Lathan Ransom, Will Howard and Emeka Egbuka Lead Pro Football Focus’ Highest-Graded Ohio State Players Against Oregon

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DaiTheFlu's picture

PFF grades are often at odds with what we see with our eyes, but this certainly lends credence to that fact that our OL was struggling BEFORE the devastating injury to Josh. Although the OL had appeared to be improving throughout the season through 5 games, there was a regression against Oregon. That or they aren't nearly as good as we thought they were based on a good game against Iowa.

We can't stop here; this is bat country...

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The Rill Dill's picture

The ONLY grade that matters is found in the Win/Loss column. 

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Matt Gutridge's picture

A look at the five lowest-rated players for each game this season:

PFF's Weekly Bottom 5 Buckeyes
GAME 1 2 3 4 5
Akron QB Devin Brown (52.3) TE Jelani Thurman (53.1) LB C.J Hicks (54.0) TE Gee Scott Jr. (54.5) WR Brandon Inniss (54.8)
WMU LB C.J. Hicks (45.5) DE Caden Curry (54.5) TE Gee Scott Jr. (55.7) G Tegra Tshabola (56.2) CB Denzel Burke (56.5)
Marshall TE Gee Scott Jr. (44.8) WR Bryson Rodgers (49.3) T Josh Fryar (52.6) TE Bennett Christian (53.6) TE Jelani Thurman (54.5)
MSU G Carson Hinzman (45.2) QB Julian Sayin (46.6) CB Davison Igbinosun (47.2) TE Will Kacmarek (47.4) T Josh Fryar (48.7)
Iowa TE Gee Scott Jr. (52.5) LB Arvell Reese (55.1) WR Bryson Rodgers (55.9) DE Kenyatta Jackson Jr. (56.5) TE Bennett Christian (58.6)
Oregon T Zen Michalski (37.6) T Josh Simmons (38.3) CB Denzel Burke (41.7)* G Tegra Tshabola (41.7)* T Josh Fryar (52.0)

*Burke and Tshabola tied for 3rd.

DaiTheFlu's picture

Interesting that 4 of the bottom 5 from last week were OL players. I knew they struggled at times but didn't see it as being an abysmal performance (i.e. Mizzou last year). I would have expected the secondary and DL to be the lowest rated against Oregon. I guess there was plenty of "average to below average" to go around on Saturday, which might actually improve my view on how good the team can be, considering we only lost by 1 on the road to a top 3 team. Hmm.

We can't stop here; this is bat country...

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SalemBuckeye's picture

We all heard the preseason concern about the oline and whether they could improve from their poor 2023 performance. Akron was a weak start but they showed some minor improvement with 203 yards against a solid Iowa defense. The real tests were always going to be Oregon and Michigan forward. The pff evaluation and 140 yards against Oregon reinforce that the oline remains the weak link on the team.

SalemBuckeye

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AZ Buckeye13's picture

Well, when 40% of your OL gets injured in the first half, what are your expectations? 

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Buckeye24's picture

Good lord the offensive line grades not very good.

Artthedart

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ponder10's picture

Pathetic!

“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” ~ Baba Dioum

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Bigmarty's picture

And the sub for our lost blindside OT played well?  Must have had a different channel, those people who claimed that.  Ole Ole!!

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stlbuckeye15's picture

I'm not sure how much stock to put into these, but seeing 4 OL's (I know 1 is now out) in the bottom 5 isn't exactly heart-warming. I thought Michalski filled in nicely but based on the numbers, maybe I missed some things.

Still, the offense was not the main issue. Hoping this team can come together, fix what is fixable, and perform better on big stages going forward.

"In weightlifting, I don't think sudden, uncontrolled urination should automatically disqualify you."
-Jack Handey

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I'm Ron Burgundy's picture

Howard's ability to manage the pocket and avoid the rush is definitely masking what was apparently very poor blocking.  A guy like McCord gets sacked 5-6 times in that game.

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stlbuckeye15's picture

Could very well be. Howard played excellent.

"In weightlifting, I don't think sudden, uncontrolled urination should automatically disqualify you."
-Jack Handey

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SalemBuckeye's picture

Agree. He exceeded my expectations and played very well in a huge game.

SalemBuckeye

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oneflbuck's picture

Your right he probably would have been sacked a few times but he also would have completed a couple of the long passes.  Howard has played well for us, better than I expected but nowhere near the passer that McCord was/is.  Howard and whoever is under or behind center would greatly benefit from having a decent offensive line.  Who is their coach?

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Bigmarty's picture

Hasn't contributed in 31/2 years here.  Why??

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LetsGoBucks76's picture

Something needs to be done with the OL and at this point I am not sure Day has the ability to make a good hire here.

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Hanawi_'s picture

OL grades seem worse than they should be for a team that gained 470 yards including 140 on the ground against a top 3 team. They moved the ball up and down the field outside of a few self-inflicted mistakes (Howard bobbling the snap).

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Elguapo's picture

Ya exactly. How can you have a failing grade with so much success. How is it possible for Burke to be ahead of 2 players? I literally cannot figure how his grade is that high.

