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4 Things We Learned From Ohio State's 21-17 Win Over Nebraska · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Sunday, October twenty seventh,
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom or the Penn State game in
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Speaker 1: six days, the game against Michigan in thirty four days.
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Speaker 1: Ohio State will enter that Penn State game with still
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Speaker 1: just the one loss on his resume. But that was
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Speaker 1: in doubt a little longer than you might have expected.
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Speaker 1: On Saturday, Buckey's hang on to win twenty one to
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Speaker 1: seventeen over the Nebraska corn Huskers, joined by Kevin Newnopuckehell
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Speaker 1: dot com and Kevin That was a game that I
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Speaker 1: think a lot of people were picking Ohio State to
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Speaker 1: win by twenty five. They were favoritey twenty five, and
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Speaker 1: people were picking to win by more. And you gotta
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Speaker 1: look at Nebraska lost by fifty fifty six or seven
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Speaker 1: at the Indiana last week. That was a game that
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Speaker 1: was extremely in doubt right up until the moment that
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Speaker 1: Jordan Hancock made that game sailing interception.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, it was a game where people going in are like, well,
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Speaker 2: what is the reaction going to be if Ohio State
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Speaker 2: doesn't beat Nebraska by as much as Indiana. We kind
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Speaker 2: of got like a total left hook on that with
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Speaker 2: Ohio State just really come out out looking flat and
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Speaker 2: it wasn't a case of Nebraska coming out just whooping
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Speaker 2: on them. But you know, I think Ohio State committed
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Speaker 2: a lot of its own sins in this game, and
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Speaker 2: it really came down to the end. I mean it
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Speaker 2: got early quiet at some points when when Ohio State
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Speaker 2: was trailing late.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was one of the quietest games
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Speaker 1: I can remember being at. That was not the third
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Speaker 1: quarter of Akron where it's functionally a spring game. In
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Speaker 1: the second half, and then it also got real loud
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Speaker 1: at the end. I mean that was the crowd. All
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Speaker 1: it took to get the crowd into the game was
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Speaker 1: some calls the crowd definitely did not agree with, and
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Speaker 1: Ryan Day definitely did not agree with. Towards the end
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Speaker 1: of the game, there was a targeting call, there was
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Speaker 1: a fumble no fumble call on the field. It got
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Speaker 1: real loud at the end. Buck guys do pull it out,
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Speaker 1: And I think we do need to give the defense
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Speaker 1: a little bit of credit because there's been a lot
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Speaker 1: of talk about how the defense can't get off the
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Speaker 1: field in the second half, and they never forced turnovers
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Speaker 1: and never fource punts in the second half in these
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Speaker 1: close games. After starting with a drive where Nebraska got
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Speaker 1: the ball starting on the Ohio State seven yard line
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Speaker 1: following an interception, so seven to eleven left in the
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Speaker 1: third quarter, Nebraska starts to drive seven yards from the
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Speaker 1: end zone. Ohio State holds them on downs at the
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Speaker 1: one yard line. Next drive, four plays, three yards punt.
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Speaker 1: That was another one that started in Ohio State territory
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Speaker 1: and in Ohio State force is a punt. They give
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Speaker 1: up a touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter
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Speaker 1: nine place seventy four yards, and then once Ohio State
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Speaker 1: answers for a touchdown to retake the lead twenty one
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Speaker 1: to seventeen. Two more drives. One was three plays for
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Speaker 1: negative two yards in a punt, and then four plays
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Speaker 1: for thirteen yards ending with that Jordan Hancock interception. It
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Speaker 1: was a different defense. The Buckeys got a little more exotic,
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Speaker 1: a little more diverse in what they did in terms
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Speaker 1: of pass rush and all that kind of stuff. It
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Speaker 1: wasn't perfect. There were certainly plenty of things that you
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Speaker 1: could nitpick there, but I think it was a tangible
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Speaker 1: improvement from the defense.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we saw more rotation. I feel at various position.
