Do we win if Miller stays in??

[VectorVictor]

I accidentally voted yes. No. We don't win if he stays in the game but we got the breaks, a lot of them when we needed them.

I disagree. IIRC, when Braxton went out, we had shut down their passing game at that point, bottled up their inside rushing game,and our D-Line was breaking through all day--only Braxton's athleticism was keeping their drives alive at that point, and barely at that.

Our offense was making significant strides and opened things up vertically after the David strip to the point where our 3RB set could do some real damage to their defense, and it showed--something like three personal fouls on those last drives by the tOSU defense shows they were getting, tired, careless, and sloppy. And against a Top 25 defense at that.

And that Brokemeyer kid got a bum rap for a lot of those throws--yes, some were throwaways because we had excellent coverage, and there were a couple of errant balls. But the majority of those INTs were on the WR--the ball was catachable in many of those situations--either our D got there to disrupt, or the tOSU WR wasn't able to complete the play. That would have happened regardless.

I do think that tOSU would have made it closer--perhaps by a field goal or made it an OT game, but I do believe we would have prevailed, regardless.

 

[ESPY]

I accidentally voted yes. No. We don't win if he stays in the game but we got the breaks, a lot of them when we needed them.

I disagree. IIRC, when Braxton went out, we had shut down their passing game at that point, bottled up their inside rushing game,and our D-Line was breaking through all day--only Braxton's athleticism was keeping their drives alive at that point, and barely at that.

Our offense was making significant strides and opened things up vertically after the David strip to the point where our 3RB set could do some real damage to their defense, and it showed--something like three personal fouls on those last drives by the tOSU defense shows they were getting, tired, careless, and sloppy. And against a Top 25 defense at that.

And that Brokemeyer kid got a bum rap for a lot of those throws--yes, some were throwaways because we had excellent coverage, and there were a couple of errant balls. But the majority of those INTs were on the WR--the ball was catachable in many of those situations--either our D got there to disrupt, or the tOSU WR wasn't able to complete the play. That would have happened regardless.

I do think that tOSU would have made it closer--perhaps by a field goal or made it an OT game, but I do believe we would have prevailed, regardless.

And keeping drives alive is all tOSU needed to do to beat us. They had the lead and time on their side, and our D has proven it has trouble against athletic QBs, so there's no doubt in my mind they would've gotten a few more 1st downs, which would've kept our offense off the field and held our momentum at bay.

Sure, we played waaaay better down the stretch, but do we win if MIller goes down? No way.

 

[The Dude]

I've heard both sides of this compelling debate, and I'm convinced we win either way. Got Carl? had a great point that Nebraska most likely would have made it a 7 point ball game whether Miller was in there or not.

I don't buy the notion that we couldn't stop Miller, because we were stopping Miller. We stripped the ball from him to spark the comeback, and our worst linebacker stuffed him in the backfield to send him out of the game and put them in 3rd and long. That's stopping Miller.

You can't just milk the clock with a 7 point lead when your defense is getting ran through like the sluttiest girl at the prom.

 

[huskernumerouno]

I put too close to call but for the sake of argument, injuries are part of the game so it is a moot point. It is like asking if we would have won if TM or RB had been hurt, or would we have won if they had called Miller down instead of David stripping the ball. We can look for ways to say we won or would have lost. The fact is, the game is 4 qtrs and we did what had to be done to win that one where the week prior we did not.

 

[308_Husker]

In no way, shape, or form do we win that game if miller stays in the game. He was making our d-line look like idiots everytime they got close to him. Keep in mind he missed some throws, so the hill to climb could have been a bit steeper.

Even if our offense comes alive in the second half, they would have still won. There was no way we could stop miller.

 

[deedsker]

The moment Braxton Miller got hurt I knew we would win somehow. Even with all the close calls with Bauserman in, I thought we were going to win the whole time. I knew Bauserman has the same ability to throw, very little, as Miller and no ability to run. Miller stays in and converts just one or two first downs and we lose.

 

[Coqui]

I've heard both sides of this compelling debate, and I'm convinced we win either way. Got Carl? had a great point that Nebraska most likely would have made it a 7 point ball game whether Miller was in there or not.

I don't buy the notion that we couldn't stop Miller, because we were stopping Miller. We stripped the ball from him to spark the comeback, and our worst linebacker stuffed him in the backfield to send him out of the game and put them in 3rd and long. That's stopping Miller.

You can't just milk the clock with a 7 point lead when your defense is getting ran through like the sluttiest girl at the prom.

Watch the replay. His ankle got injured long before your worst linebacker got close to touching him. His injury is what allowed him to get tackled in the backfield. The problem regarding the defense is that with Miller still in, OSU's defense would have at least had a little more rest than they did with Bauserman's 3 and outs. An extra 2 minutes rest could have meant the world in terms of defensive pressure from the Buckeyes

 

[walksalone]

I think we would have won, but it wouldn't have been with 5 minutes left, something like less than 2 minutes...

 

[BrooklynsFinest]

I don't think we win, not because we couldn't stop Miller (we were figuring it out starting with the strip), but because when Bauserman came in, their gameplan changed from all ground game to all aerial. Let's assume Miller gets the same amount of rushes as Bauserman gets passes, 10 right? Bauserman incompletion, clock stops. Miller 0 yard run? Clock winds. 40 second playclock, 10 rushes results in 400 seconds of time difference between a rush and incompletion. 400 seconds is almost 7 minutes off the gameclock, and every minute is important.

 

[Malth]

meh