Football
J.D. Brookhart can't ask much more out of his defense, which forced five turnovers and scored a safety. Special teams, too, were just that, with John Stec pinning the Buckeyes inside the 20-yard line three times.
Ohio State prevailed 20-2 this afternoon in Columbus, however, mainly because Akron's offense had no chance against the Buckeyes' swarming speed.
The Zips gained 33 rushing yards and 66 passing yards. The offensive line protected the quarterbacks fairly well, only allowing three sacks. Zips running backs, though, had little chance to even return to the line of scrimmage after many handoffs.
Akron scored its only points when Brion Stokes tackled Chris Wells in the backfield, which also happened to be the endzone. Without that safety, it would've been a complete skunking.
There are many positives for Brookhart to take away from the game. Through the forced turnovers, Akron proved it still has several playmakers on defense. Also, the defense could have done much worse stopping Wells, Brandon Saine and Maurice Wells. They combined for 211 yards on 41 carries. Pay attention to Ohio State the rest of the Big Ten schedule and you'll see them surpass that against most opponents.
Stec played the game of his career, booming 14 punts for 575 yards. His first-half performance, in particular, kept Ohio State from pulling away sooner. All of the special teams, in fact, played even with the Buckeyes.
-
Some notes:
I watched the game at Johnny Malloy's in Cuyahoga Falls. It was a complete Buckeye fest. Quite depressing. As was my rude waitress. (Don't you hate it when a server pouts about doing her job?)
The Big Ten is really weak this year. Although Akron clearly had its own struggles, Ohio State's offense was pathetic at times. My early season prediction for the national championship game is Oklahoma and LSU.
I listened to part of the post-game show on 1350 AM. It was informative and entertaining. Kudos to those who came up with the idea.
Six defensive players get to share my game ball: Andre Jones (led the team with 10 tackles), John Mackey (seemed to be EVERYWHERE), Davanzo Tate (played excellent coverage), Doug Williams, Stokes and Reggie Corner (amazing coverage and an interception). It's almost impossible for six people to share a football, so Stec gets physical possession for his outstanding work.
I think Zips fans have to be happy on the whole. You knew the offense was shaky going in. The defense proved itself. Special teams looks like it will be a strength (not including place kicking).
There are some issues with the offense. First off, this type of play calling simply won't work against speedy teams. (Note: Next week's opponent, Indiana, is pretty fast) You can't pass to the flats with 60 percent of the plays. Akron needed to take more shots downfield to keep safeties from creeping up and to force cornerbacks to give a larger cushion.
I haven't even mentioned the quarterbacks yet. Chris Jacquemain played most of the first half and did OK. Ohio State couldn't take advantage of his awful passes. But those awful passes are probably why Brookhart substituted Carlton Jackson for the second half. It's a shame one player didn't move the team, but did they even have a chance? Without an effective running game, Ohio State defended the pass even harder.
I urge anyone who attended the game to post some comments below. Or if you were watching at a sports bar, feel free to weigh in.
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
at barley house about 75-25 for osu that is sad even with mayor don there that is sad, one day we will take down the buckeyes i know it will happen
I watched at the winking lizard in lorain (west cleveland), it was all red off course but no body was rude about it.
I think that your note about going in the deep field is right on. The only half-decent offensive thing we did the whole game was the second half 30-40 yard pass from CJ to Jabari (was almost caught)… i thought they should have tried more of those. Kennedy had no chance against their D.
I thought CJ was better than Jacquemaine (sp?) overall.
Kudos to the defense.
last thing, play B. williams more.
My daughter and I watched at the Winking Lizard in Fairlawn. There were four OSU fans all decked out in OSU garb/jerseys in the parking lot waiting to get in when we got there around 11. One guy is a local school teacher who graduated from Akron. His buddy is currently a student at Akron. I about lost my lunch right there in the parking lot. As mentioned above for the Barley House, probably a 75/25 OSU-to-Akron-fan split but it was very civil. I think Akron's play on defense and OSU poor offensive play had a lot to do with that. MUCH quieter than I expected for that many OSU fans. Mike nailed it above – nice defensive effort by Akron. Very shaky on the offensive side but I attribute a lot of that to an awesome OSU defense. Nice effort Akron!
Was at the game. The few Zip fans in the South Section made a lot of noise. I was proud to walk around with my Zips gear on the entire time. Halftime was great!!! OSU fans looked in shock – maybe as UM fans did last week. UA represented well. Only good things for us to follow. Wait till we can recruit more NEO talent!!!!
I was at Johnny Malloy's also. It was a complete OSU fest which I guess is par for the area. I asked one OSU fan if this was Akron or Columbus. The turnout for OSU bothered me, but what bothered me worse was all the servers (except for a couple) had Ohio State shirts on. Not a single one had a Zips shirt.
