Ohio State Football: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from the Miami Game
The Good: Terrelle Pryor
People who are bad-mouthing Pryor’s performance are nit-picking. He’s never going to be a guy consistently puts up Tebow-like numbers. Make no mistake about it, No. 2 had a great game. The numbers back it up.
Passing: 12 of 27 for 233 yards and a touchdown.
Rushing: 20 carries for 113 and a touchdown.
Who cares if he had a few truly awful throws and his completion percentage was 44 percent?
Know what else he had? No turnovers. Pryor hasn’t committed a turnover once this year.
The Bad: Ohio State defense
Bad means good in this article. Not only did the Silver Bullets intercept Jacory Harris four times, but there were often times when Harris has absolutely had nowhere to throw the ball because of the strong coverage which forced the Miami quarterback to tuck and run.
Defensive coordinator’s Jim Heacock’s squad was solid against the run as Miami carried 28 times for 120 yards. The only negative associated with the defense struggled to pressure the pocket at times.
That’s partly because OSU spent much of the game dropping seven into coverage and rushing only the front four against the Miami offense. Even so, despite rotating about eight different players, the lack of collapsing pockets left something to be desired.
The Ugly: Special Teams
Raise your hand if you ever thought the special team would be the clear weakness of a Jim Tressel-coached team?
After a subpar showing in week one against Marshall, the special teams were even worse against Miami. Lamar Miller took a first quarter kickoff back 88 yards for a touchdown. In the second quarter, Travis Benjamin returned a punt 79 yards for a score.
Special teams are usually behind the offense and defense in terms of game-readiness in the beginning of the season. But if this trend continues the next two weeks against Ohio and Eastern Michigan, Buckeye fans should be very concerned.
