Congrats to Mr. Leblanc!!!

It will be interesting to see what he does, for sure. OSU is going to lose a bunch of star power and I’m curious to see how the staff manages the roster. 

TTUN will get what’s coming-on the field and off it.

Fair points and I agree that improvement needs to be seen, especially given his title and pay. 

Not surprising. Smith is truly special 

The counter argument of course is that no defense is gonna perform as well against an elite offense as a mediocre or bad one. I’m not saying Knowles is or isn’t the right guy, but in today’s game no defense is gonna shut down a great offense 

We all want to see a nasty OL. I personally don’t care where they’re from though, as long as they’re good. I do appreciate the staff’s efforts to make recruiting Ohio a priority each cycle though. What we really don’t want is to see the best Ohio kids playing elsewhere and especially up north. 

If the NCAA does the right thing, TTUN is gonna need a lot of NIL to field a respectable team over the next couple years. Gonna be a very tough sell otherwise 

There’s a decent chance that *win gets vacated by the NCAA. 

OSU will still return a lot of talent but is likely gonna have to fill some holes via the portal

And rarely, if ever, get embarrassed. There are frustrations but also bright spots. I felt a lot worse after 31-0 Clemson, the 2018 Purdue game and the 2017 Iowa game. At least Oregon was ranked and actually good. 

So the 1st cheating loss?

Exactly 

Exactly, 74. The Buckeye prep and effort have been there all season. They had the game circled, and did some good things but Oregon also played great and was the better team that night. Both can be true but it’s not like this squad assumed it was invincible and could sleep walk into that game. 

2 are Bama transfers. Thanks, Saban!

In general, the D was decent against the run. Did get a big stop or two (haven’t rewatched). Let’s put it this way- had Burke been a little better in coverage (ok, a lot better), the outcome is likely different. The D gave up 31, which isn’t great but it’s also not disgraceful when you’re talking about a top 5 opponent on the road with an excellent, experienced QB, NFL receivers and a great OL. They are extremely well-coached too.

Well-said and I agree. 

My takeaways:

1. OSU needs to work on tackling 

2. A great offense always has the advantage and Oregon is indeed a great offense and as Kyle said, deserves credit for their preparation and execution.

3. OSU’s D needs to be less predictable, at least sometimes, and that includes especially movement on the DL (stunts etc)

Something else I noticed is that on one of the plays when Jeremiah Smith made a nice catch he was drilled from behind and I wonder if targeting could have been called. Anyone else notice that? Smith got right up which is probably why nothing was reviewed but it looked to me like it was helmet to helmet on a defenseless player. If it indeed was, this is another example of how inconsistent the rule is applied and how it rarely goes our way.

Regardless, I greatly appreciate Kyle’s effort here. There were lots of positive takeaways and OSU has a chance to regroup and hopefully come back better prepared against future opponents.

No need to name call. Also, offenses today are a lot better than they were in the 1970’s, so comparing the two is ridiculous. 

No need to apologize. You’re entitled to your opinion. Respectful commentary is welcome here. 

And no offense that the Bucks will face has the firepower Oregon does. 

Very well-said. Expectations against great offenses need to be tempered but the staff has to do a better job of adjusting and being less predictable, especially in the 4th quarter. 

Same, Oldebucke. I think Oregon just played lights out on offense and caught us off guard. Burke also had the worst game of his career. I don’t think it’s a hopeless situation. We’ll know more after the PSU game but I’m cautiously optimistic for now. 

Knowles inherited sky high expectations and a mess from Coombs. Statistically, significant improvement was made. Last season, we had a top 5 defense. The TTUN game was frustrating but if we are honest they were a pretty dang good team that was stout on both sides of the ball and McCord’s 2 interceptions did us no favors. Nobody talks about this but the Cotton Bowl was one of the best OSU defensive performances in Day’s tenure. 
 

I’m not suggesting that the performance against Oregon was acceptable, but fans also need to have realistic expectations for what will happen when they face great offenses. Georgia gave up 41 when they played us and it wasn’t because Smart and their DC are clueless. The days of shutting down good offenses are over. Thankfully for this OSU team, we have the offensive firepower to keep up, as was shown last weekend. Fingers crossed the D can improve and that the loss of Simmons won’t prove too costly to prevent the team from accomplishing its goals, beating TTUN being first and foremost.

I understand that. Sorry if my response came off as snarky. My frustration stems from the fact that few seem to be giving the defense credit for anything good they’ve done this season (including in the Oregon game itself).