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Speaker 2: We got to see bor Jermaine Matthews. I mean, obviously
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Speaker 2: they not have Leathan Ransom to start this game. For
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Speaker 2: the game, he was out week to week type of situation.
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Speaker 2: I guess we'll see when we see with him. But
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Speaker 2: you know, they were able to kind of do some
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Speaker 2: different things. You know, there were times that they would
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Speaker 2: be three down and send six I mean, and they
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Speaker 2: had some successes. They had a lot of tackles for
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Speaker 2: loss in this game, you know, going against a true
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Speaker 2: freshman quarterback in Dylan Royola. Everything happens for a reason,
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Speaker 2: and I think that this was a good opportunity for
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Speaker 2: the defense to kind of pull the offenses butt out
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Speaker 2: of the fire because the offense of just not really
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Speaker 2: a lot of redeeming things I can say there. I mean,
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Speaker 2: I'm sure we're going to talk offense in a second,
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Speaker 2: and I can say a couple of nice things. I mean, hell,
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Speaker 2: I've been around I've been around Tony I I've always
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Speaker 2: tried to tell him nice things. But you know, I
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Speaker 2: think it was just an odd game, full moon type
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Speaker 2: of game or whatever. And everybody now's heads are falling
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Speaker 2: off over Penn State. But now let's take a second
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Speaker 2: rewatch the tape, there's going to be probably a couple
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Speaker 2: of things that weren't as bad as you felt that
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Speaker 2: they were, and they're probably going to be a couple
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Speaker 2: of things that were probably worse. So yeah, you know,
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Speaker 2: well to be continued.
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Speaker 1: To be continued. Indeed, one thing that I think is
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Speaker 1: a legitimate concern right now, even before going back and
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Speaker 1: rewatching the game, is the left tackle position for Ohios
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Speaker 1: d Because during the Oregon game they lost Josh Shimmons
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Speaker 1: for the year. During the Nebraska game, they lost his replacement.
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Speaker 1: Then Mahalski, we don't have a timetable on it, but
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Speaker 1: he much liked Josh Emmons rode off on the cart
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Speaker 1: at the end of the game. It took him a
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Speaker 1: long time to walk off the field, went over the
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Speaker 1: injury tent, and then they sent him up in the cart.
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Speaker 1: Did not look like a you know, he was immanage
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Speaker 1: to go back into the game by any means. And
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Speaker 1: if that's a thing where he's not back next week,
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Speaker 1: there's a lot of different possible solutions for them there.
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Speaker 1: They put Donovan Jackson in a left tackle and Luke
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Speaker 1: Montgomery in left guard. He didn't play.
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Speaker 2: He was not great.
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Speaker 1: Certainly based on the feedback that I saw, that feels
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Speaker 1: like I don't know if they know what the solution
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Speaker 1: is there, and I don't know how confident they can
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Speaker 1: be in whatever solution they go with.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a question of do you go look Montgomery,
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Speaker 2: do you go Austin Sarahvel, do you Carson Hinzman. He's
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Speaker 2: somebody that we haven't really heard much about recently, but
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Speaker 2: he was kind of cross training center and guard. I
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Speaker 2: mean you could, hey, let's get nuts and let's just move,
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Speaker 2: you know, let's move Seth McLaughlan to guard and move,
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Speaker 2: you know, put another center in there. I mean, I
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Speaker 2: don't know if I would necessarily want to do that.
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Speaker 2: I think that would go for that, not that, but
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Speaker 2: there are options that are there. But you know, I
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Speaker 2: think people were like ready to get Zen out prior
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Speaker 2: to the injury, but I don't know necessarily what the
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Speaker 2: what the solution is. They had a week plus, they
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Speaker 2: had the extra week, the open weekend. That's what they
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Speaker 2: what they got down to. So now they're going to
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Speaker 2: have to go to the next option whatever. And you know,
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Speaker 2: on our chat and the postgame show, there are people
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Speaker 2: are like, well, why don't you move friar from you know,
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Speaker 2: from right to left. I'm like, well, because you're having
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Speaker 2: to do everything backwards, and that's not necessarily as simple.
