking good, but I was stunned to see Purdue give up so many points.</t>
I thought the Bucks looked very good, Don. N. Ill is a good football team and the Bucks had that game put away by the second quarter. The player who put a lump in my throat was your freshman running back, Chris Wells. Early in the game, he catch a short pass from Smith and then just blew by three NIU with an incredible burst of speed. I was at an Ann Arbor bar watching the game with friends after watching M's sluggish, sloppy performance against Vanderbilt and that play, along with comparing how crisp Ohio looked compared to Michigan, spoiled the taste of my Cajun chicken sandwich and beer. Pittman is a good back but this kid's talent is flat-out scary. The Texas/OSU game will be the must watch game next week. My guess is that there will be 10-15 players on the field who will be playing on Sunday down the road.
I was very impressed with the Ohio State team yesterday. You guys looked awesome on both sides of the ball. I fear I will have to be content with the fellowship of hanging out with Stu and G-Man, rather than enjoying a sweet victory beer next week! While the Longhorns looked good and I was glad to see the win. North Texas is not an opponent in the same class with NIU, so it's far less impressive than the win you guys got yesterday. Terry
I too was impressed with the Bucks. I thought that Tressel could have named the score if he wanted to but after a blistering first half, he took his foot off the gas. If I had to vote on a Heisman winner today, I'd give it to that Wolf kid. He's a really talented runner. Mike Spending the weekend in New Albany.
Terry, I was wondering about the difference between North Texas State and Northern Illinois. Still should be an interesting game ! Gipper, Tressel does not like to run up the score. Which New Albany are you spending the weekend? Don
Don My daughter that teaches at OSU lives in New Albany, OH. She lives about a mile east of Hamilton off of Dublin-Granville rd.
[ I fear I will have to be content with the fellowship of hanging out with Stu and G-Man, rather than enjoying a sweet victory beer next week! Terry, Do you have tickets for the game? Tell G-man I said hello. Don
We entered the season certain of the strength of the offense and question marks about the defense and kicking game....after the opener, we have not learned anything new. The offense will be explosive, the youngsters on defense are fast, athletic and prone to make the mistakes of youth. The NIU RB Wolfe is truly an outstanding back - great vision, patience, quick feet and jets. When our kids took bad pursuit angles, he'd continually make us pay by finding - and having the skill to get there - the unoccupied cut back lane. He's just a little guy, but I'm sure he's gonna play on Sundays - great 3rd down back. Smith and the offense looked almost flawless before Coach shut it down...Smith was outstanding and never even had a chance to make a play with his legs. All the plays he made were downfield from the pocket. Impressive depth at WR and RB although Ginn looks a little quicker this year - :wink: - the young RB Wells will be special, but imho Pittman is one of the most underrated, least talked about backs in the country. OL has a chance to be one of the best - NIU never got with the same zipcode of Smith, unless by design. Kicking game????? Hmmmmmmm - we've been spoiled. This could well be the achilles heel. Punting and coverage units looked solid, but FG???? After seeing the young Longhorn McCoy's coming out party, I just hope we can keep it respectable! Terry