Death to Tresselball: The Story of Ohio State's 73-20 Win Over Eastern Michigan

We knew Pryor and the Ohio State offense was going to feast on Eastern Michigan, but I don't think anyone ever dreamed the Buckeyes would put up 73 points and 645 total yards. A lot of this can be attributed to this new Jim Tressel we seem to be witnessing in 2010, who has assembled a more lethal offense than any expert could have predicted.

Even more shocking is the fact that Tressel has not bottled this team up with his conservatism, but rather has opened things up completely. Everyone seems to have forgotten about his vanilla "Tresselball" of the past, because we have entered a new paradigm where the punter is rarely used and the offense is hitting on all cylinders.

I don't care if it's EMU or Alabama, Tressel has reinvented himself as a playcaller and the 73 points produced yesterday prove it. Tressel was far from the only storyline in yesterday's dominating win though, so let's take a look at all that went into this thrashing of EMU.

This game was the Terrelle Pryor show, in fact, he had several Heisman moments along the way.

On the first drive, Pryor had a 53 yard touchdown run that would set the precedent for the rest of the day. It appeared Pryor would get sacked, stalling the offense on their opening drive, but instead Pryor easily galloped down the field past any EMU defender that had an angle.

He closed the day with 104 rushing yards and one touchdown. Four of the next five Buckeye touchdowns came via the Pryor-Sanzenbacher connection, which seemed completely unstoppable. This highlighted what was another consistent passing performance from Pryor, as he completed 20 of 26 passes for 224 yards and four touchdowns.

If that wasn't enough, Pryor also caught a touchdown pass in the third quarter from Jordan Hall, which was entirely too easy. Overall, this was his day and everyone knew it. We can make fun of Michigan all we want for being a one-man show, but in many ways that's what we saw from the Buckeyes yesterday.   


This also was a record day for Dane Sazenbacher, who had four touchdowns.

Coming into the game he only had eight career touchdown grabs, so this was a day to remember for him. Not only that, but his four touchdowns tied the Ohio State mark. Not bad for a guy who's 5'11", 180 pounds.

It was interesting that he found himself targeted so much by Pryor considering that Posey, Pryor's usual favorite target, found himself in man coverage quite a bit throughout the afternoon. Sanzenbacher is a phenomenal route runner though, and Pryor seemed to be checking off underneath to the open man rather than looking long. Dane then did the rest, showing off his surprising quickness and playmaking ability.


We got to see the whole stable of backs yesterday, which should provide for lots of debating in the coming days.

Early on Boom Herron handled the load, as Brandon Saine was missing in action for most of the afternoon. Saine only had three carries for 11 yards, and you have to wonder why he saw so few carries. Is Tressel making a shift away from Saine or was he just wanting to get some of the other guys some reps? The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Anyway, Herron was the featured back yesterday, and had another typical Herron-esque game. He had 12 carries for 55 yards (4.6 a carry) with a touchdown. He also added three catches for 30 yards. He is never going to average seven yards a carry or be an explosive playmaker, but he is way more dependable than Saine play after play.

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The real controversy is thanks to the performances of Hall and Berry, as both guys showed that they are probably the best two runners on the roster. Most fans have jumped on the Berry bandwagon thanks to his 67 yard run in garbage time, but Hall is my guy.

Personally, I love watching Berry play and believe he has the greatest upside as a playmaker, but there is no doubt that Jordan Hall is the most complete back on this roster. The ignorant fan does not realize all that goes into playing running back, and just wants the coaching staff to start the guy with the highest probability of breaking a big run. Don't be that fan.

Yesterday Hall looked sharp in all of those other areas. He looked solid picking up the blitz, he showed great hands out of the backfield (17-yard TD from Bauserman), created on his own out of the backfield, and even threw a touchdown pass. He is a complete running back and it really won' surprise Buckeye Nation if he gets a consistent amount of carries.

So, let the controversy begin. I'm sure some of you think I'm idiot and Berry is way better, but hey that's the fun of having an opinion.   


On a negative note, the secondary was very shaky yesterday.

C.J. Barnett, Travis Howard, and Donnie Evege were all out, and early on Chekwa was out of the game, leaving Torrence, Clarke and Brown. The results were not pretty. Torrence looked terrible at the No. 1 corner spot, getting flagged for pass interference and getting burned. Clarke and Brown both looked very green and were exploited on numerous plays.

Even worse was the lack of help from the safety spot, namely Orhian Johnson. Altogether this unit is to blame for the three touchdowns the Eagles were able to muster.

Obviously a lot of this can be credited to injuries, but that is still no excuse for the play of guys like Torrence and Johnson, especially considering this all went down against Eastern Michigan of all teams. If a championship run is going to be possible, this unit has to improve.

The defensive line is not producing the kind of pass rush that the defense needs, which mean more blitzing from the back seven, which means man coverage. So this unit is going to have to hold its own or the offense better plan on scoring a lot more points. Let's hope it was just a bad day!


Continuing on with the injury theme, Jake Stoneburner went down with a high ankle sprain.

Not exactly positive news. In Stoney, the Buckeyes have a lethal weapon at tight end that creates huge mismatches. Reid Fragel stepped in and look alright (2 catches for 22 yards), but he lacks the speed that makes Stoneburner so special. High ankle sprains can linger for an entire season and we can only hope that this doesn't hinder his play down the stretch in the Big Ten.  

Finally, the 73 points accumulated were the most in the Tressel era (or the even Cooper era for that matter).

I still can't get over all those points!