Ohio State Football 2K8 Week Three: Good Todd versus Bad Todd

Which Todd Boeckman will make an appearance on Saturday?

Good Todd, who went 19-26 for 253 yards and three touchdown passes against Penn State in an always hostile Beaver Stadium last season?

Or Bad Todd, who was 13-23 for 156 yards and three interceptions against Illinois at home?

Bad Todd's been making a lot of unwanted appearances as of late, if last Saturday's unintentional nail biter against the Ohio Bobcats is any indication (Boeckman was 16-26 for 110 yards in that game).

And if you follow the media as religiously as I do, you're probably convinced that Ohio State should:

a) forfeit Saturday's game against USC,

b) remove themselves from the Big Ten (HEY, IT'LL BE TEN TEAMS AGAIN AND NOT AN ODD-NUMBERED 11!) and

c) demote themselves to Division I-AA or Division II since they obviously can't hold their own when the spotlight's on them in big games.

Hell, even Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatchhas resorted to consoling Buckeyes fans doubting Ohio State's upcoming performance on the 13th.

I don't believe all that (and quite frankly, I'm fed up with the SEC and USC homers who reside on ESPN, SI, Sporting News, CBS Sportsline, and every other sports website known to man), but I'm also not convinced that Ohio State can pull off an upset in the Coliseum.

Lets face it: Last week's game against Ohio shouldn't have turned out the way it did, with the Bobcats leading into the fourth quarter. I'm not fully convinced that Ohio State "was looking ahead to next week" as some experts mused, but really guys, what the hell was up with your lackluster performance last Saturday?

Did Beanie's absence really make that much of an impact? Mo wasn't the greatest (why, if it didn't work the first fifty times, did you continue to run up the middle?), and Boom was by far the best running back of the game, going 50 yards on 12 carries, and made the most impact on that thirteen play, 73-yard drive late in the third, but again, questions arose:

1. Why didn't Tressel go for two to at least attempt to tie the game?
2. How the hell could Ryan Pretorious MISS THAT PAT!?

Fortunately, by the time this all happened the Buckeyes realized that losing the game was an actual possibility, woke up, and dominated the rest of the game thanks to a series of short rushing and passing plays.

It helped that the Bobcats lacked the depth of their opponents and were clearly worn out by the time the fourth quarter began. Ray Small's 69-yard touchdown on a kickoff return sealed the victory for the Buckeyes, but it required an awful lot of headaches to get to that point.

The biggest concern, at least in my opinion, was the mobility of Ohio backup QB Boo Jackson, who seemed to make big plays on every third down. Why, after nearly three seasons of getting pounded by teams with spread offenses, hasn't Jim Heacock taught the defense how to stop a mobile quarterback?

With all those questions out of the way, lets take a look at this week's juggernaut matchup, which according to friends (all USC fans) and anti-OSU co-workers and family, will be yet another in the long line of embarassments Ohio State will receive this decade.

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