Reader: How dare Buckeyes run up the score
Editor: On the final play of last Saturday’s one-sided win over Nebraska, the Buckeyes chose to run the ball from the 1-yard line instead of just kneeling down, the sporting thing to do.
OSU scored on a running play, making the winning margin 35 points. Coach Ryan Day apologized, but gave this excuse: “I feel bad about that. I had a younger quarterback in the game and I didn’t feel like we had the personnel to take the knee.”
Let’s see if I’ve got this right: You’ve got the ball on the opponent’s 1-yard line, 99 yards away from your goal line. There are 18 seconds left, and you trust your backup quarterback for a 1-yard run but not for a kneel down?
When Nebraska defeated Florida in the 1995 national championship game, we had a first down on the Florida 1-yard line with about 30 seconds to go. The QB knelt down.
Keith Heim, Lincoln, Neb.
Keith: I’m sure the fans of Missouri (62-0), Colorado (59-0), Minnesota (8413), Kansas (70-0), Iowa State (73-14) and all the other teams humiliated by Nebraska over the years appreciated that magnanimous gesture in a 62-24 game.
Ray: So the Big Ten did not allow Nebraska to schedule a game Saturday after Wisconsin canceled. Who, specifically, made that decision? That person (or persons) needs to go.
Nebraska may not have a successful season by record, but I vote Scott Frost coach of the year for being out front in getting this season played.
Dennis Singleton, Dayton
Dennis: Yes, what could go wrong by playing football during a pandemic? Here’s my analogy: If members of your immediate family, whom you know to be undergoing the same testing you are, decide to cancel plans to come to your house for Thanksgiving, are you going to invite distant relatives from Tennessee to make the trip?
Editor: I played high school football back in the “dark ages,” and we were expected to hit the ball carrier with our helmets. This was later penalized as spearing. CTE was unheard of in those days. A few years ago, I had four vertebrae in my neck fused. I am pretty sure that there was a correlation to the surgery and my football experience.
During the Osu-nebraska game the commentators continuously decried the targeting calls. Two Nebraska defensive players were ejected for targeting and Nebraska players repeatedly contacted OSU players above the shoulder with helmet and/or shoulder contact. If anything, it should have been called more than it was.
The technique used by Nebraska was either taught or tolerated. Targeting was added to the rules to protect the hitter as well as the person on the receiving end of the contact. Brain damage is a definite threat to player safety and should be strictly enforced.
The announcers were off base. If you do not want to be called for targeting, don’t do it.
Jim Schwarz, Canal Winchester Jim: I don’t disagree, but part of the announcer complaints regarded the second targeting penalty, on Jaxon Smith-njigba, in which the offending player was ejected and suspended for the first half of his next game for largely incidental, helmet-to-helmet contact, if there is such a thing. The punishment did not fit the crime.
rstein@dispatch.com