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8 Things We Learned From Ohio State's Win At Wisconsin · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Monday, October thirtieth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Rutgers game is in five days, the game against
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  Michigan in twenty six days. The buck Eyes are home from Madison after their
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  twenty four to ten win over the Wisconsin Badgers. It was kind of an
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  interesting game. You had the return of Travon Henderson, which turned out to
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  be a very big storyline. We're going to talk about that in just a
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  minute. You had some sort of up and down play from com Accord,
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  You had a dominant game from the Ohio State defense, and in the end,
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  you had a performance that I think a lot of Ohios data fans were
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  kind of worried about for a lot of the night, and then the buck
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  Eyes ended up with their first double digit win in Madison in twenty three years.
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  So what's the takeaway here? What are we talking about? How are
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  the Buckeyes feeling coming off of that game? Well, the best way to
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  find that out is just to ask them. We're going to be hearing directly
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  from Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. You can hear a little bit from
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  Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickle as well, but let's start with day and let's
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  start with Travon. Henderson finished the game with twenty four rushes and four receptions
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  for a total of two hundred and seven total yards. Was that part of
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  the game plan and how big was it to get him back just in that
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  offense to be able to give them something they really had been missing for a
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  little while. I don't know, you know what what we had in terms
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  of a number coming in, but we you know, we we held him
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  out last week. You know, it was close, but we felt like
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  we wanted to make sure that he was one hundred percent. And you know,
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  this is a big run we're about to go on. And you can
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  just see the difference he makes when he's out there, the explosiveness to speed.
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  I thought he ran hard tonight and he's a weapon out of the backfield.
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  And you can see that down the sideline, boy, you know the
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  one that we just missed on the touchdown there, you know, we had
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  a linebacker oute in one on one and you can see, I mean it
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  was one heck of MAROUDI ran. We just didn't connect on it and we
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  spent a bunch of time on that route, So you know, that was
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  like getting stabbed in the heart. But but you can just see when he's
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  out there the pact, he's having it on our offense, and you know,
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  to get that run there in the fourth quarter was big. Watching that
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  game, I had this thought at one point where in you know the scenes
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  in the movies where someone says, all right, we can do this the
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  easy way, or we can do this the hard way. The Buckeyes chose
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  to do the double digit win on the road at Madison the hard way.
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  They did it with three turnovers and a fumble, a pair of interceptions.
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  It is not easy to win on the road in Madison regardless. It is
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  definitely not easy to win on the road if you turn the ball over three
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  times. So how did they do that? Well? It started off,
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  I think with a good combination of of you know, you know, the
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  run game, and you know we did have some some you know, pretty
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  good you know passing plays as well. And I thought that combination was good.
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  And I think, you know, we're all frustrated that we're just not
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  able to you know, finish off some of those drives. And you know,
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  when we get into those plus territories, you know, we we just
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  you know, we gotta we got to finish them off. And so there's
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  a lot that goes with that. You know, certainly the coaching is a
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  big part of it. But but again, you know, when you get
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  a guy like Trey back and then you have Marvin on the outside, you
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  can see the difference it makes. You know, we decided to hold them.
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  Mecha one more week. He was he was close, but you know,
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  we just made the decision to hold him. You know, I do
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  feel really confident we'll get him back next week. But he makes a difference.
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  But just some really tough performances out there. Like certainly we can talk
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  about the defense all night, but just offensively, you know, Kate and
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  Julian, I mean, these guys, I mean they were battling at the
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  end, and you know, you get to this time of year and you
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  got a lot of bumps and bruises and things like that, and you know,
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  the guy's played hard. I thought the offensive line up movement tonight,
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  I thought, so, you know, even the tight ends, I mean
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  we we did. We moved the line of scrimmage and and then again having
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  Trey back made a big difference. Certainly, you know, run for one
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  hundred and sixty yards. When you look at someone like Trevon Henderson and what
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  he brings to this offense, how frustrating is it for the coaches to know
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  that they've been without him for so many just chunks of time over the last
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  couple of years. Well, the one thing about Trey is, like you
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  said, you can you can do so much with him because he has such
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  a great skill set and uh, he's one of the more competitive guys we
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  have, and so nobody wants to be out there more than him. And
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  you can see when he's out there, he has that drive. And you
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  know, he hadn't played a game and a couple you know, a few
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  weeks, I guess now, And so even at the end he was kind
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  of he was he was toughing it out because he was he was a little
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  winded there at the end. He hadn't you know, rushed that many had
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  that many carries in a while, and then he had a couple of receptions
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  and a couple of routes. So you know, I thought he handled it
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  well. And you can see, you know, what a weapon he is
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  when it when it's when he's out there and he's at full go so you
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  know, hopefully we have another great week of practice and we can keep doing
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  those things, and then you just puts more and more pressure on the defense
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  when you have someone like Marvin, you get you know, Julian out there
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  and Kate and so that that's the idea. And you know, I still
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  don't think we've put a complete game together on offense, and so we'll get
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  back to it this week and keep swinging. You heard Brian Day earlier mentioned
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  how many guys are banged up, and you saw Kyle McCord sort of limping
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  around the field a little bit on Saturday night after he got tackled on a
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  like a drawer or run up the middle. How much is is that impacting
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  Kyle at all right now? That that leg injury was adding an impact on
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  his play during the game. Uh No, I think, you know,
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  I think it's like you know, bumps and bruises and things like that,
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  and you know, I think something maybe happened in the game there, and
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  you know, he was able to fight through it, which was great,
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  and so we'll get an evaluation. But I think, you know, he'll
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  be fine. But you know, I don't think that those things are are
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  you know, getting his way right now. But but I thought he toughed
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  it out at the end, you know, and still hung in there.
