OCT. 9, 2006

RANDOM THOUGHTS: BOWLING GREEN

By Scott Clifton

Just a couple of things to chew on after watching OSU's scrimmage, er, football game with Bowling Green last Saturday:

>> Ohio State won the time of possession battle by 33 seconds! A week after doubleing up Iowa in that category, the offensive and defensive lines took a little nap on Saturday. I know it was Bowling Green, but the guys up front need to come to play every week. I don't want any Black Saturdays in '06. (A side note: Vernon Ghloston is becoming a freak -- he had two more tackles for loss and a pick this week.)

>> For as lathargic as the team played at times, forcing turnovers continued to be the defense's bread and butter. Gholston's pick gave the Buckeyes 12 INTs on the season. That's more turnovers than last year's defense forced all season. I guess it's always better to be lucky than good, although being the latter never hurts.

>> The offense didn't look overpowering against a suspect MAC team. Sure the O put up 35 points and executed when they had to, but other than the first drive there wasn't much flow to the offense. Part of the problem was the offensive line. They gave up two sacks and it could have been worse. Troy Smith had his best day of the year rushing the football (7 carries, 54 yards) to help the Big Uglies look better. Apparently, BG defensive lineman Devon Parks expected that. "We knew we'd be able to get pressure on them. WE studied film and saw a few things they might give up," he said. Huh? BG saw some things they could exploit? Did Parks mean thanks to Texas, Penn State and Iowa they had a better idea of what did and did not work against OSU or did he think they were playing Buffalo again?

>> Just when Anthony Gonzalez was about to get some pub as being Troy Smith's favorite receiver this year, he struggles against BG. Before the game, the ESPN commentators (Craig Coshon and Chris Martin) only talked about Ted Ginn Jr. as Smith's main target. I was a little offended because Gonzo had more catches and most of them were for first downs. So then Ginn goes out and catches 10 balls for 122 yards and a score while Gonzo had three catches for 31 and had a couple of drops. Maybe the bubble that Gonzo sleeps in is only useful against real D-I opponents.

Scott can be reached via email at scottclifton@meanbrutus.com