Buck Bravo’s Football Blog

Ohio State Buckeye blogs have some interesting comments regarding Saturday:

- Men of the Scarlet and Gray may have written a descriptive term for the Gophers that best sums up OSU fan sentiment on the chat boards…”slump-buster“: 

“Minnesota is a great team to open against. The Buckeyes need a slump-buster, something to get them out of their current funk.”

- From the blog Buckeyes Daily:

“Look for the Buckeyes to show their whole hand this week. Minnesota is too good, and this is too far into this season to hold anything back in terms of play calling. Look for Minnesota to worry Buckeyes fans early, before the Buckeyes superior talent on the offensive and defensive line takes over.

OSU 35 – MINNESOTA 14″

- Both OSU blogs Eleven Warriors and Our Honor Defend chose the same picture for their preview of the game.  Coincidence?

- OSU blog Eleven Warriors predicts a Buckeye victory of 38 - 13:

“Maybe in another year where they aren’t facing Pryor, a refurbished Beanie and a defense hungry to prove doubters wrong could Tim Brewster get that landmark win he so sorely needs. Just not this Saturday.”

 - From Our Honor Defend:

“Despite close calls against Northern Illinois and Montana State, the Gopher players have every right to be optimistic about their prospects coming into Columbus.  This is certainly not the same Gopher team whose putridness was graciously overshadowed by the uncharacteristic woefulness of the Irish.”  

“Think of the possibilities.  How is Minnesota going to defend two explosive players in the same backfield?  Option plays could be deadly for the Gophers.” 

- OSU’s Buckeye Commentary notes that the return of Beanie Wells gave OSU a 5 point boost in the point spread.

- The Buckeye Blog gives the Gophers more credit than the 17.5 point spread, but understandably still favors the Buckeyes.

- Around the Oval doesn’t have a prediction up just yet, but check back for an open thread of comments on Saturday.

Ohio media also had a few interesting stories:

- You can check out an interview with Adam Weber at The Columbus Dispatch by clicking here.

- Also at the Columbus Dispatch, 56% of respondents to an online poll predict that OSU will win by 10-21 points.  Only 5% favor the Gophers.

- According to nbc4i in Columbus, Jim Tressel has been coaching OSU’s offensive line this week.

There are a few others interested in the OSU/Minnesota game:

- Adam Rittenberg of ESPN’s Big Ten Blog predicts a 35-17 OSU victory:

“I haven’t lost faith in Minnesota, but the timing just isn’t right for an upset. And unlike previous Gophers opponents, Ohio State will actually bother to cover star wide receiver Eric Decker with All-America cornerback Malcolm Jenkins.”

- Michigan blogger Maize & Blue Nation comments:

“And judging by how awful tOSU has looked in the past 3 weeks, this blogger would not be surprised to see Minnesota take down the Buckeyes in Columbus this weekend. But, I’ll take tOSU in this game because even I am still not convinced that tOSU is as bad as they’ve shown recently.”

“So I’ll stick with my healthy skepticism looking ahead to tomorrow… if the Gophers can play tough on the road in a very difficult test in a tough environment, and keep this game close, I’ll feel a lot better about answering some of those questions.”

- Goldy keeps it short and sweet by just stating “The Gophers are going to beat the Buckeyes.”

- Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune discusses the key matchup of Eric Decker versus OSU defensive back Malcolm Jenkins.

I’ve already posted my predictions and observations about tomorrow’s game that you can review by clicking here.

Tags: Adam Weber, Buckeye football, Buckeyes, Eric Decker, Gopher Football, Gophers, Malcolm Jenkins, Ohio State football, Ohio State University, OSU, The Ohio State University, University of Minnesota

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Previews and Predictions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.