#14 Ohio State defeats Central Florida 31-16
- Running backs dropping like flies. Running back Carlos Hyde left with an knee injury in the first half and did not return. The Buckeyes were already playing without starter Jordan Hall, who has missed the first two games and all of training camp after surgery to repair a cut tendon in his right foot. According to Urban Meyer “We’re down to our third tailback and it looks like it.” He also mentioned the sloppiness, referring to the fact that two of his running backs, Zach Boren and Rod Smith, both fumbled.
- More on Sloppiness. The Buckeyes had three turnovers (Braxton Miller had an interception plus the running back fumbles by Zach Boren and Rod Smith) and overall they gave up 79 yards in penalties.
- Quarterback or running back? Despite the fact that Meyer said that Braxton Miller ran the ball too much last week when he had 17 carries vs Miami of Ohio, Miller was again the leading rusher on the team and with even more carries. He had 27 attempts, meanwhile, the rest of the team combined had just 24. Miller also rushed for three touchdowns, the first OSU quarterback to do that since 1978 when Art Schlichter did it against Illinois. Incidentally, in last year’s Gator Bowl, he was the first OSU freshman to start a bowl game since Schlichter. And overall he was the third freshman quarterback to ever start for the Buckeyes, behind, of course, Schlichter and more recently, Terrelle Pryor. Although hopefully he doesn’t follow in either of their footsteps as Schlichter ended up in jail and Pryor in the scandals that prematurely ended his OSU career.
- Between rushing and passing, Braxton Miller seems to be their only offensive weapon. Miller completed 75% (18 of 24) of his passes, which is truly an incredible completion percentage. But statistically, he passed for just 155 yards, which is only about 6.5 yards per attempt.
- Buckeye rushing defense was strong again, holding UCF to just over 100 yards.
- Even though they intercepted UCF three times, the Buckeye passing defense allowed 249 passing yards, only had one sack and Meyer didn’t let that go by without comment: “In pass defense we have a long way to go and in getting pressure on the quarterback.”
- Bad trend: For the second week in a row Ohio State struggled to tackle the runner behind the line of scrimmage. Last week they ranked 100th in the nation in tackles for a loss with just two and this week they didn’t record any.
- Next week they host California. In the three Pac-12 vs Big 10 games last week, the Big 10 went 0-3 (UCLA beat Nebraska 36-30, Oregon State beat Wisconsin 10-7 and Arizona State beat Illinois 45-14), so the Buckeyes need be on guard.
- What the twitterverse was saying:
NOT SportsCenter @NOTSportsCenter Braxton Miller has a long way to go before becoming “the next Tim Tebow.” He hasn’t even built any hospitals or circumcised any babies yet.
Albert Breer @AlbertBreer And thank you, Jim Tressel, for successfully recruiting Braxton Miller.
Gerald Alexander @GAlexander21 Braxton Miller is a Baller!
