Homecoming at the Horseshoe - Gophers @ Buckeyes Preview

For me, there’s probably been no team I’ve dreaded seeing the Gophers play year in and year out than Ohio State. We always seem to get completely dominated by them. Actually, it doesn’t just seem that way. IT IS that way. Our all time record against them is 41 and 7! Yikes, just 7 wins over the Buckeyes since we started playing them? And it’s the most dominant any Big Ten team has been over another conference opponent all-time. Yeah – it’s that grim.

So do we have any hope of pulling off the upset on Saturday? Well there’s always a hope, but it may just be a sliver of hope. Had Purdue not upset OSU last weekend, I might feel better about our chances. Purdue had to go and poke the bear though, and in all the Buckeyes' incredulous confusion, the Boilers took the game, inspite of their continued turnover problems. Now I fear we’re going to take the full wrath of an OSU team that needs to get back to winning football games. Tressel has had a week to rally the troops, and has only lost back-to-back games once in his tenure. Add in the fact that last week the Gophers looked flatter than the uncrowned field at TCF Bank Stadium, and I shudder to think how ugly this game could get.

But then, maybe that’s the wrong attitude. Maybe things can’t get any worse than last week? Offensively that certainly seems true.

Sophomore QB Terrelle Pryor is playing the worst football in his career right now, and is subsequently drawing some attention from LeBron James and Shaq. Why they feel the need to inject themselves into his life is beyond me, but we can hope that a pep talk from these two superstars keeps Pryor away from the playbook a bit more this week. As a unit, the OSU offense has struggled the last couple weeks, and the Gophers will need to play stellar defense maintain OSU’s struggles with the ball.

Pryor is the focal point for the defense, as his legs killed the Gophs last year. The last thing we can allow is for Pryor to start feeling better about himself by breaking off some long runs and extending drives. Both Wisconsin and Purdue had some success in containing Pryor by keeping pressure on him all game. Pryor looked less than impressive when immediately forced to scramble or roll out of the backfield, and this led to some ugly turnovers on his part. When it comes to Pryor taking off and running he only seems comfortable with it when it’s a designed run play or after a 5-count and the lanes in the pocket have opened up and the defense is spread out. As per containing Kafka and Clark, I’d expect to see a LB spy on Pryor most of the game. But unlike Kafka and Clark, Pryor is a much more dangerous runner. A deceptively fast long-strider who can fall over that 1st down marker from 2 and a half yards away. That’s troubling, as our d-line hasn’t been all that successful in generating a lot of pressure on passing downs, and Pryor is just as likely to take off as he is to throw. None of our LBs have the speed to stay with Pryor (Lawrence might be close, but he may often draw the matchup with excellent TE Ballard). It might be interesting on some 3rd and longs to pull Triplett out for the speedier Keanon Cooper and see if he can track Pryor down.

Like any OSU team though, there is more than one player to worry about on offense. Starting TB Boom Herron looks to be out again this week with an ankle injury, but his backup, Brandon Saine is more than competent and will have to be accounted for. OSU has some talent at the receiver position as well (although Pryor’s arm has not taken full advantage of it this year), with Devir Posey and Dane Sanzenbacher being the primary threats and accounting for half of the Buckeye’s receiving yardage this year.

But even if the defense plays stellar and shuts down Pryor and Co. for another week, we likely can’t win the game unless the offense actually shows up to play. I’m hoping the coaching staff reminded the offense to have a little pride this week, and impugn on their abilities to motivate them. Laying another egg on the scoreboard will not get it done. As always it starts with the offensive line. Allowing the Buckeye front four to manhandle them will have the same results as the game last week. No small task for this group, but there it is. For our trio of RBs to have any impact on the game we can’t perform like last week. Unfortunately our O-line probably just flat out don’t have personnel good enough to deal with the likes of Thaddeus Gibson et al. Not good. Weber will likely have to dodge defenders all game, and we know how that’s worked out. And here’s a question – what ever happened to running the quick slant to Decker. Seems like we did that a lot in years past, and it’s a nice way to get a QB in rhythm, especially when facing a lot of pocket pressure. Might be a good way to get Decker and Weber back in sync again, but then, I’m not sure we even have this in our playbook anymore.

And like last week, I’ll re-iterate – if we get down big (3+ scores), it would be nice to see MarQueis make an appearance. Let the kid take his lumps for a series or two (as the QB), even if he isn’t ready to read defenses. Weber isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire in that department either, so either play the kid some more or just redshirt him already. Game time experience seems like a valuable thing to me.

Oh, and I’m finally done predicting Stoudemire kickoff returns. I think that I may be holding him back with my constant expectations of a score.

The poor performance of last week by the Gophs offense, and the situation OSU is facing (coming off a bad loss, and playing for Homecoming) make it tough for me to call for the upset this week. Sadly, I fear the Gophs drew the worst week so far to face the Bucks.

Predictions: Ohio State 28, Minnesota 10
Buckeye Player of the Game: Brandon Saine - 115 yards rushing, 2 TDs

Gopher Player of the Game: Eric Decker – 9 catches, 135 yards receiving.

And a special mention to OSU Tight End 'Jake Stoneburner', who has the best name in the Big Ten in my opinion.