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4 Things We Learned From Ohio State's 23-3 Win Over Indiana · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Sunday, September three, I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Youngstown State game is in six days. The game it
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  gets Machian in eighty three days. The first game of Ohio State's regular season
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  is now in the rearview mirror. Buckeyes good news, went on the road,
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  won a big ten game, beat Indiana twenty three to three. You
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  know, I guess every Ohio State fan was thrilled with that, right Kevin.
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  Everyone's in a great mood and there's no complaining at all. Hunky Dory
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  out there. Everybody is thrilled. I mean, there's a world piece is
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  upon us now. The people were not happy. I think that, you
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  know, there were a lot of we've been lied too, We've been miss
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  LED's what's wrong with this team. So I think a lot of people do
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  not remember the foibles and pitfalls of a week one, and we certainly saw
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  a lot of those. And all you can do is pop in the tape
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  and try to try to get better. I guess we should start with quarterback
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  because that's you know, the thing that everyone, everyone at literally everyone and
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  their mother is going to be talking about, is going to be. You
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  know, is Kyle McCord the guy. Ky miccord didn't do enough. Kyle
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  McCord didn't throw for a touchdown. They need to play Devin Brown, but
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  Devin Brown didn't do anything. But Devin Down didn't play enough. You know.
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  I go back to the Minnesota game two years ago, the opener at
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  Minnesota, another big ten road game, opener, where the Buckeyes didn't look
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  great. We're never in any real serious danger. C J. Stroud was
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  a little up and down that night, had you know, a long swing
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  pass to Kay Trevian Henderson for touchdown, but miss some open receivers at other
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  times. And you know, I don't know that. You know, Kyle
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  McCord was not great. I don't think Kyle McCord's going to grand out of
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  the champion, but you know, it was Kyle McCord a complete loss.
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  I don't I don't think it was you know, like, oh, this
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  guy definitely is not going to be the guy, right. And that's the
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  thing is people are looking and they're expecting this to be not only a continuation
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  of CJ. Stroud, but even an improvement upon that. And I'm talking
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  CJ. Stroud against Georgia, not CJ. Stroud. Game one against Minnesota,
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  not CJ. Stroud. Going into the Notre Dame game last year,
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  CJ. Stroud at his completion the CJ. Stroud that's QB one for the
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  Houston Texans and we'll be starting here in a week and when the NFL season
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  starts. So it was an impossible task. I don't really know what Kyl
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  McCord could have done to satisfy everybody. There's a very tribal battle going on
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  right now. You're either team Accord or your team Brown, and the people
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  that are team Brown are high fiving and chest bumping each other right now because
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  for whatever reason, they're just programmed that way, and you know, it
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  is what it is. But yeah, there certainly were some mistakes. He
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  threw an interception on a fourth down. His main receiver on on that pattern
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  kind of got knocked off his feet, so that play kind of blew up.
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  There were there were some miscues. There were there were some issues in
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  terms of receivers and maybe some drops and things along those lines too. But
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  I think once the emotion and the alcohol kind of subside, I think people
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  will go back and say, well, I think we can see some things
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  to build upon, except for Team Brown, who you're just not going to
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  be able to satisfy that group. Yeah, and you know, I think
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  it's worth kind of restating that we've seen more of these guys than fans have,
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  and we haven't seen that much of these guys. We've seen them in
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  the spring. Obviously, Devin Brown not playing in the Spring game makes Devin
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  Brown the great unknown, and you know, and then so you can dream
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  on wherever you want to dream on with Devin Brown. And then you go
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  through fall camp and the consensus there was a little bit of a split at
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  you know, early in fall camp, and then sort of the consensus towards
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  the NFL camp was that Kimic Court had pulled away. So by pulling away
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  a little bit towards the NFL camp, I think he earned a little bit
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  of a longer leash in this game, because there were times you could have,
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  after you know, an empty drive, pull him and put in Devin
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  Brown. I don't think they want to do that. I don't think they
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  want to get in the process of having it just be like a carousel of
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  quarterbacks in and out and you're constantly shuffling the guys are constantly looking over their
