The Buckeye Beat

Battle In Happy Valley In honor of the upcoming, highly anticipated matchup between #4 Ohio State and #9 Penn State, I'm going to skip over the 49-6 victory over Tulane and that recap. Ohio State dominated from the start and took many of their key players out by halftime. It was a open-and-shut case; Ohio State won the game on Monday that week. Not much else to be said.  Now on to the big one. As an Ohio State fan, the white out games make me nervous, even though Ohio State has actually had a lot of success playing Penn State in recent memory. Since 2002, Ohio State has a 12-4 record against Penn State, including being 5-2 on the road.  So why am I so nervous? It's because I have post traumatic stress disorder thinking about Tamba Hali's devastating sack on Troy Smith and the subsequent fumble on our way to a 17-10 loss in 2005. It's because I remember watching the 2016 game (I admit, I actually was in and out of the TV room at a party), thinking &quo

Buckeyes Win Down in Texas The Buckeyes and the Horned Frogs squared up at AT&T Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas in a Top 15 match-up in the 3rd week of the college football season. In stand-in Head Coach Ryan Day's post-game press conference, he told reporters that he tried to prepare his players for a fight and to make sure they showed resiliency when they got hit.  And that's exactly what happened.  TCU came into the game with a clear game plan; get the ball on the outside and in-space and make Ohio State's linebackers chase and their defensive backs tackle. Get the ball out of quarterback Shawn Robinson's hands quickly to avoid pressure from the Ohio State defensive line. And that plan worked for 2.5 quarters. TCU hung with the Buckeyes and were up on the scoreboard for much of the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Robinson got the ball effectively to wide receiver Jalen Reagor, who had a nice first half, finishing the game with 7 catches for 98 yards. TCU runnin

Week 3 Preview and Prediction - Ohio State v TCU Preview Ohio State comes into their week 3 matchup ranked #4 in the country as TCU boasts a respectable #15 ranking. Both teams are coming off double-digit wins and presume to be coming into the contest confident. Although the site is considered neutral, being played at AT&T Stadium in Forth Worth, Texas, the TCU campus is a mere 27 minute drive to the stadium. TCU I watched the TCU game against SMU, a game in which the Horned Frogs beat the Mustangs 42-12 on the road. KaVontae Turpin seems to be TCU's best player and biggest offensive threat. Not only is he extremely fast, but his acceleration to top speed is impressive. He finished the game with four catches for 64 yards and a touchdown as well as another touchdown off of a punt return. The Ohio State defense will have to play well on punt returns as well as be aware of quick slants that will allow Turpin to get loose in the open field.  The TCU quarterback, Shaw

Big Win for the Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes picked up right where they left off at the end of Week 1 with a 52-3 win over Rutgers in Week 2. Very similar to last week, the defensive line was dominant, the receivers caught everything thrown their way and the dual-threat of Weber and Dobbins at running back is a luxury. That's not even mentioning Dwayne Haskins going 20/23 for 233 yards and another 4 touchdowns. No interceptions either, by the way. And lastly, Ohio State got some young guys a lot of playing time and the depth of the roster was on full display.  Takeaways As the competition gets better, it's still going to difficult to cover Ohio State's wide receivers for four quarters. Oregon State and Rutgers were two opponents that were over-matched and it was evident in many areas of the game, specifically how much time Haskins has had to throw and how open the receivers seem to be. One would assume that will change as Ohio State goes to play TCU in Texas th

Reaction to the Reaction When Urban Meyer was suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season, it was easy to think that the team had potential for a stumble out of the gates. Others, mostly outside of Columbus, were outraged that Meyer wasn't fired. So much so, that it lead to an ESPN First Take segment where it was stated that Ohio State must have been thinking to themselves, "we weren't winning before Urban Meyer got here." Great stuff, right? On Ryen Russillo's new podcast with The Ringer called Dual Threat, Colin Cowherd stated that Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma and "every other year," Ohio State have separated themselves from the rest of college football. Just as I was audibly yelling, "YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDD-" , Russillo corrected him and said he thought that Cowherd needed to include Ohio State as full-time on that list.  Uh, yeah. It doesn't really matter which year I pick to go back to, but let

Ohio State 77 - Oregon State 31 (W) Ohio State became the first college football team since Week 8 of 2008 to score 5 touchdowns on the ground and 5 touchdowns through the air against Oregon State in their Week 1 match-up against the Beavers.  Leading up to the season opener, it seemed like many people outside of Columbus, OH were curious to see how the Buckeyes would replace JT Barrett. For context, JT Barrett finished his time at Ohio State first in all-time Big Ten passing touchdowns and top 10 in passing yards and completions. However, close followers of the team saw Dwayne Haskins replace Barrett against Michigan last season in a victory and went into the season more confident than the rest of the country.  Haskins finished 22/30 for 313 yards, 5 passing touchdowns and 1 interception. He got the ball out quickly, accurately and seems to throw a very catchable ball for his receivers.  Mike Weber Jr. ran the ball 20 times for 186 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also scored o