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  And you know, when when you do maybe you know, have a couple
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  of tough plays, you know, the easy thing to do is or what
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  most people do is, you know, they start to get gun shy,
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  you know. And but but he didn't do that. He kept swinging,
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  he kept pushing. You could hear him on the sideline, you know,
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  right before that last drive Trayvon Rand to make it a two score game.
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  I mean, he was in that huddle getting after the guys and that he
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  showed good leadership there, so I thought that was a positive. Kyle McCord
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  did have those two interceptions in the first half. It really had to be
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  kind of a frustrating night for him, at least until he got things going
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  a little later on. But it was probably a frustrating night for the Ohio
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  State coaching staff as well. As they really preached making sure you're taking care
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  of the football, it was not necessarily always doing that in the first half.
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  So what did Brian Day talk to Kyle McCord about during the game.
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  Yeah, I usually don't get into the plays, right after the game.
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  But I have a pretty good feel of exactly what happened on both of them.
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  I think he would tell you. On the first one, it was
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  just a bad decision. It was first down, the play was designed to
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  go to the tight end, the tight end get caught up and it was
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  not how we designed it, and the ball should have got thrown away.
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  It was a bad decision. The second one, the corner came off on
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  cover three and you know, you know he's reading the flat defender and that
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  corner he just came right off him. He took a chance, and he
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  made a nice play. I don't I don't really blame him for that play.
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  I don't. I mean, there's going to be times where when you're
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  pushing it down the field, things like that are going to happen. So
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  I told them, hey, you know, I get it. You know,
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  the corner came off. Let's just play the next play. Those players
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  are behind us, and and so you know, those are the conversations we
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  had. But he knew right when he came off the field then the first
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  one that he wanted that one back. So you know, good, good
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  to see him hanging thearing and keep playing hard. But but but, but
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  I think the other thing is just you know, in general, you know,
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  we get into a two score or a one score game, we're trying
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  to make it a two score game. We get around the thirty yard line,
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  like we just we just we have to make sure we're in field goal
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  range and give Jane an opportunity. And two times we didn't. We didn't
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  do that, and so you know that that was an opportunity that that was
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  that was missed, that was constant game. Is not the first time that
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  Ohio State has kind of left points on the field for one reason or another.
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  This year, the offense has not necessarily always been great at finishing drives
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  and getting seven points. So is it frustrating for ryand to just see them
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  at Notre Dame, maybe against Penn State, and now against Wisconsin leaving some
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  points on the field. Yeah, I mean now going against good teams and
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  Luke does a great job. You know, I always want to make sure,
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  you know, I don't do that enough. You know, it's just
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  you know, the teams were playing are good teams, They're well coached,
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  they have good players, and so you know, I don't want to sound
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  flippant when you know, I say, we expect to score every time.
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  These guys do a great job, and they had a good scheme and they
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  did a nice job with everything. The fans were really into it as a
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  great environment. So you know, we want to you know, go on
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  the road and be you know, road warriors and win these games on a
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  road. And it's not always going to be the way you want it.
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  But but yes, you know, you know what we want to get done.
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  You know the expectation, and so I still still things we got to
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  keep it get better at it has felt like overall the Ohio State team has
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  been in relatively decent health for most of the season. But Saturday night they
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  were playing without a Mecca Buca, without Mayan Williams. They lost JT too
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  all about one point. How m Cord, as we mentioned earlier, was
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  banged up. The lost Lathan Ransom in the second half. At some point,
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  when you're looking around at all the injuries sort of starting to pile up
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  all of a sudden, Brian Day started start to worry that, you know,
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  hey, maybe this just isn't isn't our night. No, You're not
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  allowed to think like that. You don't have a choice. You know,
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  I always say we're in control of what we do, and you know,
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  this time of year, you know, we play physical brand of football and
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  things like that are gonna happen. But most of those guys, you know,
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  they get right back in the game after taking a shot, you know,
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  and for those who played football before, you know, it's it's like
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  having them. You know. Sometimes you know, you get leg whipped or
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  something. It's like someone taking a Louisville slugger and smacking it into your shin.
