Paul Oberjuerge header image 2

‘Watching’ Ohio State Thrash Oregon

January 12th, 2015 · No Comments · College football, Sports Journalism

I am still ticked off at ESPN. They had a fairly significant presence in the Middle East and Europe, and they just quit on us. Gave up. Pulled the plug on July 31, 2013.

And as SportsCenter went dark, we lost the most convenient access to baseball, the NFL, college basketball and, crucially, college football.

As Oregon and Ohio State began playing for the college national title, starting at about 5 a.m. here, Tuesday, I took a pass through the dark underworld of “live streaming” … and decided that was too seedy — and went back to the website.

Where ESPN (guilt-ridden, I like to think) has made one key improvement to its “Gamecast” (or whatever it is called) feature. The one that brings up a picture of the field of play, and updates with the most recent play or pitch in stats.

The improvement? ESPN now links video to key plays. So you can see the big-gainers and the turnovers. Via replay, but at least you see what it looked like …

And I saw enough of it to know that Ohio State … kicked Oregon’s butt.

Ohio State does pretty much what Oregon does. Spread the field. Lots of receivers. A single running back.

Of course, the scheme is just part of it, and less than half of it. The other factors are athleticism, which Oregon had plenty of, and size/strength.

Which Oregon did not have nearly enough of.

After the first possession, an Oregon touchdown drive, the Ducks were always second best when it came to blocking and tackling — mostly because Ohio State was bigger and more physical.

Ohio State’s quarterback, Cardale Jones, is 6-5, 250, and the Ducks seemed only slightly interested in trying to tackle him. They seemed to want nothing at all to do with the Buckeyes tailback, a bundle of muscle named Ezekiel Elliott, who battered the Ducks for 246 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 36 carries — much of it while running through huge holes torn in Oregon’s defensive front by Ohio State’s offensive line.

What it boiled down to, and this was visible from Oregon’s second possession, was that the talent was pretty much a wash, even with Oregon boasting the Heisman Trophy winner, Marcos Mariota — and Ohio State had a huge size and strength advantage.

Ohio State could run the ball at Oregon; Oregon could not run the ball at Ohio State. Which is key, even in armball.

If the Buckeyes had not committed the first four turnovers in the game, they could have had this thing buttoned up by halftime, because Oregon couldn’t get them off the field, otherwise.

I was vaguely disappointed. Even after five years out of the country I am a Pac-10/12 guy, so in matters of bowl games I would like to see the West Coast team win.

But Oregon has annoyed me a bit, these last 5-6 seasons, with their pitter-pat offense and Nike alumnus Phil Knight giving them “stupid” money of the sort that allows them never to wear the same uniforms twice.

Also, I like a world where the Big Ten has relevance, and that had disappeared during the Southeastern Conference’s reign of terror. The SEC is a whole conference of schools (except maybe Vanderbilt) that aspire to be good enough, academically, to make the football team proud.

The Big Ten resurgent, with Ohio State back (and the BDBITL) and Michigan due to get the electroshock paddles applied to their team with the arrival of madman Jim Harbaugh … I like that.

Ohio State proved they were the best team, here at the end of the season. They beat No.1 Alabama and Nick Saban, they they beat No. 2 Oregon and its blur of an offense. And they did it the old fashioned way — by hitting the other guys in the mouth.

That, and about one play in 10 via video, was enough for me to have a narrative of the 2014 college season that I can pack away and move back to Asian soccer.

Tags:

0 responses so far ↓

  • There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.

Leave a Comment