Breaking Down the Rose Bowl: Battle of the RBs
Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by Keith Becker in Oregon Ducks
This play made me salivate.
Continuing with position breakdowns, today I’ll go over the running backs. If you missed yesterday’s, you can read about the quarterbacks here.
After losing Beanie Wells, a first round pick, last season, there were questions about how effectively the Buckeyes would be able to run the ball. Coach Jim Tressel downplayed it, instead talking up how Terrelle Pryor’s growth over the summer would account for the lack of the workhorse running back they are used to having (Wells, Antonio Pittman and dare I say it, Maurice Clarett).
That didn’t go according to plan, but Ohio State still won the Big Ten (eleven), even though they might as well have been playing against beer-league flag football teams. I mean, their biggest competition was Iowa. If the second best team if your conference can throw five interceptions again Indiana (the Hoosiers!) and still win, yeah, you have a weak conference.
In fact, their leading ball carrier is none other than the quarterback. Not a good sign for a team that is known for grinding it out on the ground. It’s amazing what teams will do to land a top recruit.
Apparently Ohio State was willing to throw their entire offensive strategy out the window. But hey, I guess it was time to change it up. Getting smashed harder than Lindsay Lohan at an open bar in BCS games is only fun for so long.
But in all seriousness, the Buckeyes do have a legitimate threat in the backfield, even though he is third on the team in carries and gets little to no national publicity. For all the press than Pryor and DeVier Posey receive on the offense, junior Brandon Saine goes relatively unnoticed.
In fact, like Bill Livingston said in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the biggest case of tOSU neglect stands 6-2, weighs 217 pounds, ran a faster 100-meter time (10.38 seconds) when he was Ohio’s high school state champion than Ted Ginn Jr., the old Glenville flash, and made second team All-Big Ten, despite having only the third-most carries on his team.
Neither of the Ohio State losses can be blamed on Saine. He received only one carry for two yards against Southern California while sophomore counterpart Daniel Herron ran 18 times for 44 yards, including getting stuffed at the Trojan goal line.
Saine also missed the Purdue game with an injury. But he has gotten healthy and turned on the jets lately, finishing the season strong with four touchdowns in as many games.
It will be intriguing to watch the Duck defense contain the Buckeye backfield, with an uncharacteristically fast offense match up with the speedy Oregon side.
Meanwhile, we all know about LaMichael James. My number one man crush also received Pac-10 freshman of the year and AP Third Team All-American honors.
James more than filled in for LeGarrette Blount; he made fans forget about him. He made me feel like I was playing a video game every time he touched the ball.
Case in point: the UCLA game (fast forward to 55 seconds in).
LMJ’s short stature actually works to his advantage, allowing him to sneak behind the offensive line until he finds the hole and then bursts through it faster than Lance Briggs fled the crime scene after crashing his Lamborghini Murcielago in 2007.
The freshman has the highest yards per carry, at 6.9, than any other running back in a BCS conference.
The re-emergence of Blount only adds to the punch of the Oregon backfield. (See what I did there?)
For the first time all year, Chip Kelly can give LMJ a breather knowing that he won’t have to take a hit in talent at running back. (Oops, I did it again)
The running game has been the strongest point for the Ducks all season long, averaging over 236 yards per game on the ground.
But the Buckeyes are no slouches either, topping 200 a game themselves.
I think it’s safe to say that whoever wins the running game will most likely come out on top.
Rating:
Oregon 10, Buckeyes 8.
Total: Oregon 19, Buckeyes 15.
Keith Becker
15. Dec, 2009
Would you rather have LMJ, Blount, Masoli and KB or the Buckeye trio? I think I’ll go with whatever team LMJ plays for. Is that Oregon? Oh yea, then I’ll pick them.
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Breaking Down the Rose Bowl: Battle of the WRs | The UO Sports Dude
16. Dec, 2009
[...] Continuing with position breakdowns, today I’ll go over the running backs. If you missed yesterday’s, you can read about the running backs here. [...]
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Dylan
16. Dec, 2009
Oregon has one of the mos explosive backfields in the country. How can you not like LMJ ,, KB , Blunt and Masoli. They all have something special. The one thing that Ohio State has struggled with the last few years is teams with speed. We have a similar kind of speed that LSU and Florida had in which OSU lost. Ohio State does have some speed on D so that’s a concern but we should be able to move the ball on them. The question is can we slow down Pryor. Our D is pretty fast up front but OSU is physical up front as well.
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spencer096
23. Dec, 2009
buckeye fan here, but not one of those batshit crazy ones…
i think you underestimate the buckeyes running game, and i can’t necessarily blame you considering that they were only beastly for 5 games or so…
but considering that they topped 200 yards against two incredibly stout run defenses in iowa and penn state, where their OL gelled and was dominant at times can’t go underscored (and it is something you touched on).
you have your points, salient ones at that, but at the same time, this just boils down to fandom at it’s core. i think the buckeyes are better because they don’t play in a pussified conference where tackling is a four letter word and you think all big 10 teams are slow plodding behemoths.
it is what it is, and while RB’s taken at face value might give the edge to the ducks, OSU will have their hosses going up against a relatively undersized DL while the ducks will be going against a defense that absolutely wrecks zone blocking schemes. you just can’t take a running game at face value…RB’s are as dependant in positional terms as QB’s.
i love the series though, so don’t take my criticism as a sign of hate speak.
should be a great game…go bucks.
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Keith Becker
23. Dec, 2009
It’s a nice change of pace to have a Buckeye fan’s opinion instead of another pat on the back. That said, I still say Oregon’s backs are better and I think you are also underestimating the Pac-10. Also, I don’t think Iowa and PSU are anything special, they just look that way because of soft non-conference schedules and the deterioration of the Big Ten. But I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
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spencer096
24. Dec, 2009
oh, don’t get me wrong, as far as pure talent goes, i’d go with the ducks backs as well. saine is my favorite of the two, but for some reason, the undersized, slow boom herron still gets a bulk of the carries.
OSU got hurt real bad by two things this year in the RB dept…
1. tressel sticking with upperclassmen who aren’t especially good
2. carlos hyde’s academic issues and jamaal berry’s hammy/ankle
but i’ll spare yall with the buckeye talk.
have a nice holiday, oregon peoples…only a few more days.
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