I hope we can get good enough to beat OSU in the future! We should have at least a 50-50 split of fans in our area. I hope we have a successful season and many more to come so some of these OSU fans convert to the local team!
I had good seats AT the game. Great atmosphere; the OSU band is such an asset.
Impressive 1st half, trailing only 3-2. But this is Brookhart's 4th year…these are HIS recruits. And we don't have a single playmaker on offense. The playcalling was so bland & ineffective, it reeked. Seriously, these 2 QBs are the best of the UA lot? Help us now. I'm ready for Matt Rodgers.
Teams all know they can double-cover Jabari, because no one else (especially our mammoth tight end) will catch a pass. And Dennis Kennedy? No wonder OSU pulled his scholarship. Horrible. It appears this will be a rewind of last season, with zero offensive threats. The coach HAS to be held responsible for this mess. Kudos to the defense, but if the QB & his unit could've moved the ball AT ALL, this game was there for the taking. Can we please, please, please see some imagination in the playcalling? It looked like Mo Carthon was calling the plays!!!
Mo Carthon??? Gulp. I'm watching the Notre Dame game right now, and Charlie Weis' offense looks identical to the Zips. Why? Both coaches are resorting to an uber-conservative offense in light of inexperience at quarterback. They realize a game could quickly become unmanagable if Jacquemain or Jimmy Clausen throws picks or fumbles. This offense ensures a high completion percentage, minimizes interceptions and is pretty simple. But at what cost?
Until Akron starts challenging for BCS bowls, this is Buckeyes territory. Many people, my own freaking dad for example, couldn't believe Akron and Ohio State are in the same competition pool. And this is a UA mechanical engineering grad. Sigh…
Wife and I were at the game. My wife, a UA grad, wore a navy blue Akron shirt and was treated with respect as we made our to The Shoe and heard no negative comments about sporting it (although street vendor did give her a buckeye as a "welcome to town" present).
Notes from what I saw:
Akron's lining up and then standing up to have the play signaled in worked at the quiet pro-Akron Browns Stadium last week. This week, however, it seemed to backfire. Akron didn't do this every down, but the times that they did do it, the OSU linemen/linebackers were quick to stand and urge the crowd to get louder, leading to at least 3 or 4 false start penalties. How loud was it? My wife and I couldnt hear each other, and we were sitting next to each other.
Somewhere along the way in the late 3rd, early 4th, with no running game, I thought that Akron should have looked to go downfield more. I bet they had only 4 or 5 total pass attempts outside of 15-20 yards (including a halfback pass that fell incomplete after an OSU turnover). Your running game isn't amount to squat, so why not?
As the game went on, I think that OSU o and d lines, along with the crown noise, took its toll on the Zips.
John Mackey is my hero. I swear he was in on every tackle, even playing the 2nd half with a ripped jersey.
And, in closing, dare I be the first to publicly say this: Bring in Matt Rodgers. Why not? It was pretty evident today that both Jackson and Jacquemain struggled (even when they had time)
I am fan of both teams (I admit I had scarlet on), I think that Akron has nothing to hang their heads about. They played with a top 10 BCS school for more than a half of football, and keep Ohio State's offense in check for well into the 3rd quarter.
Akron, be proud of what you guys did today!
Guess I'm the 2nd to publicly say it's time for Matt Rodgers
Definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over & over, and expecting different results.
Akron's running game is INSANE. Insanely bad.
One pass over the middle the whole game?
Those quick passes to a flanker standing still? Insane. They go nowhere. Why do fans see this, but coaches do not? Do we not have a quick slant pass (with the receiver in stride) in the playbook?
J.D., when you run the same failing plays throughout the game, OSU doesn't have to defend anything else. A creative coach, such as Urban Meyer, would have had a winning game plan to keep OSU off stride and pick up yardage. Fourteen punts in a row? That's sheer embarrassment. Your team deserved better than that, coach. Well, maybe not. They are the D-1 guys you recruited, I guess. Good luck with that…
Who is to say Matt Rodgers would have any more success than the CJs? They dealt with one of the nation's elite defenses and the playcalling didn't help.
Did it seem to anyone else that the playcalling exuded a desire to lose by less, rather than to win — especially late in the game?
Mark, you wore scarlet? I'm stunned.
Guess I am the 2nd one to publicly say to bring in Rodgers
I told you people so. A scrimmage. Oh … oh yes … oh god yes. these wings. oh they are so good. dripping with delicious sauce and … ugh, uh, OHHHHHH.
