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Buckeyes Crush Minnesota, Shift Focus To Michigan · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Sunday, November nineteenth, I'm your host,
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Tom Moore, the game against Michigan in six days. We only have to
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talk about one game, Tony Gerderman, because much like I think for a
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lot of Ohio State fans, there is only one game this season. Ohio
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State eleven and oh they beat Minnesota thirty seven to three in the Horseshoe.
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Michigan also eleven and oh they beat Maryland in a closer than expected thirty one
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to twenty four game in College Park. But now there is only watch Like
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a Highlander, Tony, there is only one. It is the game.
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It is coming up on Saturday. I guess we are sort of contractually obligated
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to talk about the Minnesota game for at least a couple minutes because it is
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a thing. We spent most of the day watching Ohio State. It really
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just kind of it felt real spring gaming. Honestly, in the first half,
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not a lot happened. They went down the field, scored right away,
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and then that was kind of it for a while, ended up with
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a thirteen nothing halftime lead, and then right after halftime they exploded and all
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of a sudden. It went from thirteen nothing to twenty seven nothing in what
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felt like the blink of an eye. Yees seventeen points in that third quarter
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and fourteen right away and effectively ending any hope of a disaster that would have
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had to have been Ohio State's doing at that point. You score those two
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touchdowns in the third quarter, and you've protected yourself against yourself and not that
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Ohio State was playing that poorly, but yeah, a relatively easy win.
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And now the preseason is officially over, the eleven game preseason that we have
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to deal with every year, and now the regular season can begin to see
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if Ohio State will be the undefeated team that they want to be. But
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you know, calm Accord doesn't have the running game is I don't want to
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say fantastic, but there's fantastic parts of Trevion Henderson Dallan Hayden getting in there.
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We didn't touch on this and on the Buckeye Weekly podcast from last night,
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but Ryan Day talking about why are you playing down Hayden and he's like,
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well, that was this was his third game, He's got one more
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game, and then he confirmed for everybody the postseason games don't count this year
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either towards the red shirty. Oh interesting. So now I don't know if
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he's wrong about that, because there was a question about that, you know,
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because I think that was how it was last year. They decided to
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allow the postseason to not count. So it sounds like they may be doing
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that for good now as an appeasement to the coaches because of the transfer portal,
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you're losing guys, so this is a way for them to cash get
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what you know, six games out of a guy, seven games out of
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a guy, and not have it count. I think that's pretty fantastic.
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So that that just leads to the method, to the madness of wise and
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down Hayden playing because they were holding you for this well and I don't really
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want to fall down this particular rabbit hole. But we talked for you know,
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two and a half hour post games, including the Mark and Devin in
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the post game with Ryan Day and all that kind of stuff, and we
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didn't touch on this. So we'll touch on this real quickly. When Dalan
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Hayden's in there. I mean the first the first run he was in there,
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it just went boom, fifteen yards and it just he is I think
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much more similar to Travon Henderson in terms of style of back and the fact
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that they have seemingly found something with trey Van Henderson, and you know,
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I seemingly found something as me hedging way too much, because Travan Henderson has
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had two hundred yard total offense games and then had one hundred and forty six
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yards of rushing and twenty six yards of receiving, so you know, one
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hundred and seventy two yards of total offense against Minnesota. They've very clearly not
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just found something. They have they have had something with Trevan Henderson for quite
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a while. It feels like it kind of got something with Dalan Hayden too,
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and he, you know, if he fits what Travan Henderson does schematically
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because you know, ship Train him is a very good running back. Ship
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trainum brings a lot of stuff. He's not the same type of running back
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as trey Van Henderson. If you have someone like Dallan Hayden, you can
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maybe stay in the flow of what you're doing and what you're doing well.
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Right now, that feels like that could be a pretty big deal. Yeah,
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I think we're going to talk about that more in the week, but
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definitely where you don't have to change the change gears, you don't have to
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grind the gears. You just keep going with what you've been doing. And
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you're looking at Trevon Henderson's game by game after missing those that month. Between
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Notre Dame Wisconsin, He's rushed for one hundred yards in every game, including
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the Notre Dame game, except for the Michigan State game, which that was
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just a choice. Yes, We've decided to hold you out of the second
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half of this game, or else he'd be on a five game stretch of
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one hundred yard games heading into the biggest game of the year, playing his
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best ball heading into the biggest game of the year. Someone else that we
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didn't talk about a ton on the postgame show, but who was the leading
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receiver for the Buckeyes after playing barely at all. You know, you saw
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little bits and pieces of Mecca Abuca over the last month or so, but
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he sat out a bunch. Was not one hundred percent healthy, has not
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been one hundred percent healthy since hurting that ankle. He looked pretty darn good.
