OHIO STATE VS. USC

[Bettorsworld]

From one of our weekly contributors -

OHIO STATE AT USC

9/13/08

8PM EST

This was expected to one of the marquee matchups of the season and it should still be. However, the majority of the sports “experts” expect USC to blow out the Buckeyes just because Ohio State didn’t roll over the Bobcats of Ohio last Saturday.

The Ohio State Buckeyes have outscored their opponents 69 to 14 in the first two weeks. What is wrong with that? All of this talk of "pony" formations with Beanie and Saine in the backfield at the same time. Hasn’t even been seen this year (even before beanie got hurt in the YSU game) we are thinking it is coming on Saturday.
Anyone who watched these games closely can tell that Tressel kept the playbook completely closed and ran just basic stuff, he is not stupid and has learned from the last 2 BCS title games

This team will come out FIRED UP Saturday. Beanie will be in there and ready to go which will give the team a big boost (the offensive line seems to not play as well when beanie is not in the game) And the playbook will finally come open.


When the Ohio State-USC game kicks off, the Buckeyes will have a total of 35 players with at least one game of starting experience. Tops among those are: James Laurinaitis (28); Malcolm Jenkins (28); Marcus Freeman (26); Alex Boone (25); Steve Rehring (25); Rory Nicol (24) and Donald Washington (22). First-time starters in 2008: OT Bryant Browning, DB Jermale Hines, LB Ross Homan, FB Brandon Smith, and TB Maurice Wells.


The USC Trojans have only played one game and it was against a rebuilding Virginia team and obviously unranked. Mark Sanchez knows what's coming tonight. He also knows his older, wiser receiving corps is ready for it.


USC's quarterback expects Ohio State to play a wider variety of pass defenses than Virginia, which mostly used a conservative zone that Sanchez picked apart in the top-ranked Trojans' 52-7 season-opening victory Aug. 30. The No. 5 Buckeyes mix zones with man-to-man coverage, the latter their defense of choice when blitzing. And they blitz a lot.

Ohio State is 6-1 against the spread the last 7 times they have been an underdog of 8 or more while USC is 10-10 against the number as favs of 8 or more. Let's not forget that even last season in a year that saw the Trojans win 11 games, they lost to Stanford and Oregon and had 7 point wins or less against Cal, Washington and Arizona. Ohio State catching USC at the right time......early. This one is closer than the experts think.

Pick: Ohio State +11.5

[aquinof]

usc will roll 14+

[Carpet]

It has been pointed out that OSU have outscored
their opponents by 69-14 this year ......

Lets take a look at that......from the floor
(Carpets view)

Ohio State won 42-0 vs Youngstown State
Ohio State won 26-14 vs Ohio

There is nothing closely impressive with that
Stat.....

USC has played one game and played Virigina
and won 52-7, there is also nothing impressive with
that also.

USC is coming off a bye week and I know
they will be ready for any team that comes calling
come game time.....

Good Luck

Carpet

[dragon1952]

USC beat a team way better than Youngstown St or Ohio U by 45 pts, playing 3000 miles from home in their first game of the season. According to the Sagarin ratings at the time USC was about a 20 pt favorite, factoring in home field advantage.

Ohio St, playing at home, beat a bottom tier Division 1 AA team by 43, which they should have. And then beat a mid-tier MAC team, which they were rated about 30 pts better than per the Sagarin ratings, at home, by just 12 pts, and had to score 14 4th quarter pts to do so. Meaning they were losing the game going into the final quarter. Ohio St only had 262 total yds of offense against Ohio U. They had a mediocre 4 YPC average rushing and a measly 16 completions for 110 yards passing for a pathetic 6.8 yard per catch average. They only scored 19 pts on offense, as 7 pts came on a punt return for a TD. They forced 5 turnovers and could only come up with 19 pts total! That's freakin' pathetic.

[CapperMaster]

OSU always plays down or up to its opponents level.

USC is a fraud because everyone is building them up beyond realistic expectations and therefore are creating the FRAUD. If people didn`t hype them up so much and just let them play, they wouldn`t be a fraud. In case you folks forgot, the *public* is generally STUPID. I`m not a HUGE fan of the program, but I do respect their *potential*. We all know they`re loaded with talent, just let these kids play without so much hype and pressure. A team this young will implode and they are playing a smart, saavy, veteran OSU team.

[dragon1952]

OSU always plays down or up to its opponents level.

I guess they forget that in the championship games.

[CapperMaster]

for some reason, they fall apart in Title games. What can ya do??

[garister]

Something seems too easy to take USC here, but Virginia proved last week they aren't good by just getting by Richmond, its too bad the Virginia vs Uconn game is on at the same time as USC/Ohio St cause it would be interesting to see how badly Uconn beats the Cavs too.

Cal got burned today because of over confidence with such a huge win the week before. Not USC must be over confident since the disposed of UVA so easily and see Ohio State struggle last week.

I will let the line increase for the Buckeyes and then take the dog expecing them to make it close.

Brent Mussberger was heard saying he likes the Ohio st at +10.5 stating that he thinks this comes down the forth qtr, in less than a TD difference in the decision here,

Ohio State +11 1/2 and possible higher.

[dragon1952]

USC 34 Ohio St 16

[jpehl]

Okay, first I very rarely bet CFB but here, I see a trend. I just wanted to point out that no one is pulling for Ohio. This just recently happened with the Monday night game, therefore I will take OHIO + 12.5. You might think this is stupid and it could be but what the hell. Good luck to everyone especially myself as I feel I need it.

[jpehl]

okay Im an Idiot others do like Ohio I just cant read. Still going with OHIO and points.

[Boone Moone]

End of 3 quarters and it hurts me to watch anymore..........Gotta rest up for tomorrow.........No gloating, no patting-myself-on-the -back (how could I?........It's the same old story)......Heralded Big Ten team comes out here to the West Coast like Michigan, Illinois and now Ohio State, swearing to give the Trojans a good game, only to go back to the midwest in a fog, wondering what hit 'em, after getting spanked around by another superior USC team.........What's sad is the fact that I believe USC called off the dogs a little, so it could have/should have been much worse..........Good enough though.........How do you spell "fraud"?.........O-H-I-O S-T-A-T-E !!

[Dr Ray]

USC is a lock lol.

[dragon1952]

USC definitely called off the dogs. I was thinking the same thing while watching the 4th Q. This could've been much worse. Ohio St is obviously not that good this year, and the Trojans are pretty awesome. The Trojans could probably beat the Raiders.

[CapperMaster]

We`ll see....the rest of the USC schedule is soft, SHOCKING....Without Beanie and poor officiating, OSU came up empty..no surprise here...let the season continue on.