Reflections

I am not psyched about a lot of things that went down in the TCU game, but there were some bright spots that should lead OSU to a decent season.

Positives:

Katz's performance (sorta)- for his first game it wasn't too bad, but his audible screw up cost OSU 2 pts and effectively ended the game.

Bishop's TD- Nice pitch and catch.

Nichol's 3rd down catch in the 1st half

Negatives:

Run Defense- 278 frickin' yds by TCU. OSU's safeties lead the team in tackles- 'nuff said.

Special Teams- one fake punt was a bright spot. Kahut missed a makable FG, and Hekker shanked a punt at the end of the 1st half that gave TCU a short field- which lead to a TD.

Run Offense- Quizz got a whopping 18 carries for 75 yds- WTF? OSU's o-line needs to hit the weightroom harder. They looked soft. The Beavers had 73 yds rushing for the whole game.

Pass efficiency- Katz was 9-25. This kind of efficiency will not cut it. Especially against teams that have good offenses, the Beavers need to control the clock.

Offensive Third Down Conversions- TCU owned the clock all game. The Beav's only converted 4 out of 11 ops. TCU was 11-17.

Summary:

At least the Beavers did not embarrass themselves. The OSU defense, especially the LB's looked lost against an offense they've seen before. Arm tackling, over pursuing, added to a losing recipe. The pass defense was okay, two INT's were great. But the DB's had to make way to many tackles. The OSU offense got pwned at the line of scrimmage the whole game. Besides taking away the running game, they pressured Katz. Luckily Katz did not turn the ball over with a pick. The OSU coaches called an okay game, not great. The defensive scheme was hard to judge because a lot of the plays made by TCU were made because OSU was out of position and unable to recover. LB's are supposed to produce in Mark Banker's scheme, and they were AWOL. I think the Beavers will improve over the next two weeks, Louisville will be an interesting game the Beavers should win.

LINKS TO OTHER REFLECTIONS:

Miller(ESPN)

Kirkpatrick(Gazette Times)

Angry Beaver

Building the Dam

21-14 TCU

OSU is going toe-to-toe with a very good TCU team. OSU is very close to being very good on offense, however Quizz is not performing. Whether it's because of a lack of blocking or good defense.

Katz looks like the real deal. He has missed 4 passes that were huge, but he also made some nice passes.

As I mentioned, special teams is a critical component to this game. Hekker made a play then blew a play. His crappy punt gave TCU a short field with 2 minutes left. His great play was the fake punt. I hope he didn't blow his load on that fake punt. He needs to make punts in the second half.

Kahut is not reliable. He missed a makable kick.

This game will either get ugly in the 3rd quarter for the Beav's or they start making plays and win the game.

14-7 OSU

Hekker hits a fake punt pass, next play Katz goes deep to Bishop for 6.

14-7.

TCU is pissed and feeling the pressure.

7-7 After the 1st quarter

OSU and TCU are throwing punches like heavyweights so far. OSU's offense has no running game, and the passing game looks out of sync. Luckily TCU's offense is not perfect. Dalton is the real though, he is making plays. His INT was a fluke gimme that OSU took advantage of.

Quizz is not getting any holes, TCU's rush defense is legit. No turnovers by the Beav's is the key so far.

Paea ended the 1st qtr with a sack of Dalton on 3rd down. Nice.

The Big Screen

TCU pre-game- Katz

Pre-game TCU- Quizz

At this time tomorrow

At this time tomorrow the Beavers will be getting it on with the Horned Frogs of TCU. I am psyched!

I have a friend who is at OSU's afternoon practice today, traveling with the team. I will post pics and vid's as I get them.

As for my prediction for the game, I sadly think that TCU is going win, and will probably cover the spread. Final score 42-21. Senior, productive QB's go a long way for me. So does OSU's horrid record against pre-season top 20 teams, I think it's 0-5. This is my analytical prediction.

My emotional prediction is that the Beavers show spunk like they did against LSU years ago, except this time the kicker doesn't miss and the Beavers win. Final score 30-28.