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Five catches eighty three yards, five catches on eight targets. Leading receiver
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for the Buckeyes having that second receiver, and you know we're going to talk
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about Michigan secondary and matchups and all that kind of stuff. Will Johnson on
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one side of the field as an outside corner, I think you feel very
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good about as your Michigan and Mecca Abuka in the slot, presumably going up
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against Mike Sanders still. I mean, those are a couple heavyweight matchups that
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we could be looking at next next week. Mike Sandery still had two picks
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on Saturday against Maryland's. You know, those are Michigan's two best defensive backs,
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so I would expect Ohio State to try to get one of those guys
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away from those guys matched up with Josh Wallace, who gave up some catches,
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but you know, Will Johnson gave up nearly a touchdown catch. It
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was a touchdown catch, but then it was taken back to the one foot
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line. So it's not like he's been perfect, but he is a very
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very very good cornerback. So they'll find ways to get their top two guys
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off of him. But also they're not going to go to those guys just
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if oh Will Johnson. Will Johnson's on Marvin so we need to go somewhere
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else. They're going to find those guys wherever, and Colm ac Cord's going
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to take what is given to him depending on the coverage, as is his
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job as the quarterback. But yeah, eight targets. I wonder when the
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last time Mecca had eight targets. Maybe Notre Dame. I guess probably that
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was his last, like real live really heavily involved in the offense. I
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think almost so on the defensive side of the ball. Very very no Tommy
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Eikenberg, that was, you know that that was he was a game time
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decision. Ohio held him out just a precautionary thing. Ryan Day made it
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sound like it was not something Tommy Eichenberg was totally on board with, which
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is not real surprising, but held him out as a precautionary thing. It
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sounds like everyone who is out other than Lathan Ransom, they are expecting everyone
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else who is out, including my call, to be back next week.
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But without my call, without Tommy Eigenberg. It was kind of the Jack
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Sawyer game. It was, you know, he had he had six tackles,
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three and a half tackles for loss, a sack, a force fumble,
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and he had a huge game. Tyler Williams had a huge game.
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Jtquey Meloow you know, not a huge game statistically, but had a fumble
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recovery, ran it back, looked like it was gonna maybe be run back
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for a touchdown, didn't quite get there. This is not a great Minnesota
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offensive line by any means, but man, did Ohio States defensive line look
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like what a really good offense defensive line would do against a not very good
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offensive line. Yeah, against an offensive line with some issues. And so
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Sawyer finishes with six tackles. One of his tackles was a no gain,
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very close to being another tackle for loss. The other tackle was one yard
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down the field. Obviously, he's close to the line of scrimmaginally we expect
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most of his tackles to be there, but very close to having all six
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of his tackles occur in the backfield. And you know, with Michigan's offensive
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line showing some weaknesses, particularly the tackles, particularly Carson Barnart, who was
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exposed a little bit against Penn State, and I think was also part of
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the reason why Michigan ran the ball every time again in the second half against
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Penn State protecting some of the weaknesses there, and so that's going to be
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something that Ohio State. It will be interesting to see how they attack it,
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how Michigan counters that attack, because I think they're gonna have to provide
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some protection and I do expect a handful of max protect from mission and to
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help those corners, to help that play action game, to help JJ McCarthy
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find some large windows, because right now it seems like he needs some bigger
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windows. He has not been you know, Kyle McCord has been, has
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made some NFL throws this year. JJ McCarthy has made some NFL throws this
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year. But you know, you go back to last year. This time
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last year, we're talking about the fact that, boy, I don't think
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Michigan's gonna be able to throw the ball downfield because you hadn't seen it all
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year, and then you saw it, but it was only because Ohio State
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had some just incredible bus like historic bus in the secondary. If the you
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know, the secondary play this year has obviously been substantially better than it was
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last year. If it's if those are tighter windows, how does JJ McCarthy,
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you know, respond to that, How does cal McCord respond to that
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Colm McCord had a good, not incredible, but good game against Minnesota twenty
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for thirty sixty seven percent completions, two hundred and twelve yards, two touchdowns,
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no picks. No picks is kind of I think the biggest thing on
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that on that stat line, But sixty seven percent completions, two hundred and
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twelve yards, solid day. There was not you know, the one huge
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play that really skewed everything. The longest play all day was twenty six yards.
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Had completions of thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, twenty twenty six, So,
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you know, working that sort of intermediate game pretty effectively. He feels
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like he has gotten better enough that you could see him winning the game against
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Michigan. You know that Kyle McCord could be the guy who you know,
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leads the drive down the field to win the game. Well, I mean,
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have we seen him do that before. It's been it's been a while
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though, Tom, it's been the you know, back to September. But
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we have seen him. We have seen him make every throw you need to
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make. It's just a matter of doing those all in the same game.
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And you don't need to be perfect to beat anybody you know. C J.
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Stroud was not perfect last year, did enough to beat Georgia. You
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just have to be good enough for the right moments and hit the throws that
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are available to you, put the ball into the right spot for the receivers
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to make plays that are available to them. What you can't do is throw
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it behind a guy on third down to keep a drive alive, you know
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does It almost doesn't matter what you do on first down as long as you
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make up for it on third down. For a quarterback, so if they're
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completing those passes on third down, just but also Tom, it's better to
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stay ahead of the change. I'm just gonna tell you that. But it's
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true. But what we've seen from com Acord is enough to beat what we
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have seen from Michigan. It just has to happen. Yeah, and JJ
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McCarthy is good enough to beat Ohio State. This is. This is two
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quarterbacks who are good, but not flawless, not incredible, not perfect.
