I admit I'm a little pissed at the moment. There were some things and stages of this game that I can't fathom turned out the way they did.
1. Our first drive, holy smokes what a show. We flat out lit up their defense and pushed them around. A nine minute drive and a TD was precisely what I was hoping for and expecting them to do in order to be in and possibly win that game. However, it came at the expense of Leonard's well being. We all saw it, he was gassed, thumped around and probably coming down off the nerves he had built up prior to kickoff. The beauty of that kid is you wouldn't know it when he walked onto the field last night. Calm and cool as a cucumber. But it definitely affected our next two possessions as he didn't look right.
2. The talent gap, especially on defense was evident. Now, this also has to do with half our starters on the bench, but OSU's reciever talent is out of this world. Not just Smith, but they had two other guys in particular that would be number one receivers for other teams, including us. That is a signficant amount of pressure on a secondary to handle all night. Golden attempted to scheme in zones with the man coverage to keep them guessing, but since we don't run a lot of zone, I feel like we struggled with it at times as our safeties and db's were out of place.
3. It was fairly evident that OSU took pages from the USC playbook. They did a heck of a job clearing us out and killed us all game with the short and intermediate stuff. They killed us on first down and we couldn't get off the field on third. Recipe for disaster for any defense. I was surprised by the lack of blitzing and hoped we'd get to Howard more often and rattle him around. Their offensive line did a very good job however.
4. Leonard CAN throw the ball pretty well. We saw it all year and I commented many times how good he is at throwing into tight windows. I can't understand why we didn't open the playbook up more in that first half and let it rip. Its the NC game... nothing should have been left on the field. But I still feel like Leonards health immediately after that opening drive had something to do with it.
5. People commented about Love's non factor but I have to believe OSU, committed to the run, had him locked down anyway.
6. This team fights and were not an easy out. I'm proud of that. That game could have went really sideways at the half, but the staff did a nice job of clawing back into the game. Still mad it came to that, but the heart and soul of this team is undeniable, especially a kid like Leonard. Going to miss him tbh.
I still think things are looking really, really good for this program moving forward. We need to keep Freeman and Golden at all cost. I would however entertain a different offensive coordinator. The talent gap needs to be addressed a bit, but I don't think we're as far off as some might think. Looking to next season... we're going to be pretty loaded again and I expect another playoff push.
1. Our first drive, holy smokes what a show. We flat out lit up their defense and pushed them around. A nine minute drive and a TD was precisely what I was hoping for and expecting them to do in order to be in and possibly win that game. However, it came at the expense of Leonard's well being. We all saw it, he was gassed, thumped around and probably coming down off the nerves he had built up prior to kickoff. The beauty of that kid is you wouldn't know it when he walked onto the field last night. Calm and cool as a cucumber. But it definitely affected our next two possessions as he didn't look right.
2. The talent gap, especially on defense was evident. Now, this also has to do with half our starters on the bench, but OSU's reciever talent is out of this world. Not just Smith, but they had two other guys in particular that would be number one receivers for other teams, including us. That is a signficant amount of pressure on a secondary to handle all night. Golden attempted to scheme in zones with the man coverage to keep them guessing, but since we don't run a lot of zone, I feel like we struggled with it at times as our safeties and db's were out of place.
3. It was fairly evident that OSU took pages from the USC playbook. They did a heck of a job clearing us out and killed us all game with the short and intermediate stuff. They killed us on first down and we couldn't get off the field on third. Recipe for disaster for any defense. I was surprised by the lack of blitzing and hoped we'd get to Howard more often and rattle him around. Their offensive line did a very good job however.
4. Leonard CAN throw the ball pretty well. We saw it all year and I commented many times how good he is at throwing into tight windows. I can't understand why we didn't open the playbook up more in that first half and let it rip. Its the NC game... nothing should have been left on the field. But I still feel like Leonards health immediately after that opening drive had something to do with it.
5. People commented about Love's non factor but I have to believe OSU, committed to the run, had him locked down anyway.
6. This team fights and were not an easy out. I'm proud of that. That game could have went really sideways at the half, but the staff did a nice job of clawing back into the game. Still mad it came to that, but the heart and soul of this team is undeniable, especially a kid like Leonard. Going to miss him tbh.
I still think things are looking really, really good for this program moving forward. We need to keep Freeman and Golden at all cost. I would however entertain a different offensive coordinator. The talent gap needs to be addressed a bit, but I don't think we're as far off as some might think. Looking to next season... we're going to be pretty loaded again and I expect another playoff push.
