In-game thoughts...

At halftime

1) I can't imagine OSU playing worse than they did in the first half. They basically handed MSU seven points on the fumbled kickoff return that gave them the ball first-and-goal, then the stupid late hit by Bobby Carpenter that negated a third down stop and gave them another three cracks from inside the five. Add on the other Holmes fumble on a kickoff, the Ginn fumble on the punt, the Pittman fumble... they're minus-3 in turnovers in the first 30 minutes, and could easily be minus-4.

2) Obviously, MSU could not have screwed up that field goal at the end of the half any worse than they did. Spike the ball on third down and give your guys time to get on the field. Duh. I loved how Musberger just got done talking about how John L. Smith has the whole new perspective, then two minutes later he's blowing up like Vesuvius over a blocked field goal.

3) Ted Ginn needs to just find a seat on the bench for the rest of the game. He's not contributing anything right now. Give him some time to think, then bring him back next week. get the ball thrown to him on the first possession of the second half. He's OMGfast and will score a touchdown.

4) If OSU falls behind again and Troy Smith keeps short-hopping his receivers and misreading defenses, I would love to see Zwick get some meaningful snaps today. I don't think it's going to happen.

5) Losing Tyler Everett is bad, but it makes me really nervous to see Ashton Youboty dinged as well. This is not the team you want to be facing without your good DBs in there.

After three quarters
1) I'm starting to think that this defense needs to force a turnover to win this. They just can't seem to get off the field against that spread offense. That would also give the OSU offense a short field to work with, which certainly won't hurt.

2) If I see Troy Smith tuck it and run only to come up 7 yards short on a third-and-12, I think I'm going to murder someone. Just throw the ball downfield. The worst-case scenario is it gets intercepted, and they probably end up with the ball about the same place they're going to get it after a punt anyway.

3) Drew Stanton is g-o-o-d. He's throwing it a lot better than I expected-- I thought they'd be able to pass it against this defense, but he's been superb. That's starting to open up the running game a little bit, and I'm very, very concerned about the fact that the defense has already been out on the field more than they are in most games. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised to see them wear down and give up a late touchdown.

End of game
1) That's the second year in a row where MSU has looked like they had the Buckeyes on the ropes and gave up a couple late scores.

2) The game stats (MSU with 28 first downs to OSU's 14, the time of possession which ended up something like 39-21, the turnovers which ended up 4-0 MSU) all point to a blowout loss, but the shitty MSU secondary managed to make up for all of it. To call their tackling piss-poor would be an understatement.

3) Everyone's going to be totally amped up about how OSU put 35 on the board, but they really scored 14 legitimately, plus the two missed tackle touchdowns, plus the blocked field goal touchdown. And one of those "legitimate" touchdowns came on a drive of about 20 yards. The offense still has quite a way to go, but it was nice to see them at least taking some shots downfield.

4) I forgot to add after the third quarter that on third-and-long, Troy Smith also has this annoying tendency to throw it to a guy who's tightly covered 10 yards behind the sticks. That's not ever going to do the job unless the defense misses about four tackles.

5) A screen pass? I thought ABC's feed accidentally switched to another game. Amazing how those work when you run them occasionally.

6) I'll take it all. Now, the Bucks just need five more wins, one Wisconsin loss (fucking Gophers), and two Penn State losses to go to the BCS, and one more Iowa loss would make it an outright conference title.