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Speaker 2: It's not just like, well, you know your corner back,
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Speaker 2: just play the other corner position. I mean, don't you don't.
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Speaker 2: Don't you don't do that. So Justin Fry is going
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Speaker 2: to earn his money at this point because he's gonna
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Speaker 2: have to come up with something because there is a
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Speaker 2: guy who wears number eleven for Penn State, Abdul Carter,
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Speaker 2: who is a real beast, and you know that's I
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Speaker 2: think one of the biggest concerns out there is how
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Speaker 2: Ohio State will be able to slow him down.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think back to the two thousand
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Speaker 1: and five Ohio State Penn State game, where I think
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Speaker 1: it might have been Tomba Haley at that point coming
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Speaker 1: off the edge and just eating Troy Smith's lunch a
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Speaker 1: couple of times. And you go back to twenty sixteen
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Speaker 1: and Isaiah Prince struggle at the tackles. So this is
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Speaker 1: something you've seen in Ohio. State's gonna have to figure
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Speaker 1: it out. They've got to if it's a you know,
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Speaker 1: whatever the combination is.
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Speaker 2: You can't trade for somebody at the right Yeah, it's
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Speaker 2: not how it works.
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Speaker 1: The transfer portal is closed. There is not a trade
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Speaker 1: headlining college football, so you know you've got what you got.
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Speaker 1: This is this is why there are all those zeros
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Speaker 1: on your checks. Time to figure it out. They did
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Speaker 1: not figure it out on the ground. On Saturday against
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Speaker 1: Penn State, quin Shawn Judkins ten carries twenty nine yards.
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Speaker 1: Triviaon Henderson ten carries twenty five yards. Will Howard eight
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Speaker 1: carries fourteen yards, including the three kneel downs at the
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Speaker 1: end of the game, thirty one carries sixty four yards
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Speaker 1: two point one yards per carry. That I don't want
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Speaker 1: to get too hot takey, but I suspect that will
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Speaker 1: not get it done next weekend in Happy Valley.
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Speaker 2: Unacceptable. It was unacceptable with what they did there. But
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Speaker 2: I put some of them malpractice on plate play calling.
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Speaker 2: There were a lot of times that it just felt like, well,
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Speaker 2: we haven't tried this in a middle, let's try going
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Speaker 2: right up the gut again, and you know, and they
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Speaker 2: got stoned on some They tried to get it out
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Speaker 2: to the edges a little bit, and then they got
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Speaker 2: away from it. So you know, I would be really
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Speaker 2: curious for us to get to talk to Chip this week.
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Speaker 2: You know, we won't find out until Monday night probably
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Speaker 2: who were going to get on Tuesday outside of Ryan
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Speaker 2: Day and Will Howard. But it just kind of felt
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Speaker 2: like they got away from all the things that they
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Speaker 2: were successful. And I understand when you lose personnel, when
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Speaker 2: you lose a left tackle who was probably a first
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Speaker 2: team All Big Ten type of guy, Josh Simmons, that
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Speaker 2: there's going to be some issues. But if I mean,
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Speaker 2: if this completely just you know, blows the wheels off
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Speaker 2: your car, I mean, that doesn't bode well.
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Speaker 1: And I think something that sort of ties in with
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Speaker 1: the struggles of the run game and the fact that
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Speaker 1: you ran it thirty one times out of forty seven snaps.
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Speaker 1: It's basically two thirds of the time you're running the
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Speaker 1: ball and you're getting two point one yards per carry
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Speaker 1: on that, and I know you want to stay with
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Speaker 1: the run, and now Tip Kelly wants to stay with
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Speaker 1: the run. They threw it sixteen times and gave two
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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty one yards. They ran it thirty one
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Speaker 1: times and gained sixty four yards. So it's you went
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Speaker 1: from they have yards per completion on the box score,
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Speaker 1: So the thirteen completions went for seventeen yards per completion
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Speaker 1: and the rushes went for two point one yards per rush.
