Kellie and I will be in Ohio this weekend and, among other things, we’ll be in the stands watching the Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Penn State Nittany Lions. Last year, the game didn’t go to well for OSU, but things promise to be different this year, as even JoePa himself recognizes:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Teams have roughed up Ted Ginn Jr., doubled up on him and shadowed him.
Now Penn State coach Joe Paterno is trying a novel approach to shutting down the Ohio State receiver.
“I am going to have somebody put something in his food the morning of the game,” Paterno cracked.
No, food poisoning isn’t in the play book for No. 24 Penn State when it takes on top-ranked Ohio State on Saturday in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
Ginn is the Buckeyes’ No. 1 deep threat on offense, and is never more than a missed tackle away from going the distance with a pass or a kick return.
As if it weren’t enough defensing him, opposing teams that opt to give extra attention to the speedy Ginn run the risk of having quarterback Troy Smith go to leading-receiver Anthony Gonzalez. In other words, if one isn’t open the odds are that the other one will be.
“Throwing the ball to Ted and Gonzo is like cheating,” Smith said. “It’s like stealing.”
(…)
So Paterno is left with the quandary of what to do with Ginn when he’s on offense. Does he focus on stopping him and possibly open the door for Gonzalez to have another big game? Does he supplement the line of scrimmage and gamble on shutting down Pittman and Ohio State’s running game? Or does he play a straight defense and hope the ball bounces the Nittany Lions’ way?
“What do you do?” Paterno said. “You go in there and pray. You got a good prayer to St. Jude for hopeless causes or something?”
Heh.
September 22nd, 2006 at 11:34 am
Ahh, the start of Big Ten play… I’ll be sitting in my garage, brewing up a Scottish Wee Heavy, while watching my Boilermakers attempt to go 4-0 against Minnesota.
It’s a home game (our Homecoming, actually), and we’re three-point underdogs… So some prayers for Curtis Painter to have an interception-free day would be much appreciated
September 24th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Good game by the Bucks… Not so much to Ginn & Gonzales, but in the cold, wet, and wind, what can you expect? That TD pass by Smith, though, was amazing… And as usual, Morelli wasn’t very good.
On the other hand, while Curtis Painter wasn’t very accurate early in the game yesterday, he finished with a 66% completion percentage, about 250 yards, and 2 TDs / 0 INTs in Purdue’s victory… And the defense is starting to look pretty decent. This team is coming together
September 25th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
If nothing else, this game should put to rest any doubts that anyone had about the Buckeye defense. For the entire 1st half, they held Penn State to 3 points and allowed only a few third down conversions. And the defensive interceptions in the 4th Quarter were quite nice too !
So far, by the way, the Buckeyes have outscored their opponents 102-32 and they’ve held their last three opponents to 7 points or less.
September 25th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
From those of us east of the beltway, it’s good to see other OSU fans.
Check out the commentary at the above link or join the discussion in The Buckeye Forum.