Tequilla's Ohio State Post Mortem Thoughts

By and large, I thought the team competed hard and while you could see some frustration and youth show up I never felt the team quit … that's a positive sign when thinking about how the team will continue growing over the next 2 months.

Demond does a lot of things right but this was his 6th career start and his 2nd against the #1 team in the country … this game had a lot of similar attributes versus that game at Oregon last year. There are a lot of skills but there's some nuance that Demond needs to improve on and that includes learning to take an incompletion and pulling the trigger on more "dirty" throws … right now he doesn't really pull a throw unless it's going to hit his receiver perfectly in his chest. That's a great goal to have and it definitely highlights his completion percentage and his lack of interceptions. But it also causes him to potentially take sacks (particularly when playing against athletes that can compete with his athleticism) and/or limits some additional opportunities in the passing game (compare to some throws Penix would make that were "my guy or nobody").

I thought by and large both sides of the LOS played fairly well and it would have been hard to expect more … positive sign going forward.

The fake FG by Fisch was horrendous and highlights that he went into the game thinking he was going to have to try to steal some items to flip the game instead of allowing his players to play straight up. At that point in the game his team was holding their own (and borderline outplaying) … take the points. Instead, when the fake fails not only do you get a far greater shift in momentum that you wouldn't have had with a FG miss but you signal to both teams that you don't think that you can win straight up. Next time you meaningfully touch the ball you're down 14-3.

The 0 blitz by Walters on the Smith TD was an unnecessary risk given that it was very obvious that Ohio State's game plan was to minimize downside risk with their offense … but what the play really does is highlight that we're just a bit lacking in difference makers vs JAGs as the blitz was a step late in causing pressure and forcing Sayin to get rid of it earlier than he wanted and an inability to rally to the ball and tackling Smith before he hit the first down line (which should happen way more often than not). That said, hard to ask for much more from the defense in the game … they did their part.

It's easy to point to the red zone and blame Fisch but I'd put that more on a lack of execution (notably penalties) and the challenge that a tight field puts on winning 1 on 1 battles … in addition the tight windows in the red zone can really hurt Demond with his desire to make "clean" throws … they probably needed to cause a wide field 1 on 1 fade for Boston at least once. Other than that, the only thing I'll point out is the sack that Demond took on 3rd and Goal at the 3 probably should have been a run as it looked like 5 OL vs 5 in the box for Ohio State … particularly true if you were planning on going for it on 4th down. BTW, going for it on 4th and goal from the 3 would have been the wrong call given that the FG put you to a 1 score game.

The good news is that some of the things Ohio State was able to do others may try but will almost assuredly miss the athletes to be able to do so.

This will be a very instructive game traveling to Maryland. Talent wise we should win. But how do we rebound and can we combat the time zone travel against a team that is going to be hyped after a bye as a home dog.