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  shoulders. I think they want to take the guy who won the job in
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  fall camp and give him an opportunity to continue holding a job and being the
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  guy, because you have to have a guy. You can't just shuffle guys
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  in and out. So, you know, Devin Brown got one drive in
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  the first half, he got one drive in a second half. Didn't really
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  do a whole heck of what one for three negative two yards. The drive
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  in the first half was just three runs, So you can't, you know,
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  you're really his grade on this game is incomplete, but you know,
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  and Kimic cor twenty thirty three, two hundred thirty nine yeards, no touchdowns,
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  one interception. He had a touchdown to Marvin Harrison and the get called
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  back on a penalty for Harrison stepping in the bounds. There was a pass
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  down to Cardinal Tate, you know the end zone that Tate couldn't hang on
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  to. You put those two on the board, you know, give those
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  to the cord and it's like, all of a sudden, he's got pretty,
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  you know, pretty decent numbers, and the scores you know probably you
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  know, thirty four to three instead of twenty three to three, and it's
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  a very different looking game, but you know, it's ifs and nuts and
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  candies and all that stuff. The offensive line, I think the offensive line
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  to me like the quarterback. Just I still feel like the quarterback is going
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  to sort itself out. The offensive line, I think is a little more
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  of a concern. We We had sort of heard the happy talk all fall
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  camp. They had not shuffled guys around a bunch, so you felt like,
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  Okay, they feel comfortable with what they've got, and then the offensive
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  line was not great on Saturday. Yeah, and I think that's going to
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  be something that I'm really going to be interested in going and watching off of
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  the DVR because you're trying to focus on so many things that sometimes the line
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  play is not where your eyes are drawn. We know that they were bringing
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  in three new starters for them, and there's going to be some growing pains.
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  You sit there and you get used to know Dwan Jones had a couple
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  of years in the starting lineup, Paris Johnson Junior had a couple of years
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  in the starting lineup. It's just not once again I talk about you just
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  can't sit there and plug somebody and put them in a position and say that
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  they're going to carry on for C. J. Stroud. You can't do
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  the same thing either on the offensive line. Now, I'll be curious to
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  see if any adjustments are made in terms of how they can figure the line.
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  I mean, I think that we certainly felt probably a little bit better
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  about the line going into the game than what maybe the result that we saw
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  was. I mean, certainly Indiana did some things that Ohio State probably had
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  not seen on tape in terms of tendencies. But that's what you do.
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  So what is the line looked like moving forward? I'm going to tell you
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  this, going against certainly an over match Youngstound State team, I think we're
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  going to probably come out and that's like, well, you know, that's
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  more like it. But I think you've got to really get down to the
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  core, you know, the core of it and and kind of figure out
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  how to string it together for the remainder of the season. The Buckeyes were
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  kind of stringing it together in the passing game on the receiving ends of things.
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  You know, I always spent all summer talking to you about Marvin Harrison
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  Junior and Ameca Abuca and then they're big receiving, their leading receiver, they're
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  big play receiver. Was tight end heads do over five catchers from ninety eight
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  yards nineteen point six yards per catch, more than Julian Fleming and a Mecca
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  Abuca and Marvin Harrison combined. I think if I've done my math rights just
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  as expected, well yeah, okay, sorry, I think it's just just
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  just just under what those three guys did, but basically the same same production.
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  So, you know, I tweeted something at one point during the game,
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  just kind of real snarky that, you know, hey, if I
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  had a Meca a book and Marvin Harrison on my team, I would throw
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  them the ball. And there were plenty of it felt like there were plenty
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  of times where they were trying to just you know, just trying to prove
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  a point, like, Okay, it's third and short, and yes,
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  we could throw a little slant to Marvin Harrison because his best receiver in the
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  country and possible the best receiver in school history. But we but you know,
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  you know, you're gonna win the game, so we're going to see
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  if we can do it a different way. We're gonna do it on it.
