Football
By the Numbers
By Jeff Amey

The 2007 season opened up for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the friendly confines of the Horseshoe against the Youngstown State Penguins this past Saturday, and the home team didn't disappoint, beating the Penguins 38-6 in the Buckeyes inaggural game on the new Big Ten Network. For those of you lucky enough to have the new network at home (and the overflow channels), you got to see a typical Ohio State opener. A lot of people played. The offense and defense were pretty vanilla. The Buckeyes came out throwing the ball more than expected. Most importantly, the Buckeyes won the game easily.

For those of you that had to go to a sports bar to watch the game, usually with a lot of fellow football and Buckeyes fans, you were treated to one of the best days a Buckeye fan could dream of. There's nothing quite like watching Michigan lose to a team they have absolutely no business losing to with a bunch of your fellow fans.

Before we get into analyzing what we saw on Saturday, let's take a look at the stats.

Run/Pass Breakdown

72 Plays--417 yards--5.8 ypp

32 pass--22/32 for 275 yards 2 TD

40 runs for 142 yards 2 TD--3.6 ypc

10 Possessions

ave. of 7.2 plays--42.0 yards

ave. start--OSU 35

First Down--33 Plays (46%) for 229 yards

15 pass (45%)--10/15 for 154 yards

18 runs (55%) for 75 yards--4.2 ypc

ave. gain of 6.9 yards

Second Down--26 Plays (36%) for 147 yards

10 pass (38%)--8/10 for 102 yards 1 TD

16 runs (62%) for 45 yards 1 TD--2.8 ypc

ave. of 6.8 yards to go

ave. gain of 5.7 yards

Third Down--12 Plays (17%) for 40 yards

7 pass (58%)--4/7 for 19 yards 1 TD

5 runs (42%) for 21 yards 1 TD--4.2 ypc

ave. of 5.0 yards to go

ave. gain of 3.3 to go

conversions--8/12 (67%)

Fourth Down--1 Play (1%) for 1 yard

1 run (100%) for 1 yard--1.0 ypc

ave. of inches to go

ave. gain of 1 yard

conversions--1/1 (100%)

Playaction Passing

5/7 for 69 yards 1 TD

First Downs--23

10 by pass

10 by run

3 by penalty

FORMATION BREAKDOWN

Two back formations--32 plays (44%)

5 pass (16%)--4/5 for 64 yards 1 TD

27 runs (84%) for 72 yards 2 TD--2.7 ypc

Shotgun formations--21 plays (29%)

17 pass (81%)--9/17 for 105 yards

4 runs (19%) for 11 yards--2.8 ypc

One back formations--19 plays (26%)

10 pass (53%)--9/10 for 106 yards 1 TD

9 runs (47%) for 59 yards--6.6 ypc

RUN TYPE BREAKDOWN--40 attempts

power--10 (25%) for 12 yards 2 TD--1.2 ypc

QB run/scramble--7 (18%) for 13 yards--1.9 ypc

base/iso--3 (8%) for 2 yards--0.7 ypc

draw--4 (10%) for 12 yards--3.0 ypc

stretch--16 (40%) for 103 yards--6.4 ypc

Other Stats of Note

* Eight offensive penalties for the game

* Ohio State started on the Youngstown State side of the 50 one time--7 points

* 5/5 in red zone scoring--(4 TD, 1 FG)

* Two sacks and one turnover--(Fumble)

* 40 of 72 plays took place on YSU side of 50--(56%)

* 19 of 72 plays went for no gain or loss--(26%)

The first game is in the books, now what can we take from it? It should be well known by now that I'm not really a fan of scheduling former 1AA schools. There isn't a lot to be gained from them, and there is a lot to lose. In this case, the offense got a little experience against inferior competition, but the defense loses DE Lawrence Wilson for at least the next six weeks and possibly longer. Is the trade-off worth it? For the Buckeyes, at best, it's a wash. At least the Buckeye's game against the smaller division didn't cost them as much as it cost Michigan this week.

For the breakdown this week, I thought I'd give my impressions of the offensive position groups, and then the offense and defense as a whole. If nothing else, this game against Youngstown State was highly anticipated if only to see how the new faces on offense would play. Some fans feared a return to the "Tresselball" of 2001 through early 2004 with so many new players in the skill positions. It looks as if those fears might be unfounded.

Quarterbacks

With Ohio State's opponent this week, it was anticipated that all three of the Buckeye quarterbacks would see the field, and we weren't disappointed. Todd Boeckman made his first career start, and to be honest, did much better than I expected. Watching the game live, I was constantly impressed by his willingness to hang in the pocket in the face of pressure and deliver the ball to the open man, but when I looked at the game again, I came away thinking that the quarterback position is in fine hands.

