I though Ohio's defensive line played exceptionally well in the first half, but got worn down, or emotionally down in the second half, neither of which should happen. I hesitate to blame the strength program, though, because so many of the players are very recent additions to the program. Sayles, Basham, McLeod, and Tautiaiki are all new this year, while Kendrick Smith and Laseak have both been around only a year.
The senior starters on the offensive line are another story. They have been in the program a long time. Nevertheless all of them have been out part of the year with injuries. They were able to play, but were they 100%?
The end result is that nothing about this game puts me in a position to assess the overall effectiveness of the strength program.
Just returned from dropping my son and his family off at the airport for their return to Duck Country - i.e., Eugene, Oregon.
It wasn't just last night, L.C. I won't dispute that our OL and DL have added depth, but I am questioning the quality of that depth. I recognize that part of the seeming OL weakness is running a read option spread offense when virtually the only 'option' is the QB handing off to a RB. A telling moment last night was when Ray Bentley (correct sp?) noted that Ohio had gained 11 yards on 8 carries.
How many times this season have we seen our OL fail to spring RBs? How many times have we seen our DL get shredded?
BG will be another stern test of Ohio strength and will or, as another poster mentioned above, "attitude."