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Speaker 1: It feels like you probably have a balance issue if
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Speaker 1: you're able to do that much in the run in
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Speaker 1: the past and be able to do nothing in the wrong.
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Speaker 1: Having four targets for Jeremiah Smith feels criminal is probably
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Speaker 1: a little bit strong. But also I'm not sure what
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Speaker 1: other word to use. You have selonious, Yeah, well, that's
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Speaker 1: a type of criminal. They you know, four targets, four
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Speaker 1: catches for Carnal t eight, four targets, three catches for
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Speaker 1: Jeremiah Smith, four targets, three catches for Mecca Abuka did
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Speaker 1: Why was there not more explore you know, explore the
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Speaker 1: studio space. You've got these guys. The run is very
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Speaker 1: obviously not working. You gotta do something, and they did,
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Speaker 1: to their credit, when they needed to get down the
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Speaker 1: field and score a touchdown they did. And then you
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Speaker 1: know after that, you know, okay, you're trying to run
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Speaker 1: the clock out. I get it. Yeah yeah, yeah, but
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Speaker 1: you could have you know, you've seen Jeremiah Smith being
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Speaker 1: used in the run game you've seen them use Jeremiah
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Speaker 1: Smith just sort of outside as an extension of the
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Speaker 1: run game. Same for Colonel Tate, who had a fantastic game,
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Speaker 1: first career one hundred yard game for him, four catches,
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Speaker 1: one hundred two yards, a long touchdown, Jeremies Smith three catches,
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Speaker 1: seventy yards, a long touchdown. It just felt like they
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Speaker 1: they didn't take advantage of the some of the skill
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Speaker 1: and talent advantages that they have.
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Speaker 2: They went into their thirty six minute offense. I think
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Speaker 2: that when they were like, well, none of this is working,
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Speaker 2: let's just try and you know, let's just try and
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Speaker 2: take it home. And you know, I think after they
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Speaker 2: took the lead in the fourth, retook the lead in
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Speaker 2: the fourth and the next offensive series, I mean, it
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Speaker 2: was on the ground, on the ground, on the ground.
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Speaker 2: Everybody in the building knew was gonna be on the ground.
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Speaker 2: So there were a lot of times of where Ohio
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Speaker 2: State wasn't exactly fooling anybody. But the best teams out
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Speaker 2: there are gonna run, and even when you expect him
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Speaker 2: to run, they're still going to run successfully. So you know,
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Speaker 2: that's that is problematic. You just got to wonder if
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Speaker 2: you know, I really wish I knew more about how
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Speaker 2: practice went the last two weeks, if there was were
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Speaker 2: indications that maybe the line was not going to hold up,
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Speaker 2: and that just there wasn't a whole lot of confidence
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Speaker 2: in the run game at that point. But you know,
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Speaker 2: chips like keep firing, We're gonna you know, we're gonna
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Speaker 2: keep going for it. But yeah, kind of running out
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Speaker 2: the plot as you put. Yeah, they were. They were
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Speaker 2: certainly in a thirty six minute offense.
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Speaker 1: It felt like, so now the Buckeys are on too
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Speaker 1: penn State, and I don't know that there's a ton
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Speaker 1: of optimism among the Ohio fan base right now. There
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Speaker 1: certainly was not in our postgame chat on the in
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Speaker 1: the chat on our postgame show. It's an interesting one,
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Speaker 1: and we didn't we didn't actually talk about this on
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Speaker 1: the postgame show, but man Will Howard had an answer
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Speaker 1: for the ages at the end of the at the
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Speaker 1: end of the press conference, he of course is a
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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania native, and he he said, he sorry, I gotta
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Speaker 1: find that.
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Speaker 2: I thought I was going to say, I've never phrased it,
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Speaker 2: but I don't.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna pull up the exact quote.
