Everything went the Ohio State Buckeyes way against Youngstown State, except for their Heisman hopeful Beanie Wells, going down with an unknown foot injury in the third quarter. Before Beanie’s injury he was able to rush for 13 carries for 112 yards and a TD. Coach Tressel was asked after the game on the seriousness of Beanies injury, and from what everything he gathered the x-rays were negative and it was a foot injury. Not sure how long Beanie will be out, but the buckeyes will definitely need him against USC in two weeks. Beanie Wells is currently heading to the doctor, so hopefully we will have some information about how long he actually will be out. An MRI is going to reveal more about the injury, as x-rays, do not always paint the whole picture.
The buckeyes defense absolutely dominated YSU, who is in the early stages of a new developing offense. The positives that can be taken out of the game was of course ,the freshman, Terrelle Pryor. He looked every bit the part that has been hyped for the past two years. He was 4 for 6 for 35 yards passing, and 9 carries for 52 yards. with an exceptional TD run in the 3rd Quarter. The starting QB Todd Boeckman had a good start to the 2008 season with, 14-19 passing for 186 Yds and 2 TD’s.
The buckeyes were in the red zone four times, and were not able to capatilize on those drives. Beanie had a fumble when he was injured which counted for one of the failures to score. Also, the couple of times they kicked field goals in close, they didn’t execute on the 8 and 9 yard lines. Coach Tressel said they will definately be looking to work on their red zone offense this upcoming week. However, this did give Kicker Ryan Pretorious an opportunity to show his iron leg as he booted 4 FG’s of (28,32,36,50), to show Ohio State again has an excellent special teams game.
The young guys were also able to play throughout the game today such as Devier Posey, who was able to make a couple of nice plays. Coach Tressel highlighted in his press conference that they were able to get great experience by getting time in an actual game. All in all, it was a good debut by the #3 ranked Buckeyes, and gave Buckeye fans every reason to be excited about this season. Hopefully, it will be capped off by a Heisman run by Beanie Wells, and a national championship trophy.