Boeckman looked in control of the offense from the first snap, and the players seemed to respond well to his leadership. He did a pretty decent job of making pre-snap reads and checking off at the line all game, though that wasn't overly difficult given that Youngstown State was loading the box and giving single coverage to the receivers most of the game. He made a couple of very nice touch throws on fade route conversions to Brian Robiskie for big plays in the game.

After the snap, it was obvious that Boeckman was going through his reads, checking down to outlet receivers several times. He seemed to know where his receivers were on the field and did a pretty good job of knowing where he was going with the ball without staring down the receiver on most plays. It seemed clear that Boeckman is far ahead of where Troy Smith was in these areas at the same point in his career. What will be interesting to see is how well he does when the Buckeyes play a better defense. It's nice to say these things now, but the Penguins didn't put an inordinate amount of pressure on him, and didn't have the athletes to shut down the Ohio State receivers in single coverage. You can bet that the Buckeyes will see some of the same type of defenses with better athletes this season.

As for the backups, I think Antonio Henton had a better outing than Robbie Schoenhoft despite only getting one series to Schoenhoft's two. Robbie has a very strong arm, and is faster than he looks, but didn't seem to have a very polished delivery, trying to strong arm some of his passes rather than stepping into them. He also seemed to look to run quicker than either Boeckman or Henton did. Henton only passed the ball two times, but both of those were on the money, and on his touchdown throw you could clearly see him read and progress down to Taurian Washington before making the throw.

Grade--a surprising B+

Running Backs

I think it's safe to say that the Ohio State running game was a minor disappointment considering the pre-season expectations of a strong ground game this season. 80 of Ohio State's 142 yards came on four big runs, one each from Schoenhoft, Maurice Wells, Chris Wells, and freshman Brandon Saine. Credit the Penguins for playing hard on the defensive line and the willingness to trade single coverage in the secondary to load the box to stop the run game, but there were too many stuffed runs for it to be just Youngstown State.

Chris Wells did not start this game out very well statistically, but it helps to note that his first six carries all took place in goal line situations. His inability to put the ball into the end zone on the first five of those was a little disconcerting, however. He did show a little better in the second half, with a twenty yard run early in the third quarter, but just didn't look like the dominating runner we were expecting to see. Part of that has to do with penetration along the offensive line,but part of it might be that those pre-season dings are still hampering him a little bit.

Maurice Wells still looks quick, and hit a few nice little runs againt the Penguins, highlighted by a 26 yard run on the Buckeye's final touchdown drive. I would like to see him do a better job of breaking tackles, though. It seems he goes down with the slightest bit of contact. He did a pretty good job out of the backfield catching passes in space, and it looks like this might be the role he's best suited for this season.

The back we all wanted to see was Brandon Saine in his Buckeye debut, and it's safe to say that the excitement surrounding his commitment to Ohio State was justified. It was apparent that he has some natural abilities that are very tough to teach, with good vision being the most obvious. We all knew about the speed, but what really stood out to me was the way he accelerated out of his cuts and kept the ball well tucked on all of his runs. I think he'll be taking away more and more touches from the Wells' as the season wears on, and seeing number 3 in the end zone might be a regular occurance.

Congratulations also has go out to fifth year senior fullback Trevor Robinson for his first career touchdown. Sometimes paying your dues pays off.

Grade-- B- (would've been a B without the false starts on Dionte Johnson)

Receivers

Another big question mark for the 2007 Buckeye team was the receiver corps. Replacing Ted Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez is nearly impossible, but to be honest, I don't think they'll have to. With Boeckman's ability to read defenses, the Buckeyes will probably not have to rely so much on the big play to get into the end zone as the season progresses. Still, the dropoff from last season didn't seem to be all that great against the Penguins.

Brian Robiskie was the star of the receiver corps this week, pulling in nine passes for over 150 yards. He was a pleasant surprise and did a good job of going up and getting the ball in a couple of jump ball type situations. He might not be as explosive as Ted Ginn was last season, but he was consistant, ran good routes, and didn't drop the balls that came his way on Saturday.

Brian Hartline didn't get nearly as much attention from Boeckman this week, only getting two catches and only a couple more balls thrown his way, but didn't seem to do as good a job getting separation from the Penguin's man press coverages. I'm willing to bet he gets a little work at that in practice this week.

Dane Sanzenbacher, who obviously needs a shorter nickname, cracked the two-deep as a true freshman, and found the end zone on his first career catch as a Buckeye on a nice pass threaded between two defenders by Todd Boeckman. He is supposed to be filling in Gonzalez' role on the offense as the third/slot receiver. He looked good, but didn't get enough plays in the offense to get a good read on his contribution this season.

