The Lions' Pride

He is.

No such thing as a bye week for a coach.

I don't think OSU is that good for two reasons.

1) What you mentioned.

2) Their offense is a one man show. Miller is a great runner, but they don't have any other legitimate threats on their team. People have said Miller isn't a QB who's a great athlete (yet), but a great athlete who plays QB. He doesn't throw the ball consistently well, and IMO he is something we can gameplan around to try and neutralize, or at least slow down. I just don't think the threat of him passing is legitimate enough to keep our LBs honest.

For as lousy as Martinez looked last night in giving points to OSU, Nebraska still put up 38 points on that defense. I leaned more about Nebraska last night than I did with OSU. Both are very flawed.

I'm sure BOB has viewed OSU. I'm sure he watched some of that game last night and saw what we all saw. I'm sure alot will happen this off week, including BOB doing some recruiting. Iowa is next, not OSU.

The good thing is Ferentz will actually have to watch tape on PSU this year, instead of doing his typical three-minute study on PSU offense.

Just looking at the top 25... Bama/Oregon should stay 1-2, but over the next two weeks everyone else in front of OSU will have a challenge. There's a shot this will be a very beatable top-5 team coming into Happy Valley for the White House.

Biggest game we've had in a while. If an unranked PSU shuts down Miller and OSU just as the media is pumping them up, it was make a HUGE statement nationally. (With tons of recruits there for the electric atmosphere) Can't wait.

I would hope we play OSU similar to how we played Northwestern. Control the time of possession and keep OSU's offense off the field.

PSU needs the offense to perform like it did against NW - long drives that keep the opponent's offense off the field. And drives that end up wearing down their defense late in the game.

I'll be very interested to see how our game goes against them.

Will have to clean up the special teams - punt return and punt defense especially. You can't make any mistakes, like what we did against Northwestern. Nebraska did the same thing against OSU - gave them points.

Going to have to catch the ball. Can't afford to have the drops we have had.

Force Miller to throw. It's just that simple. They don't have another running option.

Also, will have to take note of the tight ends. OSU is using the TE more for the first time since the Roosevelt administration.

I don't think they are a top 10 team. They are a product of who they have played, including two vastly overrated teams in Sparty and Nebraska. That said, will have to play our best game to win.

Yeah, stopping Miller is obviously priority #1. But I have faith in our coach's ability to gameplan and adjust on the fly to what they see. Roof just completely took Colter out of the game yesterday. Obviously, Miller is probably better pure athlete than Colter, but you also don't need to prepare for him to be playing 3 different positions and different trick/option plays. You just need athletic LB's who stay in position and just make clean tackles (Paging Mr. Mauti).

Honestly, I think the biggest threat to our team this year is a defense that can shut down our first couple drives. The best thing about this year though, is that you know that McGloin isn't just going to throw it away with a stupid play every other drive. We are exceptionally good at making the safe plays to just do enough to keep the chains moving and methodically march our way down the field (demoralizing the opposing D with 4th down conversions along the way). We may not have many true burners on the field, but I honestly think that's a good thing. I don't want the opposing defense to get off the field any faster than necessary. 90 yard drives right down the defense's throat is perfect for me. BOB can call it the "NASCAR" offense, I'll call it the "Chinese Water Torture". Just small, consistent drops driving the defense absolutely insane. By midway through the third, you could just see that Illinois and Northwestern had lost their will to stop Zordich and Zwinak, and that's just fun to watch. I don't think OSUs defense has anything near what it takes to stop us cold like they will need to. As long as we keep possession, keep Miller on the sideline, and tire out their D, I think Beaver Stadium will be ready to burst in 3 weeks.

You're 100% right, but at this point I think now more than ever the players are feeding off of us and the environment we create. I think if we start to overlook Iowa, it is possible the players will as well. Entirely possible I am wrong about this, and giving us too much credit, but we have been burned by doing so against Iowa before!

Disclaimer: I still think we would have been a better matchup in the BCS final in '09 for either OU and UF than against USC in the Rose Bowl. USC was the best team in the nation that year, and their strength in the passing game hit us right in our weak secondary.

Was thinking the same thing tdiddy about the defense after this year.

Iowa and recruiting are what on this staff's mind this week...

That's what they will say publically. BOB and Meyer will always be linked as long as they're both coaching in the Big 10. One came in as the big name, can't miss hire expected to crush anything and everything in his way both on the recruiting trail and on the field. BOB was the consolation prize that wouldn't be able to recruit and would be lucky to win 6 games this year (even according to some of our own fans). I bet OSU is the program and UM is the coach that he has set his sights on as a barometer of where he wants to be and keeps a very close eye on what they are doing.

Gameplanning to stop Miller then going out and actually doing it are completly different things. Psu hasnt played against an athlete as big fast or good as Miller.