TCU vs OSU Comparison Report

(source: Oregonian)

Many bloggers are focused on evaluating the TCU v OSU match up based on the offenses and defenses. No one seems to be talking about special teams, which I think will play a bigger role in this game than people realize. OSU played a super offense at Hawaii a few years ago and special teams played a huge role in the win. OSU lost to LSU because of special teams. There are too many games to count that Special Teams played a huge role.

To flush out my thoughts I did a quick grade out of each team below.

Homefield: Advantage TCU (+5)

Offense:

O-Line: Advantage TCU (+5)

QB: Advantage TCU (+5)

RB's: Advantage OSU (+5)

WR's: Even

TE's: Advantage OSU (+5)

Defense:

D-Line: Even

LB's: Advantage TCU (+5)

DB's: Advantage OSU (+5)

Special Teams:

Placekicker: Advantage OSU (+5)

Punter: Advantage OSU (+5)

KO Returner: Advantage OSU (+5)

Punt Returner: Advantage OSU (+5)

TCU Total: 20

OSU Total: 35

So what is my prediction for the game? Stay tuned.

CJ Spiller vs TCU 2009

If you pay attention to the NFL, CJ Spiller is looking like the real deal for the Buffalo Bills. He has balled in the pre-season, we will see how things work out in the regular season. I am posting this video of TCU vs Clemson last year because it showed how TCU handles a very good RB. CJ posted 112 yds rushing in a loss. TCU went into Clemson's house and won 14-10.

TCU will be focused on stopping Quizz Saturday. It's not clear whether or not TCU has the same defense they had last year. How Quizz performs is going to be telling. Perhaps he is the key to winning the game? I think controlling the football will be very important. What do you think?

Injuries

The Beavers are in deep do doo right now. Too many players have gone down with injuries this fall. While many are not season ending, it's happening to key players like James Rogers, Catchings, Wheaton, Philips and Paea.

As if the Beavers needed more challenges, their defense is looking ragged this fall. I've been saying all year long that the Beavers needed more athletes on defense if they were going to compete this year, let alone win the Pac-10. The LB's look the least impressive, followed by the DE's. I think the DB's will be okay, but if the d-line doesn't pressure the QB it won't matter.

I am more concerned about the defense than the offense. Defense wins championships.

I am hoping that the Beavers can at least make next Thursday's game a close one. TCU will be ready to play and they have home field advantage. The spread on the game is 12-14 in favor of TCU.

The Spread Offense

As you may know, TCU runs the spread offense. They were prolific with it last year, and it helped them get to a BCS Bowl.

Angry Beaver wrote a great post on ideas for stopping the spread offense, and I think they are good ideas. He recommends that the defensive ends put pressure on the QB by bluffing and forcing poor decisions. Last year's defensive ends did not produce, what's going to change this year? I agree that a proactive defensive strategy is required. OSU's cornerbacks are going to have to step up bigtime. They are going to be critical to stopping TCU's offense.

The Beavers have not handled the spread historically, and TCU is probably licking their chops, er frog lips.

The Beavers defense was okay last year, but didn't dominate. This first game is going to be a huge test. I don't think TCU is going to lay an egg, they are going to be ready to play- they have 9 offensive starters returning. That includes an experienced QB in Andy Dalton. He produced 2756 passing yards, 512 rushing yards, with 26 total touchdowns last season.

To win on the road, you have to bring a superior defense, will the Beavers bring it?

TCU 2009 highlight films

Possibly the lamest musical score to a football highlight film ever.....



And not to be undone- Soulja boy's song get's a redo.....



WTF.

The Beav's better be ready for their spread offense. They don't want to be part of the next lame TCU highlight film, this shit is unbearable.

3 of the Top 6 Pac-10 FB Players are Beavers

According to Ted Miller at ESPN.

I think it is great to get the attention, with 3 ballers- 1 on D, 2 on O, the Beavers should have a good season. The only problem is the OSU QB is unproven, and there is no depth. The defensive ends and secondary players are average based on last years production. Perhaps they will step up this year.

The 2009 OSU team was successful in large part to Sean Canfield. If Vaz turns the ball over or can't throw accurate passes, it doesn't matter how good the Rodgers Bros are. If average passing teams have their way with OSU's secondary, Paea won't matter. No pass rush also spells doom for the secondary.

The TCU game is going to awesome, I can't wait.