Bits and Pieces from Columbus

I'll get my road trip review up soon, but in the mean time, a couple of thoughts from this game (on top of these).

I think when Paul Chryst takes a look at the game tapes, he'll see that Zach Brown was often (maybe always) open for the outlet on passing plays when he left protect to go to the flat. Against a team that was dominating the line of scrimmage as much as OSU was, I would think we'd want to hit that pass a few times to slow them down just a little.

That said, I thought Chyrst called a solid game. Bielema's call to fake the kick was brilliant. There wasn't one person among the 108 thousand not on the Badger sideline who saw that coming. That's why it worked.

Doeren, too, called a nice game. The Badger defense came to play. After such a big blow, there's one sure bright spot: the play of the Badger defense. Now, some perspective: the last drive of the first half was unfortunate. I didn't think it was the tipping point (the second INT was, then the kickoff return was the nail in the coffin), but as Potrykus points out for the Journal Sentinel, fans are starting to wonder why we keep seeing these late rallies work. I actually called the "give up a long pass for a big play" defensive alignment to the folks around me in the crowd just before it happened. The Buckeye fan in front of me thanked me for making the call.

Sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut.

The Buckeyes didn't do anything in the second half, but before everyone declares how bad Pryor is, consider that it would have been irresponsible for Tressel to let him open it up with a 15-point lead.

Nonetheless, solid effort by our defense. Particularly O'Brien Schofield who was rallying the troops even at the very end. That's leadership. And at least those of us up in section 8C appreciated his fire.

We knew we couldn't make the mistakes we made against Minnesota and win. We did, and lost.

Iowa is another opportunity and one I think we have a good chance in. But we'll need to limit the mistakes.

And if their line is dominating us in the passing game, Paul, look for Zach coming out of the backfield a few times. It was there on Saturday.