Buckeyes - 28   Akron - 14

This one got a bit ugly at times, and the Bucks seemed to lose their early momentum before halftime, but the end result was a victory and that is the most important thing.  Actually, I think the Bucks did a lot of things right in this game - for the most part, the offense moved the ball efficiently and effectively throughout (525 total yards, approx. 30 first downs, good balance between the pass and the run) and the defense held Akron to 250 total yards and seven points.  I'm not sure you can expect much more from your D than that.  Having said this, the Bucks did make a lot of mistakes offensively; a couple of which could have been even more costly than they were.  In my view, games against in-state opponents are a big mistake - the Buckeyes have nothing to win and everything to lose and the opponent has everything to win and nothing to lose.  A victory in this game would have been the greatest in Akron's history (or Ohio University or Miami of Ohio, etc); a victory by the Bucks is likely to draw only criticism (what, you mean you let that team actually get a first down?) from fans and the media alike.  I'll take a victory over an in-state team, by any margin, under any circumstances, any day of the week.  Well, now that I have got that off my chest (and the Bucks are free of the loss to an in-state opponent for at least one more year), following is a more detailed review of the game.

The Defense

As you watched this game, you didn't get the impression that the Buckeye D was dominant, but, in reality, the Zips were pretty well-contained by the D throughout the afternoon.  Akron had one good drive for a score in the second quarter, and were able to sustain a couple of drives in the second half, but they never real got close to scoring after their first half TD (except for a missed field goal and the long interception return late in the game).  Whenever your defense holds the opposing offense to a single score and only one other serious threat, you have to be satisfied with the performance.  I thought this was a solid performance by the entire defense and that always starts with the D line.  No one player stood out in particular, but the line was able to contain the Zip running attack and put good pressure on the Akron QB for the most part.  The Bucks have played 'line-by-committee' extensively the past few years and this game was no exception.  The D line was hit hard by graduation and early-departure and the two-deep is not nearly as experienced as last year's group.  A number of younger players did get some substantial playing time and contributed to the effectiveness of this unit, including freshman end Simon Frasier, whose name was called over the speaker several times.  The strength of the Buckeye defense is the linebacking corps, and they did not disappoint.  All three starters turned in solid performances; providing good run support to the line and effective pass support to the secondary.  The Zip offense did have some success breaking contain to the outside in the first half, but the defensive staff made some adjustments at halftime and pretty well shut this down after the break.  A number of young guys also got some valuable playing time, and the depth at linebacker appears to be excellent.  The D will obviously face better passing attacks than they did on this Saturday, so this game may not have been the best barometer with which to gauge the Buckeye's defensive secondary, but, at least for this game, the secondary gave a pretty strong performance.  Both Derek Ross and Cie Grant had good games at the corners; Derek, in particular, displayed good quickness, speed and coverage technique.  Derek, in my view, is a playmaker.  The safeties also had fine games - Donnie Nickey provided both good run and pass support and Michael Doss was hitting everything in sight.  This unit will be tested extensively in coming games, but it appears to be a group that will give up few, if any, 'easy ones'.  We'll soon see, if any event.  Overall, a real good performance (for a first game) by the D.

The Offense

As I mentioned above, I liked a lot of what I saw from the offense in this one - there were a number of long, crisp drives that ate up both yardage and game clock; the running game netted about 5 yards per crack and both the short and medium-range passing game was effective.  The Bucks totaled some 525 yards and compiled a possession advantage of over 10 minutes on the Zips.  These are the kinds of stats that all offenses strive for - so what's the problem?  All of this real estate, and average gain per play, netted disturbingly little on the scoreboard.  And the reason? - the O (specifically the quarterbacks) left the ball on the field way too many times for comfort.  At least 2-3 solid scoring chances were wasted by ball-handling errors, one of which went 87-yards the other way for a Zips' score.  To be successful, the offense must take better care of the ball, and I'm sure that fact is well known to both the players and coaches.  While many of the 'warm fuzzies' that the offense could have provided were offset by the errors, I think there were a lot of positives on which to build in future games.  I thought the play of the much-maligned offensive line was pretty good, especially considering it has been racked by injury throughout preseason camp.  The line did a good job of run blocking (as evidenced by an average of 5 yards per carry) and also generally provided solid pass protection for the Buckeye signal callers.  The biggest problem the Bucks have on the line appears to be a lack of depth; a couple of injuries and the Bucks could be in some trouble.  The play of the quarterbacks was a mixed bag - they did a lot of good things (several fine throws, 60% completion percentage, decent third-down conversion ratio), but also several bad things (four fumbles and an interception return for a TD).  I thought Steve Belisari did a fine job of running the offense and had a good day passing the ball (15 of 24 for about 250 yards and 2 TD's).  Steve looked comfortable with the offense and played that way.  Unfortunately, he also had three fumbes; he only lost one (which cost us an excellent scoring chance following a long drive), but they all served as momentum-killers.  If Steve continues to run the offense as well as he did in this one, it should be a very fine senior season for him.  Scott McMullen looked a little tentative, but one can hardly blame him; this was his first significant playing time and it takes time to adjust to the game at the major college level.  I thought he had a couple of real fine throws and led the team on a very nice, long drive (some 70 yards), prior to his untimely throw to the wrong guy.  This group of wide receivers looks real good; all of them appear to have good speed and all ran precise routes.  The QB's had receivers open all day and this group did not drop a catchable ball all game.  Chris Vance provided perhaps the biggest moment catching a tipped ball and turning it into six points and Michael Jenkins also looked good; he ran precise routes, caught the ball in traffic and looks capable of breaking some big plays.  The whole group appears capable of that - the trick is going to be getting into situations to take advantage of these capabilities.  A sputtering, inconsistent offense can not do that - thankfully, this offense looked neither sputtering nor inconsistent, at least for one game.  The running backs also had a good game; all ran hard and with determination.  Jonathan Wells ran with power and appeared to hit the holes quicker than in previous seasons.  He ran for 120 yards or so and averaged 5 yards per carry.  Sammy Maldonato also ran well, averaging nearly 5 yards per carry himself.  Two true freshmen, Lydell Ross and Maurice Hall, also got into the act and gave the fans a look at the good things they will bring to the table.  All in all, a good outing for the offense; pure vanilla, to be sure, but executed pretty well, I think.

Next up for the Bucks is the San Diego State Aztecs this Saturday in Ohio Stadium.  I know very little about the Aztecs, but I think we can expect to see them pitching the ball all over the lot.  The Buckeye D best get a good night's sleep on Friday; I suspect they will need to be well-rested for Saturday afternoon.