Pretty much the same thing can be said for the rest of the young receivers that saw the field on Saturday. Taurian Washington looked very quick on his 37 yard touchdown reception, and had another ball thrown his way. Devon Torrence got a catch late in the game, and Devin Lyons saw the field as well. Much has been said about the tight ends this season, but they seemed more of a factor in the running game with Jake Ballard and Rory Nicol getting a catch apiece.

Grade-- B

Offensive Line

It was a bit of a mixed bag for the offensive line in the game this week. On the one hand, the Buckeyes did a good job of protecting the quarterback for most of the game. Boeckman seemed to have all day to throw the ball and go through his reads all game long. While the Penguins did get to Boeckman twice, one of those was pretty much a coverage sack after he sat in the pocket for several seconds.

On the other hand, the Buckeye running game had a rough outing for the most part, especially in goal line situations. Part of that had to do with the number of people the Penguins were putting on the line of scrimmage, but the zone blocking scheme wasn't opening very many holes for the backs to get through in just about any situation. Overall, 24 of the 40 Buckeye rushing plays in the game went for two yards or less. Even more disturbing, the Buckeyes ran the ball 11 times inside the YSU five yard line. Out of a possible 26 yards they could've gained on those plays, they only managed to gain seven.

The Buckeyes ran the ball 27 times out of I formations, but only managed 72 total yards on those runs for less than three yards per carry. There were also 10 repetitions of the classic power-O play we've seen a lot of since Jim Tressel took over, but the Buckeyes only managed 12 yards on those carries. The only real bright spot in the running game was on the stretch play that has started to be a bigger part of the run game in recent Buckeye seasons. Ohio State gained 103 yards on 16 of those types of runs.

Those numbers are going to have to improve if the Buckeyes want to win the Big Ten this season. Ohio State is going to face better defensive fronts and better defensive backs than the Penguins were able to field. However, it will be interesting to see if other teams sell out as much as the Penguins did to stop the run and take their chances with the Buckeye passing game.

Grade-- C+

Total Offense

Overall, it was a successful day for the Buckeye offense. It was a pretty typical Ohio State opening game. The Buckeyes threw the ball a little more than people were expecting, but they have actually done that every year under Tressel in opening games. The running game was very vanilla, with only a couple of different types of runs used, and a very limited package of formations. We saw a lot of different players on the field. All in all, there is a lot less to take away from the game if you look at the entire group than there is if you look at the game from an individual standpoint.

One thing that stood out, and that needs to be improved upon immediately, was the number of mental mistake penalties on the offense. There were five false start penalties and two illegal substitutions on the offense over the course of the game. These things are to be expected in the first game of the season, but can't continue for the Buckeyes to be the top team in the Big Ten this year.

Grade-- B- There is still a lot of room for improvement

Total Defense

Though this is an article about the offense, there is something to be said about the defense in the first game of this season compared to the defense in the first game of 2006. If you think back to opening day last season, Northern Illinois ran wild all over the Ohio State defense, followed by a Texas team that had also had a lot of success on the ground against the Buckeyes. The defense was tentative and the players were letting the game come to them rather than attacking and forcing their game on their opponents. That was not the case on Saturday.

Despite some success moving the ball, Youngstown State never really threatened to put the ball in the end zone all game long. Defenders were constantly moving forward in making tackles and there was very little yardage after contact for the Penguins. I think this is a good place to start for the Buckeye defense this season. The defense didn't seem as opportunistic when it came to forcing turnovers (they only had one real chance at an interception, and it was dropped), but if the defense is more dominant overall, that is a tradeoff I think all Buckeye fans can live with.

The only real weakness on the defense that I noticed, and one I'm sure that opposing coaches will be salivating about when watching film, is at the defensive tackles. The Buckeyes were also very vanilla on the defensive side of the ball and did very little blitzing. That left the front four to get pressure on the quarterback and get penetration to stop the running game. The defensive tackles failed to get any significant penetration and spent most of the game getting pushed off the ball. This was an area of concern heading into the season, and it seems with good reason.

Grade-- B with potential for a lot higher if the D-line improves.

A bit long winded for a game against a former 1AA opponent? Perhaps, but there was a lot of "new" on the offense to analyze to try to see what the Buckeyes have this year. I finished this game feeling better about the offense than I did going in. There is still a lot of room for improvement on both sides of the ball, but I think the Buckeyes have a lot to build on and are in a good place for this point in the season. The Buckeyes might not be good enough for a return trip to the National Championship game this year, but predictions of third or fourth in the Big Ten this season might be a little low.

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