Football
By The Numbers
By Jeff Amey

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WHEW! Michigan State entered Ohio Stadium this Saturday and gave the Buckeyes all they could handle. The game was dominated by both offenses, and was really decided by which defense was eventually going to make the plays to win the game for their team. The Buckeye defense came through when it needed to, gathering a school record 12 sacks, and keeping the Spartans out of the end zone at crucial points in the game. It was a mental gut check for the offense, defense, and special teams that has to make the Buckeyes a better team now that they've gotten past it.

Before we go into more detail, let's take a look at the stats. To clear up some past confusion, if the fullback is lined up down in an H-back or wing position, it will be considered a one back formation for the purposes of the formation breakdown. If the fullback lines up in the traditional fullback spot or anywhere else in the backfield and the quarterback is under center, it will be considered a two back formation. Also, I do not award first downs in the breakdown for touchdowns as official statisticians do. I only award first downs for those earned by the offense.

Run/Pass Breakdown

41 Total Plays--381 Yards--9.3 ypp

15 pass (37%)--10/15 for 251 yards 3 TD

26 runs (63%) for 130 yards 1 TD--5.0 ypc

11 Total Drives

ave. of 3.7 plays--34.6 yards

ave. start--OSU 23

1st Down--21 Plays (51%) for 196 yards

4 pass (19%)--2/4 for 97 yards 2 TD

17 runs (81%) for 99 yards--5.8 ypc

ave. gain of 9.3 yards

2nd Down--14 Plays (34%) for 111 yards

8 pass (57%)--7/8 for 97 yards

6 runs (43%) for 14 yards 1 TD--2.3 ypc

ave. of 7.9 yards to go

ave. gain of 7.9 yards

3rd Down--6 Plays (15%) for 74 yards

3 pass (50%)--1/3 for 57 yards 1 TD

3 runs (50%) for 17 yards--5.7 ypc

ave. of 7.8 yards to go

ave. gain of 12.3 yards

conversions--1/6 (17%)

Playaction Passing

3/4 for 136 yards 2 TD

First Downs--10

4 by pass

6 by run

FORMATION BREAKDOWN

Two back formations--11 plays (27%)

1 pass (9%)--1/1 for 39 yards

10 runs (91%) for 36 yards 1 TD--3.6 ypc

Shotgun formations--22 plays (54%)

12 pass (55%)--8/12 for 209 yards 3 TD

10 runs (45%) for 40 yards--4.0 ypc

One back formations--8 plays (19%)

2 pass (25%)--1/2 for 3 yards

6 runs (75%) for 54 yards--9.0 ypc

RUN TYPE BREAKDOWN--26 attempts

counter/trap--0 (0%)

draw--6 (23%) for 50 yards--8.3 ypc

sweep--1 (4%) for 10 yards--10.0 ypc

base/iso--5 (19%) for 6 yards--1.2 ypc

end around--1 (4%) for -6 yards--(-6.0) ypc

power--1 (4%) for 18 yards--18.0 ypc

QB run/scramble--5 (19%) for 16 yards 1 TD--5.2 ypc

option--4 (15%) for 14 yards--3.5 ypc

stretch--3 (12%) for 12 yards--4.0 ypc

Other Stats of Note

*2 offensive penalties for the game

*OSU started on MSU side of 50 one time--7 pts.

*1 for 1 in red zone scoring (TD)

*4 of 41plays were on MSU side of 50 (10%). Those happen to be the last 4 offensive plays for OSU

*8 of 41 plays went for no gain or a loss (20%)

*No sacks and 4 turnovers (4 fumbles)

*15 of 41 plays had 3 or more WR's lined up (37%)

*4 of those 15 plays ended with the ball in a WR's hands (27%)

*First half plays--MSU 50 OSU 17

*Total plays for the game including those called back for penalty--MSU 91 OSU 42

*2 blocked field goals by the special teams (1 returned for a TD)

First off, Michigan State is a really good offensive football team. Drew Stanton is probably the best quarterback in the Big 10 and it showed on Saturday. If he were on a team that had a better defense, there's little doubt in my mind that he would be a Heisman contender and be leading his team on a National Championship run. It is a testament to his ability and toughness that he endured 12 sacks and pressure all game long to throw for over 300 yards and keep his team on the field for the vast majority of the game while not turning the ball over. He was absolutely amazing on third down in that game.

Also amazing was the Ohio State defense. Despite being on the field for 91 snaps of the ball (not including special team plays), the defense never folded, and never really looked tired. In fact the defense looked stronger as the game went on. The pass defense looked lost at times, but it is understandable considering how the Buckeyes had to defend Drew Stanton. They commited a lot of players to the line of scrimmage and played zone behind it, leaving Stanton to have to throw the ball to move the Spartans. To his credit, he did so most of the game.

