Let's Get It Started

Three games down, nine games to go. 3-0 was the goal, 2-1 the result. We now head to Ohio State as four touchdown underdogs.

I keep going back to our last drive in the Duke game and thinking about one particular moment. We're down four and driving for what we're hoping will be the winning touchdown. We have 2nd & 4 at our own 38 with 4:27 left in the game. I'm doing the math in my head and thinking we can do exactly what we did in the Music City Bowl: not only take the lead inside the final minute, but leave the opponent no time to assemble a drive of their own.

And then these three plays happen:

Those three plays define the non-conference for me. That was the pass-fail line and we failed. I'm not angry about it, I know that close games come down to a few plays and we didn't make the plays this time, but if I'm going to point to anything in the three non-conference games as the pivotal moment of the season so far, it's those three plays.

But that's behind us now. Nine Big Ten games await. And for our opening game, we have to... go on the road to play the team that is likely the best team in the Big Ten. I currently see Ohio State -27.5, so it's probably not worth trying to find a way to beat them. I mean, scouting isn't even my job, it's Craig's. This is a review of the NERDstats to see what they might be telling us, so let's go to the laptops.

And we'll start with our old friend the Turnover Fairy.