Drew Thurman (11:21 pm)

It's funny to me that so many Buckeye fans are so doom and gloom after the Ohio game. Don't get me wrong, it was an awful game to watch, but the sky is not falling. Actually, as Buckeye fans we should have expected something like this to happen knowing Tressel's background. In games against so called "weaker opponents," we should always realize three things about Tressel:

1) He does not like to open the playbook and show his hand.

2) He does not like to run up the score.

3) To him, we should be able to over power these teams with a very vanilla offense.

Like it or hate it, this is a trend we continually see out of Tressel. Honestly is should work, but when your team comes out flat it fails miserably. So with that said, let's take a look at some positives from this game. I always believe in looking at the glass half full, and I want to spend some time focusing on that! The negatives were easy to spot, and it would be easy to spend all day talking about those. Instead, here were some good things I noticed...

Positives:

1) We finally forced turnovers! Our defense struggled mightily in this area last season, and it was refreshing to see us force so many turnovers. There were actually five turnovers, four of which were interceptions. I was especially excited for Anderson Russell. He has been criticized for having terrible hands, and it was nice to see him get the monkey off his back with this pick.

2) The running backs did their job. Some might disagree with me, but I thought all three running backs looked good throughout the game. The only time they struggled was when the offensive line did not do their job. They all ran very hard, and looked very quick going outside.

3) Ray Small finally got a return touchdown. Early in the game he looked like he was taking a page out of Chris Gamble's book (refusing to fair catch), but he made up for it with a great return. He keeps getting better and better, and that return was very impressive.

4) Ross Homan looks very sharp as a replacement for Larry Grant. He had the second most tackles on the team against Ohio, and always seemed to be around the ball. I like his instincts, and I look forward to seeing him more the rest of this season.

So, I am not sure what will happen this Saturday, but I promise that the sky is not falling. There were some positives that came out of this last game, and I can promise you will see a motivated team against USC. Let's not let this one game shape our whole opinion of this team!

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