Well, it sure has been an entertaining first half out in Eugene. There’s been a little bit of everything, but I guess we kid of expected that to some extent with two of the top three teams doing battle.
We like to take a look back on the first half and pull out some things we think have emerged as storylines and try to make sense of it all. It’s been a back and forth affair with Oregon leading Ohio State by a score of 22-21.
Things have been a little wacky and goofy to say the least. You know if you’ve watched any of the game.
Here is our three and out halftime review of what we saw between Oregon and Ohio State.
Turnovers and mistakes
Look, when you have two pretty evenly matched teams, you better win the turnover battle. So far, being charitable has played a big part in where this game is. Ohio State has turned it over technically once, ) but also had a dodgeball moment on the kickoff that was muffed. Don’t be surprised if this game is won or lost by which team wins that turnover battle. Right now, that advantage is on the Oregon sideline.
The secondary has to play better in the second half, namely Denzel Burke
There’s no denying the fact that both of these teams have great wide receiving units, but so far Oregon’s has outplayed the Buckeyes and it’s been on the wide side with Denzel Burke getting picked on.
I’m not really sure why he isn’t getting his hips turned around until the receiver is past him, but he’s been burned twice on two long pass plays, something OSU prides itself on not giving up.
It simply has to be better in the second half. You can’t get beat deep when you are on an island so look for the coaching staff to change things up with the scheme there.
The running game has it going and needs to keep grinding
It may not feel like it, but Ohio State is winning the battle up front on offense. The rushing attack seems like it has stalled out at times, but the big plays and pounding away will have an impact.
The Buckeyes can’t get away from the body blows right now because they could eventually wear down the Ducks front as we started to see a little bit in the second quarter. OSU leads in that department by the way, 122 to 73 yards.
Stay with it.
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