My Thoughts.....Virginia Tech

In what was a tale of two halves, the Ohio State Buckeyes recovered from a shaky first half to dominate Virginia Tech in the second half in pulling away for a 42-24 victory to open the 2015 season. 

            All of the talk in the off season was about the quarterback position, but in the end it was the former guy under center who stole the show and ignited the Ohio State offense.  Braxton Miller got his hands on the ball eight times (6 rushing, 2 receiving), gained 140 total yards and scored twice.  He had the highlight that was making the rounds of You Tube a half hour after the game ended, with an unbelievable twisting, turning 53-yard scoring run in the third quarter that put the Buckeyes firmly in control.  The defense played much better than they did against the Hokies last year, especially considering that two Virginia Tech scores were set up by Ohio State turnovers.  

            Opening-game mistakes did flare up at times, particularly in the first half.  The holding penalty early in the second quarter was huge.  Cardale Jones scored on the play, but instead of taking a 21-0 lead and perhaps knocking the Hokies out of the game before halftime, the Buckeyes were pushed back and the drive ended with no points.  Virginia Tech found a spark and rallied for 17 unanswered points to go up 17-14 at halftime.  Obviously, the suspension to Jalin Marshall hurt the Buckeyes, at least in the first half as he normally returns punts.  Instead, Ezekiel Elliott, new to punt returns, coughed it up in Buckeye territory late in the first half, leading to the go-ahead Hokie touchdown.  In fact, the entire team appeared to lose focus in the second quarter as I noticed the offensive line blocking wasn’t quite as crisp and the defensive line wasn’t getting quite the penetration they did in the first quarter.  Halftime changed everything though, as Virginia Tech was held to just 109 total yards in the second half.  Part of that was due to the injury to their quarterback Michael Brewer, but I also noticed better penetration by the defensive line.  In particular, I was impressed by the play of Tyquan Lewis and Jalyn Holmes, each finishing with six tackles.  Lewis, at the DE position, showed his athletic ability by getting into the Virginia Tech backfield on a number of occasions, pressuring Brewer and coming up with two sacks.  As with last year’s championship team, the play at linebacker was key.  Joshua Perry and Raekwon McMillian each had eight tackles and Darron Lee picked up where he left off last year, with six stops, two tackles for loss, and a sack.  I was also impressed with the play of CB Gareon Conley starting his first game since the Navy opener a year ago.  He totaled eight tackles and a sack and provided very good coverage on the deep routes. 

            On the offensive side of the ball, it’s hard to argue when the offense puts up 42 points against a good defense, but I was surprised that Cardale Jones got more carries than Ezekiel Elliott.  Elliott did finish with 122 yards on 11 carries, but 80 of those were on one play.  Perhaps the offensive coaching staff wanted to feature Braxton Miller and perhaps Virginia Tech’s defense was keying on Elliott somewhat, but I would think the coaches would still want him to get more carries than the quarterback.  I was also surprised, given what we’ve heard about the quarterback position battle all through practice that J.T. Barrett didn’t come in earlier.  When Barrett did come in, he certainly made the most of it with a 40-yard run and a 26-yard touchdown pass on his only throw of the night. 

You never really know how to feel about opening games because usually they are against an inferior opponent on your home turf and become a snooze fest.  That wasn’t the case here as Ohio State went on the road against a marquee opponent from a respected conference that was definitely capable of pulling an upset, and a very good atmosphere in Blacksburg.  A big road test was passed last night without four major contributors ( Joey Bosa, Dontre Wilson, Corey Smith, and Jalin Marshall) and the entire nation caught a glimpse of how good this team could really be.