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Speaker 1: I know, I know I saw it here. He said,
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Speaker 1: quote they didn't think I was good enough. I guess
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Speaker 1: we'll see next week if I was. That's you know,
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Speaker 1: a Penn State native. He grew up a Penn State fan.
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Speaker 1: Penn State passed on him. So now he's playing for
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Speaker 1: Ohio State. Now he's going back to going back home
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Speaker 1: to Pennsylvania. That was just sort of the you know,
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Speaker 1: the end of this very long press conference, and there
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Speaker 1: was a lot of negative you know, negative questions and
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Speaker 1: negative and you know, I get it. It was not
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Speaker 1: a great game in a lot of ways. But man,
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Speaker 1: now that Ohio State is through the Nebraska game, I
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Speaker 1: know Ohio State fans are not necessarily excited, but man,
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Speaker 1: that is potentially a very very big game, not only
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Speaker 1: for the Buckeyes but for Will Howard in particular.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you know, I think the big thing is
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Speaker 2: we we are recording this before the Penn State Wisconsin game,
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Speaker 2: so I you know, I can't necessarily speak on this,
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Speaker 2: but I still see some issues with Penn State in
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Speaker 2: terms of they don't have any receivers. Drew Allard's got
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Speaker 2: his issues, as you know as a thrower and everything else.
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Speaker 2: But I think we can all agree that Penn State
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Speaker 2: is a defensive led team, and with Ohio State's offense
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Speaker 2: being as a mneemic as it was in this game
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Speaker 2: here on Saturday, that's where a lot of the concern
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Speaker 2: comes in. But I'm really looking forward to see what
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Speaker 2: a very motivated Will Howard looks like. There will there
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Speaker 2: be a lot will there be more RPOs to where
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Speaker 2: he can kind of call his own number, because if
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Speaker 2: you know, if that defense ven crashes down and he
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Speaker 2: can turn around and run it. I mean we saw
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Speaker 2: we saw some elements of that. We talked about what
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Speaker 2: his yardage was. I mean, that's you know, sack adjusted.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you got hit a couple of times, got
13:45
Speaker 2: brought down a couple of times. But you know, I
13:47
Speaker 2: think it's gonna be a good game. The sun's gonna
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Speaker 2: come up on Sunday, and you know, I think that
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Speaker 2: we're gonna we're gonna see a good one in State College.
13:54
Speaker 2: If we can ever get in.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, well we'll the traffic will be a whole separate
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Speaker 1: maybeodle a show on the traffic sometime later on in
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Speaker 1: the week, but yes, we will be there next week
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Speaker 1: before the Buckeyes and the Nitney Lions. What is going
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Speaker 1: to be shaping up to be one of the biggest
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Speaker 1: games in the Big Ten this season. We will be
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Speaker 1: there swimming Penn State doesn't screw it up. It will
14:12
Speaker 1: be a top five matchup against between the Buckeyes and
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Speaker 1: Nitney Lions Saturday in Happy Valley. We will be there
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Speaker 1: for all that. There will be plenty to talk about
14:21
Speaker 1: all week long. I know you guys will have plenty
14:23
Speaker 1: to talk about all week long as well. We hope
14:25
Speaker 1: you're doing it with us. At Buckeye Huddle dot Com.
14:28
Speaker 1: That's where Tony, Kevin and I cover the team, Mark
14:29
Speaker 1: covers recruiting, get our whole team of ex's nose guruz
14:32
Speaker 1: there to make you a smarter football fan. All at
14:35
Speaker 1: Buckeye Huddle dot com. I'll say, very fun and active
14:38
Speaker 1: board on the Huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby's Columbus
14:40
Speaker 1: I've not looked at exactly how active the board is.
14:42
Speaker 1: I'm goes seeing it is very active right now. It
14:44
Speaker 1: tends to be. It tends to be an active place
14:47
Speaker 1: when there's lots to talk about, as there is in
14:49
Speaker 1: moments like this. So that will do for today. Thank
14:52
Speaker 1: you guys. All for joining us, have a great day.
14:54
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.