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  You know, it just it hurts, and you know, certainly there's
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  a difference between hurt and injured. And but our guys ben, they battled,
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  and you saw a bunch of guys just fighting at the end. They
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  didn't want to come out of the game. So yeah, I think our
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  team, you know, at halftime, always has had a good look in
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  their eye all year, you know, knowing that they want to come out
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  and play really well in the fourth quarter. And you know you're seeing us
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  do that. I mean, we're playing well in the fourth quarter. I'd
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  like to see us, you know, even play better in in the first
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  half. But we are finishing games who we're supposed to finish them well.
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  We're finishing games. I think there's ways that we can finish them better.
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  But at the end of the day, of the goals to keep winning,
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  and we got to keep doing that, and we know the challenges are going
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  to keep getting bigger and bigger here down the stretch. This is something we
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  talked about on the postgame show. Oi Hio State has now made it through
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  several of their big kind of red flag games like hey, night game on
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  the road in Madison, that's not easy. Hey, Penn stayed at home,
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  that's not easy. Night game on the road in South Bend, that's
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  not easy. They've made it through all of those. They are now eight
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  to no. We know, we talked off the top of the show that
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  Michigan game just twenty six days away, and the Blackeys are going to be
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  big favorites the next three weeks. Ryan Day is already warning them do not
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  start looking ahead. Yeah, I mentioned to the team as we were watching
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  some games this afternoon, just watching some of the teams play at noon and
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  then the three thirty games. You got to bring it every week, and
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  you know, you have one bad day and your season's ruined, you know,
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  And the teams that we play are very good teams, are well coached,
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  and you know, winning is just not something that we're entitled to.
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  We gotta we gotta do it. And that's the competitive stamina that we talk
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  about. And you know, especially going on the road, these games are
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  hard. Well, the next one will be a battle next week against Rutgers.
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  It will it just I think it's a noon kickoff, right, Jerry,
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  is it noon? Yes, yeah, it's a noon kickoff. I
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  mean, you know, Greg's doing a good job with those guys. So
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  battles. But but but the good thing is we're you know, we're getting
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  battle tested as well. I think we're The more battles you get into,
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  you know, the more poise you have because you have something in reference,
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  you don't panic. But again, we're going to watch the film and you
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  know, throw coffee against the wall again. I'm sure this year's Ohio State
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  team is eight to o, just like several of the other recent vintages of
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  this team have been eight to o as well. But it's taken a very
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  different look the way they've gotten to eight to zero this year. The offense
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  has been a little less explosive than it has in the past, but the
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  defense, Boy, the defense has really stepped up. How much of a
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  security blanket was that defense for the buck Geys in the second half And how
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  much does it change your thinking on decisions during the game when you know,
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  you know, hey, you don't necessarily need to score fifty points to win
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  every week. Yeah, I think they're in the second half when Wisconsin came
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  out scored, we came back scored, and then the ball was I think
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  it was, you know, coming out and then we ended up on like
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  the ten yard line. We brought it to midfield, flipped the field,
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  got it inside the ten, you know, and you know, usually it'd
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  be like, well, we got to go for it, we got to
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  score, and so pooching the ball in those situations right now, like you
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  said, with a good defense, you feel like, you know, you
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  got an opportunity to get the ball back. If it's a three and out,
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  then you're gonna get the ball at midfield, if it's couple first downs,
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  and you know, you feel decent about those, and so yeah,
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  I think it's it's something where you got to get a field during the game.
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  How it's going, But it starts with the run game. You know,
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  if the run game, you know is you know, if we're stopping
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  the run, then you feel like you're in control of the game. And
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  I think that was a big part coming into the game. We had to
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  run the ball, stop the run, and show toughness. I think we
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  did all three of those things. One of these signature moments for the defense
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  in the game and maybe for the season was that goal line stand right before
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  halftime. Wisconsin had the ball first and goal with the one looked for all
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  the world like they were going to punch it in and cut it to ten
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  seven at halftime, and then the Buckeye defense stood tall, got three stops
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  in a row, four of them to kick a field goal. It ended
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  up only ten three at halftime instead. How big was that goal line stand
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  for this team, you know, not giving up an inch with with you
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  know, the ball in a one yard line and just keep fighting and keep
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  swinging, keep playing to play Tommy made on the shovel was huge, you
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  know. But but our guys, you know, they played hard, they
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  rallied to the ball. No, I mean, I thought the secondary played
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  well. They got their hands on some balls, and that was another really
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  good performance by our guys. So then I'll do it for a current Ohio
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  State head coach Ryan Day. Now let's hear from a former Ohio State head
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  coach, Luke Fickele. He, of course, now the head coach of
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  the Wisconsin Badgers. He is now zero to two against his alma mater.