Special teams were an adventure for both teams on Saturday. Ohio State fumbled away two kicks in the game, one of them turned into a Michigan State touchdown by their offense. Michigan State had two field goals blocked, one of them returned for an Ohio State touchdown in one of the worst coaching mistakes I've ever seen at the college level. The returned block helped get Ohio State back into the game after a dominating first half by the Spartans. OSU punter A.J. Trepasso had a pretty bad shank on his first kick of the game and later booted a 76 yard punt to get the Buckeyes out of field position trouble late in the first half. Michigan State's punter pinned the Buckeyes down inside their 20 several times, but the Spartans allowed a long punt return late in the game that virtually allowed the Buckeyes to close out the game. It was a weird game to watch for special teams play.

What can be learned from the offensive performance this week? We finally saw a little bit of the explosiveness hinted at in the pre-season on Saturday. The Buckeyes had 3 touchdown passes over 45 yards in the game. We learned that you don't have to win the time of possession battle to win football games. We also learned that you don't have to have even one 7+ play drive to win a football game. You just have to have more points than the other team at the end of the game.

Overall, I think Jim Tressel responded well to the media and fan pressure he was getting after the Penn State game last week. The playcalling this week was a little more aggressive, and there was a more traditional feel to the offensive formations. Even in the shotgun formations, we saw a lot of two tight end and two back sets. Even when things weren't going well for the Buckeyes, Tressel and staff never really abandoned the running game like they seemed to do against Penn State, and were rewarded with another 100 yard game out of Antonio Pittman.

Once again, any talk about the offense is going to swirl around the quarterback position at Ohio State. Troy Smith had a very good game statistically, going 10/15 for 251 yards with three touchdowns. He also seemed to make *mostly* good decisions with the ball on pass plays. He didn't throw any interceptions and didn't get sacked in the game, and most importantly, didn't throw the ball into coverage. Overall, it was a very solid performance, and one that will usually spell wins for the Buckeyes. You have to admire the way he kept plugging away even when things weren't going well for the offense. He's a competitor and the team responds to that.

What is sometimes lost in stat-lines is the other intangibles of the quarterback position. Michigan State is not a very good defensive football team. They were never able to get a consistant pass rush on Troy and he had all day to go through his reads most of the game. They didn't have the athletes to expose Troy's weaknesses the same way Penn State was able to the week before. The Spartans, for the most part, played very loose zones and attempted a little bit of man to man coverage, and there were men running wide open in the secondary all game. Seeing wide open receivers is what Troy does best, and if a defense doesn't get pressure on him, he's going to eventually get through his reads and hit that open man. Teams will not beat Ohio State by letting Troy do what he does best in the passing game.

Although there was a little improvement in Troy's game this week, the problems are still not solved. It was a good thing that the Spartans weren't able to get a decent pass rush on him, because some of his reads were still painfully slow. He still didn't throw the ball with anticipation of the receivers coming open due to coverage reads and this will probably be exploited by another defense somewhere down the road. He also needs to work on his third down decision making. Scrambling on third and long and throwing short passes with virtually no chance of converting will not get the job done in the long run. Teams are looking for him to scramble now and he's going to have to concentrate on getting a pass off past the sticks and taking care of the ball when he does scramble. He has way too many fumbles already this season.

Antonio Pittman is quietly putting together a solid sophomore season at Ohio State. He is running with authority and shows pretty good vision in finding the holes and hitting them with velocity. There are some questions about his durability, and rightly so, he has looked as if he were dinged on several occasions per game, but it also looks like the running game is in good hands with Pittman as long as he stays healthy. There hasn't been much development of a proven backup this season. Maybe the Buckeyes will be able to work on that this week against Indiana.

After so much critisism in the first half of the season, it was nice to see Ted Ginn get himself into the end zone again. He finished the game with 4 catches and a touchdown and bounced back nicely after a muffed punt lost in the first half of the game. Santonio Holmes also had a good game for the Buckeyes this week, showing that he hasn't lost the big play form he's shown at times since his freshman season. He finished with 5 catches and 2 touchdowns on the day. If the Buckeyes continue to come out in more traditional formations, you can expect the catches per game of those two players to go up considerably.

Kudos also have to go out to the banged up Ohio State offensive line. Antonio Pittman gained over 100 yards on 16 carries and Troy Smith had all day to throw the ball. Michigan State may not have had the best defense in the world, but the big guys up front were a big reason that the Buckeyes averaged 9.3 yards per play on Saturday and deserve a lot of the credit.

This game is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the rest of the season for the Buckeyes. Slightly more aggressive playcalling, more traditional sets and a more comfortable Troy Smith can only lead to good things in the future. The Buckeyes have a game that is traditionally a confidence builder and stat padder, but might not be as easy as in recent seasons this time around. Indiana is an improved offensive football team and might provide a little bit of challenge if the Buckeyes don't come out focused and take care of business on offense.

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