I've got Roses on my mind

With Oregons victory over Oregon St. last night, the Rose Bowl matchup is set. Ohio St vs. Oregon in the grandaddy of them all. Oregon is the best offense Ohio State's defense will face all year. Ohio St has the best defense Oregon's offense will face all year. This is the classical matchup of a great offense vs. a great defense.

Oregon offense features dual threat quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and the La La running back tandem of freashman LaMichael James and controversial senior LaGarrette Blount (Blount was suspended following the loss to Boise St for punching a Boise player after the game. He was suspended until the beginning of November but did not get any game action until the Oregon State game). The combination of James and Blount has me worried as a Buckeye fan because James is a home run threat while Blount is a big back capable of breaking multiple tackles and turning nothing into something. The key for the Buckeye defense will be controlling the line of scrimmage and playing a full 60 minutes. As stated earlier, Oregon has not faced a defense like the Buckeyes and if Ohio State's defensive line can be more physical than the offensive line of Oregon, Ohio State should improve to 8-0 all time against the Ducks.

With a majority of pregame attention being put on the Oregon O vs Ohio St. D, I believe the X factor is what unit will win the other battle, Buckeyes Offense vs. Oregons Defense. Neither unit has looked truly impressive, but I believe the Buckeyes have a lot of positives to look forward to. Terrelle Pyror has made his fair share of mistakes this season, but Oregon's defense has not created many turnovers (although Purdue didnt create any turnovers before Pyror came to town). If Oregon is unable to force Pyror to make mistakes, you will see what you saw in the month of November from the Buckeyes. A physical, grind it out type football game where Ohio State will split carries between Saine and Herron and Pryor will run the ball on obvious passing downs. Pryor a very truly gifted athlete and hopefully we can see some development in his game that seemed lacking during this season. I believe Jim Tressel should take note of what happened to Oregon State last night, and that is the inability to score touchdowns when they had the ball in the redzone.

Tressel's conservative gameplan has me worried, but the Silver Bullet Defense will keep Ohio State in the game. Oregon will get its share of points, but I think it will be Oregon's inability to create turnovers that allows Ohio State to stay in the game and ultimately win the game. Ohio State 27 Oregon 24.