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CreekBuck's picture

Damn looking at those ratings how did Buckeyes not lose 69-0? ;) PFFfffft

If not now, when?

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Elguapo's picture

Lol these grades are so stupid who watches and does the grades 3rd graders? How the hell was josh Simmons grade a 38? Dude was playing awesome until he got hurt in the game. Not sure how the line graded so badly when allowing one sack (kind of) and running for 150 yards.

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Hanawi_'s picture

By their own system, they are saying that OSU lost by 1 point on the road against a top 3 team without any single player grading out as having played good (80+). It's insane that people actually use these.

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Elguapo's picture

I used to think they were nice to get a read on how things went but they make no sense at all. Jj Smith had 9 catches for 100 yards and a TD and also blocked well but that is just barely above average lol

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raiderred's picture

That simmons had a worse grade than Burke is absolutely absurd and shows how ridiculous these things are. You can not convince me a single player on the field had a worse game than Burke. Just blows any credibility out the door.

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Six six three's picture

I’m not reading the article. I heard they credited OSU with 40% pressure rate on pass plays. 1.) The offense can still score TDs when pressured. The stat is bullshit. 2.) DG wasn’t pressured, period. Pass rush for 3+ years is SUSFU.

JTT may as well move to TE if he wants to lean on people. I hear there’s an opening.

ROLL BUCKEYES!

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Buck Pooter's picture

Latham Ransom was the best Buckeye player on the field? My goodness.

The Velvet Frog

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GlassCityBuckeyes's picture

Lost me soon as Burke wasn't the lowest rated

Fraudbaugh

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MichaelTimer54's picture

I like the concept of PFF.  But the execution of it is so poor that I can't take the results that seriously.  As has been discussed before, they don't know the assignments for each play, so they can't really determine whether each player is doing his job.

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justanotherbuckeye's picture

Those offensive line grades are not right.  They did not perform that poorly.

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_Patches's picture

So the defense was shredded to the tune of 500 yards and just one player in the bottom five? I get Burke was terrible but hard for anyone to explain how the other 10 guys on the field did their jobs better than the OL.

If you take everything I’ve accomplished in my life and condense it down to one day, it looks decent!

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Elguapo's picture

Probably because Burke gave up 200 yards by himself 

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Garrettbusch15's picture

So on a weighted average basis the offensive line was graded at a 52. If you look at similar math for the cotton bowl, you get a grade of 49.. I get the eye test can be deceiving but there's no chance this performance was in the neighborhood of what that game was.

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CaptainPicard2014's picture

People really need to realize PFF grades are awful. Their stats are good and nice to use but the grades are awful. Howard, Emeka, JJ couldn’t have played much better than they did. But by PFF they have a ton of improvement 

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Elguapo's picture

Ya I don’t remember gaining almost 500 yards and 31 points against Missouri 

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bornbredbuckeye's picture

If all of OSUs players were graded this poorly, I'd like to see how Oregons were graded in comparison.

GO BUCKS!!! *ichigan sucks!!!

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Ortonhallalumni's picture

Kinds scary 4 of the worst 5 are o linemen....

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461buckeye's picture

and still just one second away from having a chance.

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BuckeyeBuck's picture

Yeah these grades mark the last time I give PFF any weight. The fact that they seem right sometimes doesn’t do it for me. I can pull grades out of a hat and sometimes match what I see live. 

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tcm1968's picture

A reminder, PFF at one time was pretty solid. Now they have too many games, too few resources and you get grades that feel like maybe they didn't exactly watch the game.

There's just no point in even using them when they tell you Gabriel was pressured almost twice as much as Howard... it's a joke..

Go Bucks!!!!

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Nuangola's picture

Gee is a calamity out there. Wasn't he a
high 4 star recruit?

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sonofsarek's picture

The O line did play poorly.  Howard was constantly on the move and had little time to throw.  This is one of the reasons that minimal deep throws were made (you need time to throw deep).  Let's face it, Frye and the O line are not getting the job done.  

Replay the line Stroud and Fields had and compare.  

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Frimmel's picture

Does this take in the competition? I thought Oregon had just about the fastest DL I have ever seen. Did bad OL play just make them look fast? Is that what these ratings are saying? 

If you're going through hell, keep going. 

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StoveBuck's picture

Ransom would get a 0.0 from me based on his play on the Gabriel td run alone. Slow to react, bad angle, didn't even touch the guy... some "Safety".

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baddogmaine's picture

JT gave up edge contain to improperly go after the RB on what became Gabriel's TD run. It was only one bad play in what may have otherwise been good play, but boy was that bad.

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bull1214's picture

Kyle jones broke it down and said he did what he should’ve done on that play. Styles had contain until the TE ran a route instead of blocking. Right offensive call at the right time basically. 

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Buck-n-A's picture

I haven’t analyzed it but it didn’t feel like the offensive line was bad watching the game. It wasn’t like we ran for 2 yards a carry or Howard was running for his life the whole game.

Buckeyes…Beets... Battlestar Galactica.

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