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  You know, we're gonna we're gonna try and see what we've got here
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  before we get too far into the season. And you know, I'm sure
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  that was frustrating for people. I don't know that I read anything into it
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  necessarily long term, you know, I mean, I still expect Marvin Harrison
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  to get a lot of football thrown his way. How much of that do
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  chalk up to they were being you know, they were just kind of working
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  through some stuff versus how much do you chalk up to you know, Kyle
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  mccour didn't want to throw the ball down field or whatever else you want to
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  chalk it up to. Yeah, I think there's a lot of all of
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  that there. There's a little of all of that there. However, you
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  want to kind of classify that we've seen through recent years, Ohio State struggle
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  in its third and short, fourth and short, and they've got to find
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  a different way of going about things. And this, yes, this game
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  was seven three at one point. Outside of the most nervous of all people,
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  this game was never in question. This game was never in question.
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  It was always a case of well, Ohio State will turn it on and
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  you know, oh, they'll win by thirty, Well, maybe they'll win
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  by twenty four. Oh, well they won by twenty I mean, so
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  it was never an issue of that. I think there were some times that
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  McCord did not get through all of his reads. I mean, even though
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  I would think Marvin Harrison Junior would probably be toward the tops of top of
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  my reads. I think there were times where maybe he just decided to take
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  what he deemed to be safer throws. All of it is in there in
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  terms of a quarterback making his second collegiate start, his first start since the
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  twenty twenty one season when he came in in the Acron game and started the
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  Acron game while C. J. Stroud was on the bench with a source
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  shoulder. So it's all part of the equation. But how often do you
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  see a first year starter just come in and go nuts? And I understand
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  that Kyle McCord has been in the program for a couple of years. He
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  is more physically mature than what a true freshman would be. He's certainly has
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  more depth in the offense, but there's still there's book learning and then there's
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  going out and doing. And he may have all the book learning, but
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  going out and doing. You only get that by going out and doing And
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  the coaches talk about the fact that you go through fall camp and you can
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  put him in scrimmages and you put him in game like situations, but you
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  don't know until you put him in a game. You don't really truly know
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  until you're doing it in the game. And you're doing it on the road.
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  And this is not the most hostile atmosphere, but it's a road game.
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  You gotta get an airplane to day in a hotel. You're you know,
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  this is you're out of your normal game day home routine. So it's
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  a little different. And they have one of their big ten road games,
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  you know, check that off the list. They've they've won that five to
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  go. Yeah, but yeah, you still got a bunch of you still
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  got a bunch of more road games, but you've got one down. So
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  that's you know that, that's good. It's good to have that in the
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  rearview mirror. Something else, boy, the defense. Remember remember when everyone
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  was complaining about the defense after games and the offense was the everyone's favorite child.
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  Boy, everyone's complaining about the offense and the defense. The defense sure
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  look good on Saturday. Well, then again. I also in our post
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  game show there were people complaining about the defense, So once again, you
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  can't make everybody happy. But three points given up. Indiana certainly tried a
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  lot of different things, play two different quarterbacks. Soresby was much more of
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  the thrower or the other guy was much more of a runner and distributor in
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  terms of handing the ball off. I mean, Ohio State largely shut Indiana
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  down. Now, of course the haters are going to come out. It's
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  like, well, if Indiana was capable of throwing a downfield pass, well
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  it takes two to tango, and I think Ohio State had something to do
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  with that. So I think it was a nice first salvo by the Ohio
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  State defense. People will be quick to point out, well, it was
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  just Indiana. Time will tell just what this offense is all about, the
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  Indiana offense is all about. But Ohio States certainly did what it needed to
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  do. And with the offense Ohio States offense having its issues of getting stuck
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  in the mud, it would have been really easy for the defense to press
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  and start to screw up because it was pressing well. And yes it was
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  just Indiana, and yes I'm expecting Indiana to missible game this year and the
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  fact that they had I think the offense is going to be the side of
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  the ball where they struggle. But you can only play the team that's in
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  front of you. And if they had had come out and played badly against
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  Indiana, that would have told me something. I think this is they didn't
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  play badly. They played well. I don't think anyone is proclaiming the defense
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  officially fixed. You know, no more concerns. They're gonna give up three
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  points a game the rest of the year and everything is great, Sign me
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  up, but you know, of the possible outcomes on Saturday, this is
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  about is good if an outcome as you could have they Indian had one hundred
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  and fifty three total yards, two point two yards per rush. They they're
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  not gonna give me a well nine point one yards per completion, But I
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  don't know. We have yards per attempts. I can do math. Eighty
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  nine yards. They really need them to give me nine next, Yeah,
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  eighty two yards passing on twenty one attempts. So that's a little less than
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  four yards per tempt If you're giving up four yards per tempt in passing and
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  two point two yards per rush, you're gonna win. You know, unless
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  you unless your offense is throwing you know, all pick six, you're running
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  the all pick six offense, you're gonna win pretty much every game you play.