I need a moist towelette
I am a UA grad and I went to the game today wearing my zips gear. I couldn't be happier with the first half. I was most disappointed that with five turnovers our offense couldn't even get a field goal. I didn't think the zips play calling was that great and didn't seem to adapt to the OSU defense. OSU ran a couple of pass plays that I thought the zips could have run and got some good yardage. Like hitting the tight end over the middle, running some outs that were farther up field then the line of scrimmage. Also there were a couple of false starts and delay of game penalties that just killed drives, like the opening drive when the zips went from 3rd and 3 to 3rd and 8. Against a defense like Ohio State you can't have thoughs types of penalties. Can't say enough good about the defense it just looked like the they ran out of gas toward the end of the game and just didn't have the depth that OSU had. Overall had fun at the game and we did beat the spread. Hopefully we can push Indiana next week and maybe pull an upset, if nothing else shows some progress on offense.
Just like last year, Akron makes no adjustments at halftime. Unless you call substituting one ineffective QB for another, late in the 3rd quarter. This offense is non-existent, same as '06. Harvey at least gave us a decent option; with Arthur covered, who do we throw to? #1, we look stupid with t5he whole "line up, then everyone look over at the bench for a play" stuff. Is that really "working?" I've never seen it in my decades of watching. All it did today was get the OSU fans fired up, thinking we were having a hard time hearing the QB…so they all amped up the noise.
You ran this big year-long QB competition and this is the best we get? Are they incapable of opening things up a bit? You do know that passes are supposed to gain more than 1 yd? What a huge disappointment. If it's more of the same at Indiana, I wouldn't blame Akron fans if they stay away from this b-o-r-i-n-g brand of football in droves, as they've already done. When we have to return 200 tickets to OSU because we couldn't sell them, that says it all, doesn't it?
Watched the game at BW3s in the heart of AU country and it was 60/40 Buckeye fans – including one bartender who attended AU. I find that disgusting. The buckeye fans were obnoxious which is about par for any sproting event at BW3s. (Only went there because they promised to have the Miami/Oklahome game on – my Canes got thumped – ouch)
Like everyone I feel the AU offense is pathetic. Brookhart is showing no imagination and looked like he was playing not to lose by more than the spread. One turning point was when the Zips were moving after the safety kickoff and had third and 1 from around midfield. Brookhart splits his quarterback out wide and has Kennedy take the snap directly. No gain and a punt. that play was useless – just run a normal formation Brookhart and stop with the goofy stuff. same goes for the no huddle – look to the sideline for the play. No one is foolded except for your own players.
As for you Bcukeye fans, your day is coming – maybe even this week against Washington. Your tean keeps playing like this and you will be crying 3 or 4 times this year. Hell maybe even Michigan will beat you and they are already 0-2.
My husband and I were there in the South End surrounded by red with a few blue shirts thrown in. UA fans did themselves proud. And the defense was incredible. Can't say much for the offense. Neither quarterback is going to give UA any offense so future games don't offer much in the way of enjoyment. Surely we could have found a better quarterback somewhere in northeast Ohio. And I agree that the playcalling was very boring. We had one trick play and when it didn't work we laid down and let it the game fold around us. The defense played their hearts out and as one fan sitting near me said "that defense deserves a better offense". I agree. But it was great 23 minutes in which we could see fear in the eyes of the Buckeye fans as they imagined the possible defeat.
A few unbiased objective thoughts….
1. Our defense was outstanding
2. Our defense made OSU's offense look bad
3. OSU's defense was outstanding
4. OSU's defense made our offense look bad
5. Our kicking (punting) game was unfortunately great
6. Our special teams were pretty special today
7. Our defense is going to have to score more points if we are going to win more games…wink
Razor – Told you earlier this week that I would being Scarlet.
Also – I agree that the playcalling was more "play to not loss" than "play to win"
As for the quarterbacks, if the CJ's struggle at Indiana, why not bring in Matt Rodgers? Or maybe the playcaller, too, while we'r at.
Even experienced qbs are going to have a tough time against that OSU defense this season.
Indiana is going to be a tougher game than people think.
We'll need to keep playing hard all 4 qtrs to win.
I was there, in the south section with many other Zip fans. Defense was fantastic! Stec did a great job punting, but tired in the second half. Offense was non-existant! Play calling was awful. Players did not lose this game. XCoaches did not let them win!
i was in 20c
go zips
if akron had any kind of offense they would have won
akron showed the nation how good the d is
go zips
There has been a lot of talk about the two CJ's struggling at the QB position. So at what point during the season should JD open it up to the other QB's?
JD calls on Rodgers once he believes both QBs have had (1) a good amount of playing time (2) against a so-so defense and (3) have not moved the offense.
I was at the game. I think it's all about conditioning and being ready to play. AU is not ready for prime time, but they have improved markedly under JD. Also Tressel is going to be conservative early–the offense is pretty green–plus he doesn't like to run up the score. Both teams D's did them well, but AKron just got tired in the 2d half and OSU broke some big plays–they have big play guys, that's what they do.
About hoping they lose at WU–that's kind of sour grapes, isn't it Rasor?
Akron Fans I saw were treated well & welcomed. There weren't a whole lot of them.