Best Offense: 2019 OSU vs 1994 PSU

[ChiTownLion]

Kirk Herbstreit says this is the best Ohio State football team that he's ever seen in his entire lifetime.

My question is this. Can we compare this 2019 OSU offense to the 1994 Penn State offense?

Keep in mind how OSU brought an extremely talented squad into Beaver Stadium in 1994 and we just incarcerated them to the tune of 63-14. People seem to be arguing a role reversal for this match-up.

 

[ChiTownLion]

BTW, never forget: Ohio's AP voters DROPPED Penn State in the rankings as retaliation for blowing out "their" Buckeyes 63-14.

 

[PSU.:.]

Bobby Engram dam he was good. A wr with his skill would make a difference to the current offense.

 

[kijanacat]

Penn State 1994 was the best college offense I have ever seen. I would like to see OSU play more than just highlights. No doubt they are good.

 

[justnitts]

It was much worse than 63-14. That was essentially the halftime margin of victory... Paterno called off the dogs at the end of 2 quarters. Those 1994 dogs could run. That offense was an NFL roster... a good NFL roster. The Miami Hurricanes may have had a talent level that approached it, but no where near the discipline to comparatively optimize the talent.

 

[AWS1022]

PSU and it’s not even close. They averaged a TD every 1:56 or something like that. Three of the top nine draft choices.

 

[cvilleelkscoach]

The funniest thing for me during that 1994 game. As we were rolling OSU in the second quarter, the Lions were driving again near the end of the half. At about midfield we lined up to run our play and OSUs defense was so confused both corners lined up on the same side of the field leaving our other wideout to the one high safety. They were yelling at each other. It got so bad before we snapped the ball the Penn State fans in our section were yelling at OSU to call timeout while laughing at them. We could have scored 100 that day. Much like the USC game that year.

 

[PSU Soupy]

1994 Offense PSU > 2019 Offense tOSU

2019 Defense tOSU > 1994 Defense PSU (although the PSU defense is underrated, because of the late scores against the 2s and 3s.

Both better than 1994 Nebraska.

 

[djr4rebs]

Let the Buckeyes finish the season first.

They have 2 of their toughest games left. If they win those, a CCG and 2 playoff games will decide their place in history.

 

[nits74]

PSU and it’s not even close. They averaged a TD every 1:56 or something like that. Three of the top nine draft choices.

And considering most games were over before halftime, imagine the points and yardage which would have been accumulated if Joe weren't such a nice guy. I've always maintained that Carter/Collins were victims of their offense's success when it came to the Heisman voting. Not only did they divide the vote, but many times they sat out much of the 3rd and 4th quarters.

 

[bvillebaron]

It was much worse than 63-14. That was essentially the halftime margin of victory... Paterno called off the dogs at the end of 2 quarters. Those 1994 dogs could run. That offense was an NFL roster... a good NFL roster. The Miami Hurricanes may have had a talent level that approached it, but no where near the discipline to comparatively optimize the talent.

The 1994 team had 2 fullbacks who split time. All 10 of the other starters and both of those fullbacks played in the NFL. I guess Herbstreit was born in 1995 or later.

 

[DandyDonII]

Hell, not only could we use Engram, but Scott would be an improvement over any of our WRs not named Hamler....Hell, a freshman Joe J. is an improvement over everyone excluding Hamler....
What an OL that team had......

 

[PSUQBKeeper]

And considering most games were over before halftime, imagine the points and yardage which would have been accumulated if Joe weren't such a nice guy. I've always maintained that Carter/Collins were victims of their offense's success when it came to the Heisman voting. Not only did they divide the vote, but many times they sat out much of the 3rd and 4th quarters.

if there was an offense as good as 1994 PSU that played in a time where teams ran up the score like they do today it would be disgusting....they would have hit triple digits in some games

 

[ChiTownLion]

 

[NittanyIllinois]

If you look at just the numbers (points/game, yards/game), the two are fairly similar.