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  So that's what you wanted to see out of Indiana. Now, I
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  don't think anyone can firmly proclaim everything is fixed and everything is great forever.
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  And I don't think you're gonna be able to do that next week against Youngstown
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  State. I think the first time I'm really going to be really intrigued to
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  see what happens is against Western Kentucky because that's a team that it's a Group
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  of five team, but they've been they have an explosive offense, and I
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  you know, that's the kind of team that would have put up thirty one
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  points against some of the recent vintages of Ohio State defense. And you know,
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  if they don't, okay, that's going to be really intriguing going into
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  that Notre Dame game. But I think, you know, if you're an
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  Ohio State fan, I think you have to look at the defensive performance and
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  go, okay, there's reason to believe that this defense is going to be
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  better than it was last year. Yeah, I think that we certainly saw
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  the signs there. Maybe we didn't see the havoc numbers out of the defensive
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  line, maybe we didn't see a lot of those things. But Indiana was
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  certainly determined to try and run the ball. They certainly were showing they weren't
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  going to pass the ball. So don't talk to me about this lack of
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  sacks and everything else. When you're not having a quarterback sitting back there and
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  scanning the field or even even just trying to just dump it out quickly.
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  It was a lot of up the gut running and things of that nature,
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  and that just wasn't going to be there. I think the linebacker play was
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  great. I certainly heard the comments where C. J. Hicks, Well,
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  why were you going to sit there and take Steel Chambers or Tommy Eikenberg
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  out of there? I mean, why why was this? Why was that?
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  Well, it's it's really easy with the gift of hindsight to be able
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  to go through and diagnose everything that didn't necessarily work out. But in the
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  midst of things, the defense played very well. Yeah, I think the
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  defense grades out pretty well. The offense grades out. As it's Week one
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  and we'll see and you know, again we said this about fifteen times on
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  the postgame show. It's week one. This is what it looks like during
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  week one. The offensive line looks a little rough. The quarterbacks and wide
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  receivers look a little lot of sync. The quarterbacks, if the offensive line
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  looks rough, maybe aren't stepping into the throws. Like it's week one.
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  Every college football coach, every football coach at every level, is going to
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  tell you improved the most between your first game and your second game. So
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  you've got your first game out of the way. It was a win.
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  It was not a particularly close win. It was a big ten win.
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  It was a road win. Like all of these things are good, there's
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  a you know, if they play like this when they play Michigan, they're
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  going to lose. If they play like this when they play Penn State,
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  they're gonna lose. Great news. They don't play those teams for quitter while,
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  so they got a lot of time to work through things. Michigan.
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  You know, Michigan scored all of a touchdown more against their opponent and beat
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  East Carolina thirty to three instead of twenty three to three. And that was
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  a home game. And that's a Nonpower five team, so you know,
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  I mean it's guess what, it's week one for everyone, so uh,
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  you know, lots of lots of stuff still for Ohio State to work on,
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  lots of stuff for us to talk about as Ohio State heads into week
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  two and that Young'stown State game, and the best place to talk about all
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  of it will be at Buckey Huddle dot com. We will have if you
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  did not watch our postgame coverage, make sure you check that out on our
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  YouTube channel on YouTube dot com. Slash Buckeye Huddle will be doing that every
• 16:59
  game this year, coming to you live right as soon as the game ends,
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  giving you instant analysis of the game, giving you the live postgame interviews,
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  giving you the Buckeye Weekly Instant Reaction Show with Tony Gerdeman and I will
• 17:11
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  of content after every single one of those games, So make sure you check
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