MY THOUGHTS.....Oklahoma

The entire nation was witness, in primetime, the complete demolition of a decent Oklahoma team in their own venue, by a fired up young Ohio State team.  Coach Urban Meyer is now 19-0 on opponents’ home fields at Ohio State and has won five straight against ranked teams in their venue as well.  

Quarterback J.T. Barrett played like a man on a mission, tossing four touchdown passes, ripping off quite a few tough runs between the tackles and, most importantly, didn’t turn the ball over, in an efficient performance.  Barrett’s decision-making, in a hostile environment, was exemplary.  He didn’t get flustered neat the end of the first half when the coaching staff seemed to have trouble getting plays in.  Rather, he improvised, leading to a touchdown just before halftime that silenced the Oklahoma fans and gave the Buckeyes an insurmountable lead.    Mike Weber continues to improve each week at RB.  He was able to rip off 123 yards on 18 carries, and on quite a few of his runs, I noticed his patience and lateral movement at the line of scrimmage until he found a hole.  Freshman running backs usually take a while to develop the patience to find a hole and allow their blocking to develop in front of them.  From what I saw, Weber appears to be ahead of schedule in his maturity and development.  I also noticed the nice block he made, sealing the edge on Curtis Samuel’s 36-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.  Noah Brown finished with five catches for 72 yards and four touchdowns.  He single-handedly outscored the Sooners and set an Ohio State single-game record for touchdown receptions.  His incredible TD reception, in which he caught the ball off the back of an Oklahoma defender, will be highlight reel material for some time to come.  There were other times he made the Oklahoma secondary look silly, running past a man on a fade route, then burning them deep twice and, on his last TD reception, he faked the Oklahoma CB completely out of the play.  Brown has served notice he can’t be covered man-to-man.  The offensive line completely dominated an experienced Oklahoma defensive front seven.  Jamarco Jones and Pat Elflein led the way as the Buckeyes piled up almost 300 yards on the ground.

The defense, at times, was bend-but-don’t break, as they couldn’t completely shut down Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield, who managed to throw two touchdown passes.  But, for the most part, they were in his face, forcing two picks, one of which was returned for a touchdown by Jerome Baker.  More often than not, Mayfield was running for his life and was hit hard on numerous occasions.  They held the Sooners to just 5 out of 13 third-down conversions.  Mayfield was never able to develop any consistent rhythm and I noticed how Sam Hubbard and Tyquan Lewis got upfield quickly and took away the outside running lanes.  They did a good job of “caging the pocket” and collapsing on Mayfield. 

The punting of Cameron Johnston should also be recognized.  He averaged over 50 yards per punt with his longest a 68-yarder that pinned Oklahoma deep inside their ten-yard line.  The Sooners could not get out and had a short punt of their own, which led to Ohio State’s first touchdown.

Finally, a word about the terrible officiating in this game.  The B1G conference has, for years, been known for some of the worst officiating crews in the country.  The Big 12 isn’t much better and the combination of B1G officials on the field and the Big 12 replay crew was the worst of everything.  This was plain to see on Oklahoma’s Joe Mixon’s kickoff return for a touchdown in which he clearly dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line.  The ball rolled out the side of the end zone.  Not only was this not a touchdown, it was a touchback.  Oklahoma’s score should have been nullified and it should have been Ohio State’s ball on the 20-yard line.  Obviously, it’s an embarrassing officiating blunder, especially on the part of the replay crew, who should be disciplined.  Every scoring play is subject to review.  But how does the Ohio State coaching staff in the booth not call down to Coach Meyer and have him challenge it?  Thankfully, this gaffe did not have any effect on the game and hopefully, the coaching staff will be more willing to challenge bad calls in future games.  

Ohio State now heads into the bye week hoping to give guys who are a bit banged up, like Gareon Conley, a chance to heal up before the start of conference play October 1 against Rutgers.