What's incredible about the '94 team in terms of numbers is that they scored 48+ a game with a coach notorious for not wanting to run up scores. Had Paterno adopted the modern mindset of achieving style points for the committee, that team could have put up 80+ on Ohio State. An Ohio State defense......mind you......that only gave up about 12 points/game against everybody except Penn State.

That defense gave up about 180 points during the year. 63 of them to Penn State.

'94 Penn State also goes ~95 yards in the final minutes against arguably the country's best defense -- featuring two Butkus winners (Howard and Hardy) and a future NFL star (Rice) -- to cap a great road comeback. Forget the gaudy stats......that's the kind of drive that defines a team's legacy.

It's really hard to compare offenses across eras, particularly now that we live in an era in which offensive production is more robust. Comparing each team to their era, the '94 Penn State offense was far more dominant.

 

[Nitwit97]

Penn State 1994 was the best college offense I have ever seen. I would like to see OSU play more than just highlights. No doubt they are good.

I know it is a different game now, but that offense could do everything - run, throw, explosive plays. My guess is if you took the 94 team and put it in 2019, we would have another speed wide out ant only have Carter in the backfield. Would still be putting up crazy numbers. Remember that team would routinely hit at least 30 points back when scoring 30 meant something.

one of my sports regrets was that this team was jobbed out of a national title. We would have mauled Nebraska, it would not have been close

 

[NittanyIllinois]

one of my sports regrets was that this team was jobbed out of a national title. We would have mauled Nebraska, it would not have been close

One more reason why Michigan can kiss my ass.

All they had to do was prevent a 65-yard Hail Mary at the end of the game against Colorado. That's it. But, they blew it. And because they blew it, Colorado soared in the polls, and Nebraska's win over Colorado catapulted them into the #1 spot.

Remember, #3 Nebraska beat #2 Colorado on the same weekend that we beat Ohio State by 49. And because Colorado was #2, Nebraska's win earned them the #1 spot -- and essentially, the national title.

All because Michigan sucked when it mattered.

 

[Nitwit97]

One more reason why Michigan can kiss my ass.

All they had to do was prevent a 65-yard Hail Mary at the end of the game against Colorado. That's it. But, they blew it. And because they blew it, Colorado soared in the polls, and Nebraska's win over Colorado catapulted them into the #1 spot.

Remember, #3 Nebraska beat #2 Colorado on the same weekend that we beat Ohio State by 49. And because Colorado was #2, Nebraska's win earned them the #1 spot -- and essentially, the national title.

All because Michigan sucked when it mattered.

this. And because the polls pitied poor Tom Osborne because he never won it. Of course, they follow that season with another title. So ridiculous. That is why each season should have and should be taken on its own merit. Not “who deserves” it based on other accomplishments.

 

[nits74]

One more reason why Michigan can kiss my ass.

All they had to do was prevent a 65-yard Hail Mary at the end of the game against Colorado. That's it. But, they blew it. And because they blew it, Colorado soared in the polls, and Nebraska's win over Colorado catapulted them into the #1 spot.

Remember, #3 Nebraska beat #2 Colorado on the same weekend that we beat Ohio State by 49. And because Colorado was #2, Nebraska's win earned them the #1 spot -- and essentially, the national title.

All because Michigan sucked when it mattered.

What really "earned" Nebraska the #1 spot was the petty parochialism of the Midwest/Big Ten voters and their abject jealousy of newcomer Penn State's success. The last thing they wanted to see was Penn State win the national championship after it had been years since the old guard Big Ten had even sniffed one. Add to that Beano Cook and a couple of Pittsburgh area voters lobbying on Nebraska's behalf. Gee, I can't imagine why they would have done such a thing.

 

[NittanyIllinois]

OSU scored 28 today.

‘94 PSU never scored less than 31.

This Bucks offense is potent. But not “best ever”.

 

[fairfaxlion2]

PSU's 1994 offense was better. I don't know if there has been a better offense, because I don't watch every team in the country every year. Probably at some point there was a better offense. But this Ohio State team isn't one of them. I was not overly impressed with them. I think the OSU teams we played in 2017 and 2018 were better.

This PSU team is much worse than the 2017 version and still Ohio State had problems with our backup QB