Defense did their part, Offense and Place Kicking?

In what looked like a loss, Ohio State pulled out a win against a weak opponent in Ohio University this weekend with decent defensive play and five take-aways.

By Steve Patterson

Kickers Missed a Couple

The Buckeyes were able to put points on the scoreboard against Youngstown State in week one with great kicking by both place kickers. Against Ohio University, the place kicking was a little off. Ryan Pretorius discussed the game afterwards. “I had all the confidence in the world coming into this game, but with the missed 54-yard field goal, I felt like I over-swung the ball, like in golf. We just had to pick each other up and everyone was behind us on the sidelines. Hopefully, we can work on being more consistent this week.” He said. Pretorius also missed an extra point kick in the third quarter.

Lane Comes Up Big

One of the plays that really gave Ohio State a chance in the 3rd quarter was a fumble recovery on the out of bounds line by senior defensive back Shaun Lane. “I was shocked he dropped it. My angle was off and when I saw him drop the ball I just leaped on it. It was an opportunity for me and I was just doing what my team needed.” The recovery was followed by a short drive to the end-zone by the Buckeyes with a pass to Dane Sanzenbacher and three rushes up the middle by Brandon Saine for the score.

Hartline Disappointed

Brian Hartline was one of the leaders of the team that did not like what he saw from the offense without running back Beanie Wells running the ball. “I was most disappointed in the offense today, and we weren't very good at all. We are trying to be a great team and that wasn't close today. Everyone should know how we should perform, but we stayed focused by not getting too upset and came out with a win today.”

Hartline felt the team might have been a little too confident coming into the match-up against the unranked Bobcats. “We were maybe too confident coming in to the game today. OU was here to play, and there was definitely a point where we needed to wake up. It was a dogfight, and we really never had that big play in the game on offense. We have a lot of things we need to work on this upcoming week.” The offense through a lot of short passes and kept the ball on the ground for short gains most of the game.

Tressel Takes the Blame

Head Coach Jim Tressel shared Hartline’s opinion that the team did not play up to their abilities. “I know Jim Bollman and Jim Peterson were (talking with the offensive line) and they were talking things through, here's what's going on and so forth and so on. But our guys typically, whether it's this year or any other year don't typically come out and make excuses about, we've never seen that, or I slipped or anything like that. Just we didn't play to the best of our ability every snap, every guy, and we didn't coach to the best of our ability every snap, every guy.  If we did, I think we would have played better.” He said during his post-game press conference.

Coach Tressel wouldn’t blame one particular group of players but felt every member of the team including the coaches could have performed better. “It's collectively.  We've got lots of coaches.  We've got lots of us, there's young guys, seniors, coaches, everybody.  So I would never say that I'm disappointed in the seniors because that happened or I'm solely disappointed in myself because that happened.  I think we have to share all of it and first we have to evaluate our own performance and be willing to begin there.”