The Rose Bowl Preview

The Rose Bowl presented by Citi: #8 Ohio State vs. #7 Oregon - 4:30 PM EST - ABC

The Granddaddy of them all.

The months have turned to days, while the days have now turned to hours. The 2010 Rose Bowl is finally here and upon us. For the Buckeyes, their gameplan is simply to stop this playstation team of Ducks into forcing their signal caller, Masoli, into pressure. This game will mean a lot of things. On one hand, their is Ohio State winning, and (mabye) earning a little national respect back. The other is losing to Oregon, and dropping their 4th BCS bowl game in the past 4 years. With that being said, you have to wonder about the job of Jim Tressel. I personally feel, that I would rather get to a BCS bowl with a 10-2 record every year, and then lose, then to have a 6-6 or 5-7 year and win a pointless bowl game. There are fans that will disagree, and will want Tressel gone, and I wonder if he will be.

With that, Terrelle Pryor has said of late, that this game means a lot to Tressel, the staff, and of course, him. The seniors are looking for their first bowl win, (how sad is that?) and the Buckeyes are wanting to set themselves up for a national championship run for 2010. It all starts here, at the Rose Bowl. The problem is, this time, Oregon is setting up for a national championship run as well. The Ohio State defense is going to have to go all out to get the edge in this game, and we know they can do that. Look back at the USC game. Do you think for one minute, that if the offense would have played like they have during the end of the season, that we would have lost that game? The defense steps up when it needs to, and they are our backbone of this team. Nike U. has that same feature, just that they rely on their offense. Oregon is always one play away from a TD, and Jim Tressel knows it. Defense wins championships though, right? On offense, Terrelle Pryor will have to lead this team like no other day before, he has said that his footwork has gotten better, and that he is a better passer overall. We know that Tressel will run Oregon to death, or until they can stop it, but how much will Ohio State throw? Knowing Tressel, he will want to run on 3rd and 5, and then throw on 3rd and 1. It´s just how he thinks, but Chip Kelly is not stupid. Oregon on defense, is, well, not the best. They give up so many points to teams that don´t have very good offense´s, which helps out the Buckeyes. It could be that they are always out their on the field, because of Masoli and James are scoring so quickly. As I said in earlier posts, in this game, Speed is key.

With all of the nation thinking Oregon will win (70 percent to be exact.) The Buckeye´s are at their best when they are the underdog. Tressel knows this, and embraces it. He loves the underdog feeling, and in both National Championship games, we were the favorites. We all know how that ended up, and now look at the Texas game. We were underdogs, and we won, if you don´t count a bad call by the ref´s, and a terrible decsion by Russell. We are underdogs in the Rose Bowl, and I have a good feeling. We have something to prove, and now It´s here, testing us. With all the scores going around, Inside The Shoe predicts

Ian: 31-28 Buckeyes

Yogi:

Chris: 34-21