JessN: Ohio State preview: Focus is on Meyer-Saban, but game will be won elsewhere

JessN

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Ohio State preview: Focus is on Meyer-Saban, but game will be won elsewhere
by Jess Nicholas
TideFans Editor-In-Chief
December 26th, 2014 12:41 AM

. By Jess Nicholas TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief Dec. 25, 2014 Much has been and continues to be made of Urban Meyer and Nick Saban renewing old rivalries in the inaugural semifinal matchup of college football’s new final four playoff. Those stories continually miss the point. Saban and Meyer are unquestionably among the top five coaches currently […]

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CajunCrimson

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Jess is pretty conservative in his predictions....him predicting an 11 pt win, translates to 17-20 ..... Feeling pretty positive about this
 

BamaMoon

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I love the pick...and I think JessN may be hedging his bets a little. I think another way of looking at it, which is far less analytical, may be to consider what happens when both teams play a "graded game:"

If Bama plays an A+ game it really doesn't mater what OSU does - Bama with a 20 point win.

If OSU plays an A+ game, Bama probably needs at least a B+ to A- game to win - Bama in a close 3-5 point win.

But if OSU plays anything less than a B game and Bama matches it with one of their own it'll probably be about a 10 point game.

I fully expect OSU to game plan to slow Bama down a little, but I think our defensive match up against their OL and new qb will significantly slow the Buckeyes down and cause them to struggle to score points.

It really wouldn't surprise me if its somewhere around 41-20 near the end of the 4th qt.
 

mittman

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I am surprised with the edge in secondary to Alabama and the edge in linebackers to Ohio State. I expected you to have both of them close but swapped. I always enjoy reading these and come away with several matchups to pay attention to.
 

bamacon

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I am surprised with the edge in secondary to Alabama and the edge in linebackers to Ohio State. I expected you to have both of them close but swapped. I always enjoy reading these and come away with several matchups to pay attention to.
Or RBs to the acorns. I think JessN was doing the equivalent to spotting points in the article as to not show Bama leading in virtually every category which they do. :). It was a nice gesture.
 

PDL

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Great read. Only minor quibbles would be RB and DB. I think RB is close as you said, but Fowler tips the scales in our favor. He is a great runner himself and basically could be considered our 3rd string RB if necessary. He is an excellent pass catcher and a good enough blocker that I don't think you could compare him to any other OSU RB. However, it could be argued that OSU's H-backs provide many of the same roles, so no biggie.

As for DB's, I really feel like we allow too many big plays downfield. The Mizzou game is never close in the 4th quarter without those miracle passes. That's 2 games in a row now that we've allowed too many big plays. I haven't watched much of OSU this year so I don't know what their DB's really look like, but I'd still probably give them the edge just based on our poor downfield coverage.
 

crimsonbleeder

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preciate the writeup, Jess, as usual.

BUT, there is no way that OSU has a better stable of RB's than we do. I've watched EVERY game or tape of them this season, and it's not even close.
 

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