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This is I mean, there are a thousand different ways in which this game
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is going to be so close and so evenly matched and come down to like
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the one mistake or the one thing. It's I'm just my head is spinning
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in terms of what direction we want to go right now? How about this
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one? Rather than start going position by position, let's just talk about the
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last two weeks. The last two weeks Ohio State has played, you know,
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the kind of competition that Michigan is playing for the first nine weeks of
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the season. Michigan has been playing the last two weeks probably the two best
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opponents they've played all season, at Penn State and then home and then at
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Maryland. How has your view of this game changed over the last two weeks,
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setting aside all the off field stuff, because boy, lots has changed
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in that realm as well, just on field watching Ohio State play against Michigan
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State and Minnesota. On field watching Michigan play at Penn State and Maryland.
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How has your view of what the Ohio State Michigan game might be? How
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has that changed? Well, we've finally gotten to see the real Michigan,
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I think, which is what we've been waiting to see. And the real
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Michigan is still pretty darn good because obviously Penn State is just a pain to
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play. You've got to be spot on to blow them out, and so
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you're not gonna be spot on and they'll all hang around. But this is
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not This is not a juggernaut. This is a very good Michigan team,
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number three in a nation, I think in the CFP polls. But yeah,
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because I'm still trying to figure out what I'm gonna do in terms of
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who am I picking in this game, I didn't really think about picking Ohio
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State until maybe this weekend, where it's like, well, you know what
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you might want to you might want to start looking at this a little more
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closely. And not that Ohio State couldn't win prior to this week, but
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this is the last two weeks I've seen areas where Michigan can be beaten because
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they've faced opponents who this isn't ten out of ten times that Michigan's gonna beat
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these guys. Because both teams gave Michigan multiple points, multiple scores. Maryland
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did it, Penn State did it. With more consistent quarterback play, more
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consistent coaching, Clearly Michigan can be beaten. I will also say those two
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games came on the road in November, and you take any kind of when
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you can on the road in November in a big ten and playing at home
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is a much different thing. Yeah, absolutely, And of course the Buckeyes
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will be on the road this weekend up in ann Arbor noon kickoff Fox.
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You probably know all that it's basically the same thing every year. Something else
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that will be the same. We will be there. We will be covering
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the game as the Buckeyes play up in in Arbor. It's going to be
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quite a week. Just to sort of give you a sense of what to
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expect for this week, Tony put out a call for questions on his Twitter
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account just twitter dot com slash Tony Gerderman. You can find that if you
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want to ask us some questions there or just you know, at us on
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Twitter, and we'll try and add those to those shows. We were probably
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going to do a lot of listener questions in the next day or two.
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We're going to try and load you up in terms of the beginning of the
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week, so you have a lot of stuff because we know a lot of
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people are traveling this week and we want to give you as much stuff in
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it as early as we can. But we will have stuff all throughout the
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week and then Friday we will be up in Michigan. We'll have the planning
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a live show Friday night, probably answering your questions and all that kind of
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stuff. Previewing the game. I'm sure there's going to be a little bit
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of stuff to talk about. It is one of the most fascinating matchups on
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the field that I can remember. And then there's all the off the field
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stuff, and boy boy, there's going to be some stuff to talk about
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there as well. I saw someone on our live show ask us, so,
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what are you expecting to happen and in the scandal stuff this week?
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And it's just like you tell me, buddy, I have. I'm prepared
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for just about anything in terms of unfield results this weekend. I'm prepared for
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just about anything in terms of what happens off the field this week. I
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would just ask Pete m Ross Dollender leave Thursday alone, don't. I would
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imagine they won't put anything on Thursday because that's not going to be a great
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day for internet traffic. But there are no guarantees at this point other than
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you can get great coverage of Ohio State football at bucke huddle dot com.
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That's where Tony and Kevin and I cover the team, mark covering recruiting,
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it very busy month heading into early signing day. Now that is just about
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a month away. So if you have thought, you know, hey,
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I've thought about supporting these guys, maybe joining Buckey Huddle dot com. Try
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for a month. Boy, would this be a great time to do it,
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because I think there's going to be some stuff to talk about this week
16:27
in advance of this game, and then who knows what happens after that.
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Ohio State could play as many as three additional games after that. Plus you
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got early signing today. Come in about a month, there're gonna be a
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lot of recruiting news as well. Lots of x's and o's talk with Ross
16:41
Fulton and Mickey and Devin, all of our ex's and nose Guruz making you
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a smarter football fan, all on the huddle Board, which is member exclusive
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the huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby's Columbus That is all at pucke huddle dot
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all you gotta do. That will do it for us today. Thank you
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guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow