bdubb75

I didn't mean it like that. My point is have we lost some prestige? Our recruiting classes aren't doing too hot considering we are, what I consider, one of the best teams in the country and definitely one of the best programs. There are a lot of other schools doing better than us and I don't think they should.

Is it lost? The recruiting numbers are just sad to me when Virginia and other schools are above us. Have we lost a step or am I overanalyzing?

I don't think wanting 10+ wins year in, year out for a team that is historically one of the leaders in terms of wins and athletes is having unrealistic expectations. On a side note, the time is now in the Big 10. With Hoke doing well at Michigan and Urban coming to OSU, things are going to be shifting back to the OSU/Mich Big 10 days (in my opinion). I don't think we are lacking talent but maybe overall player development and identity. We had so many games this year where it was feast or famine on offense. I think we need more consistency across the board (beat Michigan St one week then be a 17 point favorite over a sub .500 team like Northwestern at home and lose and be exposed on defense) and we need to be able to bounce back from being down.

In regards to the OP, I'd say that's pretty accurate. It seems like one thing happens, then another and so on and we never regain our composure and bounce back. It seems the D always gets blamed but really, I think it's the offense. I think Taylor has little to no composure as a QB and when he gets down on himself or the situation, he makes bad decisions. No single play ever makes a game but that long pass at the end of the first half took a lot of the wind out of our sail it seems and after that, we drive again and turn the ball over and at that point, we just lost total control. Couple that in with the normal things like bad calls or missed assignments and you get beat by a good football team.

Maybe I'm just negative but without a different QB, we won't be playing for the NC or even the Big 10 title. It just won't happen.

I really think it's all about consistency. We seem to flounder at the first sign of danger. Our offense is an up tempo offense yet....we do almost nothing with it and we have to be one of the worst 3rd down teams in the country. We were like 0 for 6 or something at one point against Michigan. That's awful. I still stand firm by my thoughts on the team though...until Taylor is no longer the QB, we won't be consistent. He's probably the most inconsistent of the bunch (in my opinion).

I agree. The future isn't so bright...I thought we had a chance at the Big 10 or at least to be at the game.

He certainly stays positive and sees the whole picture, or something. Meanwhile, we lose.

There were some back-breaking calls that didn't go our way but with our offense, I never feel 'good'. It's always inconsistent and seemingly feast or famine. Throw in Taylor making some bad decisions and some poorly thrown balls...then it's over. I wish we had a better offensive identity. At one point we had 13 minutes for ToP and they had like 33? That is never a good thing unless you're scoring on every play. Throw in a missed offensive pass interference and 'ROUGHING' the punter and we're getting blown out. Oh, and like 3-4 fumbles in the 4th quarter to really make it ugly.

Don't worry, after Iowa beats us this week...we'll drop out of the top 25.

There have been some terrible calls this game...against us. The first quarter offensive pass interference and the roughing call, seriously?! FML.

Well...at least we are bowl eligible.

It's not being pessimistic, it's being realistic. We are far too inconsistent across the board to be a good football team. Our offense, once again, is horrid. Taylor making poor decisions (many in this game) and then fumbles/penalties and a mediocre football team is hanging it on us.

Getting rolled by a mediocre Michigan team certainly feels like a failure. Being beating by Northwestern at home oh and Wisconsin winning by 31...yea, we've had a great season!

I worry that PSU will rally around this and come out and put it on us. I know we can win (and I think we should win - although I thought we should beat Northwestern too). Sad day for a legacy and a legend, though.

/thread

Martin has been balling the past few games. He's definitely a good player.

Well, let me clarify 4-3. We run a true 4-3 and it's balanced. We rarely bring different looks and different blitzers. Occasionally we'll walk up a CB or S but it's very rare. Our defense is built around the zone and it puts a lot of pressure on the back 7 because with 4 down linemen, it will always be hard to get pressure.

A lot of this is because of our defensive scheme. We have a very 'soft' scheme in the sense that we don't blitz a lot and we play soft zone. We also play too much 4-3 which isn't bad but if you don't blitz somebody or mix up the coverage, we are allowing the offense to block our 4 down linemen with 5 possibly 6 if they use a TE/FB. It's a numbers game in my opinion and we seem to be spread out too thin when it comes to defense. I'd personally love to see more blitzing and coverage mix ups. We are wide open in the middle almost always.

I think Michigan State still has the best chance based on odds looking at their remaining schedule versus ours, assuming they win out. I don't care who we play as long as we get in and win!

There's probably already something about this somewhere but I couldn't find it. How many takeaways have we had this year? It seems like our D is more bend but don't break this year (zone) and less aggressive. We don't seem to have many INT's/fumble recoveries to help out our O. Does anybody have any numbers on this?

PICKED BABY! Who was it that wanted him on the bench? Man, I'm fired up!

Damn, that might have been one of the best quarterbacking decisions I've seen Taylor make. Great play all around. Now, let's drive it home and win the f'ing game!

Lavonte is the BEST player on our football team. He's not the best athlete but he's this year's 'Suh'.

Carnes must be garbage if they keep going with Taylor. He's just out there simply existing it seems.