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  He lost a forty two to nothing game as the Cincinnati head coach back in
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  twenty nineteen. This was a little bit, a little bit closer, a
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  little more competitive, but the Badgers did lose, and after the game it
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  was pretty clear Luke Fickle thought that the play of Trevion Henderson, the play
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  of Marvin Harrison, who had six catches one hundred and twenty three yards a
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  pair of touchdowns, that was really the difference. How much of a difference
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  do guys like that make in a game like that? Players make plays.
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  I mean, it's it's not hard to figure out sometimes and it's just,
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  you know, it's hard to stop. And you know, yeah that they
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  had two difference makers that you know, everybody knows about, but they were
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  different makers again tonight, and you know, so we've got to those are
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  the things you gotta find. And when somebody goes down like Braden Braden or
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  Brailen, then somebody else has to step up and hoping that you have some
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  of those playmakers they just don't haven't had the opportunities just yet. But that's
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  what we're not to find. We're gon have to find those guys that had
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  the ability to step up when somebody else goes down and when the numbers call
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  and they have the opportunity and the ball comes their way, and then make
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  the plays. Coming into the game, the wisconsinant run defense was a little
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  bit of a question. They've been a little shaky at times during the season
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  and that was something that your House Date offense took advantage of on Saturday Night
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  with that big game from Freivian Henderson and some big plays from Xavier Johnson on
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  the ground as well. That defense has been kin consistent throughout the year.
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  So what does Fickle think the issues have been and then how did those issues
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  play out against the Buckeyes on Saturday. I think starts with leverage and then
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  I think he goes into tackling, you know, and there's all different kinds
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  we saw earlier in the year, and you know, a lot of space
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  tackles that we were doing that we weren't very good at and you know,
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  and maybe a little bit more tonight with some physicality on the tackling, you
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  know, and you know, actually the ones that hurt us us are the
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  big runs. I think we had some mistackles or some bounce offs and a
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  couple of third downs where we you know, they throw a check down and
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  you know, we've got exactly what we want and they find a way to
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  you know, to get seven when they need seven or get seven when they
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  needed six. You know. But tonight was a tougher one to you know,
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  to to overload the box with you know, what you had to try
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  to deal with on the outsides as well. So you know, it's you
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  know, it's a catch twenty two, you know, but we know that
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  that's where we've got to do a better job. But I know going into
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  it that not giving up the big plays was critical, and if it was
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  a methodical drive, I thought that, guys, this is something that we're
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  going to have to live with in some ways and then be able to make
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  some plays. Because we made enough ninus yardage plays to put us in some
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  really good situations, but in return, we gave up to many of those
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  really big plays well. With the Wisconsin game now in the rearview mirror.
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  The buck guys will be hitting the road again this weekend. They'll be playing
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  at Rutgers on Saturday night is a noon kickoff in Piscataway. Tony Gerderman and
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  Kevin Noon and I will all be there covering that for Buckehetdle dot com before
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  that game happens. Boy, there is gonna be a whole bunch of news
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  this week. I'm sure on Ohio State we'll see if there's an update on
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  the Michigan situation. We'll see have our usual scheme update, our ex's and
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  O shows with our buddy Ross Fulton. Probably some recruiting news, I'm guessing
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  at some point this week. That's how this sort of stuff tends to go
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  this time of year. We are headed into the month of November and that
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  is when it starts to get real in the world of college football. Will
• 17:40
  start to get real in the college football playoff world. On Tuesday night,
• 17:44
  that is when the first rent college Football Playoff rankings revealed will happen. Tony
• 17:48
  and Kevin and I will do be doing our usual live show that'll be Tuesday
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  night on a YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash bucka huddle. That show
• 17:55
  starts around seven o'clock, So go ahead pencil that in and if you want,
• 17:57
  if you're worried, I don't want to miss that one, make sure
• 18:02
  you're subscribed to our channel and make sure you hit that bell on that YouTube
• 18:03
  channel as well so you get notified when we go live, so you won't
• 18:07
  miss anything. It could be some very interesting interesting things to talk about.
• 18:11
  That first ranking is real, obviously not the final one, but gives you
• 18:15
  a good sense what the Committee's thinking about your team. And there was a
• 18:18
  lot of scuttle butt over the weekend that the Committee might be viewing Ohio State
• 18:22
  as the number one team in the country right now, just based on that
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  win at say, at Notre Dame, the win over Penn State, win
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  at Wisconsin, the Buckeyes have a pretty good resume right now. We will
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  find out what the Committee thinks about it on Tuesday. You can watch that
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  all with us at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle on Tuesday night. So
• 18:41
  looking forward to that. Back with another show tomorrow. So thank you guys
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  all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow,