Photo Credit Mark Avery/AP
Well I stand corrected...
I admit it I am mother hen, as I really thought this was going to be close. Ohio State had some groove going in the first quarter but once the SC defense settled down from being a little too amped up they were methodical and simply over powered the OSU offense. Boeckman was running for his life from the 2nd quarter on. Why we didn't see Pryor a little more is puzzling. He made some nice plays and he will be an absolute force once he gets settled in with the offense
Where to start...
Well the defense did exacatly what we hoped they would do. Their speed was incredible, not that we didn't know that, but against a "better" offense they just rolled. The big question to me is how would the game been different if Beanie Wells had played...probably not much different. Rey's Pick 6 was a specatcle to watch as it showed just how athletic he is. Cush made some plays and was constantly in Boeckman's face. Matthews, Griffen, Ellison, Pinkard the list goes on the defense really stepped up.
The offense, after a sluggish first series, went on to really get in a rhythm. The offensive line is for real, The stood up to the challenge and kept the pressure off of Sanchez. I did not hear Wilson's or Heyward's name at all in the game so they really didi a great job at of coming together. The play to Havili for the first score was unreal. Joe McKnight is just insane with some of the runs he made. It was clear that SC was going to use McKnight more than usual but for a game like this that's OK. SC had absolutely no problem using McKnight to run the ball on 3rd and long situations and he did a great job in either getting SC close or converting outright. The running back rotation once again did us well CJ and Stafon were solid. Bradford came in late and had some good runs.
Sanchez played marvelously. He saw more pressure than he did against UVA but when they got into his face he kept his composure and made plays. He was only sacked once and that was on a scramble. The recivers did a great job tonight. They held on to the ball and moved it forward. The only quibble I had was on the pick at the end of te first half. I liked the play, and I had no problem with it being run but Damian Williams needs to be a bit more agressive at making sure that either the defender doesn't get position to make the pick or fight harder to not letting the defender hang onto the ball. Other than that I was pleased with how the offense was run.
A great dominant win no doubt about it...We'll have more tomorrow!