Ohio State beats New Mexico State, 45-0
October 31st, 2009 at 10:50 pm by Displaced Cleveland Fan
This is the type of game you expect at the beginning of the year. New Mexico State was overmatched in every way.
The Buckeyes 559 yards of total offense (310 rushing, 249 passing) compared to a total of 62 yards from the Aggies. Ohio State’s defense held New Mexico State to just 2 first downs.
This game was really nothing more than a warmup for the final three games of the season. If the Buckeyes win their remaining games against Penn State, Iowa, and Michigan, they’ll win the Big Ten.
Penn State has just one loss. That loss came to Iowa. They remain tied with the Buckeyes in the race for the Big Ten title after a 34-13 win over Northwestern.
Iowa came into this week as the #4 ranked team in the country. They had a scare this week, falling behind 21-7 at halftime against Indiana. But with 28 fourth quarter points, they came back to beat the Hoosiers 42-24.
Michigan had a fairly strong start this season, but they’ve lost 4 of their last 5 games, including a bad loss to a bad team this week (Illinois, 38-13). They could still give the Buckeyes some problems. But this final game is the least of their concerns.
Looking at the rest of the BCS standings, there were a couple key losses for teams currently ahead of Ohio State. #13 Virginia Tech lost to unranked North Carolina on Thursday. #14 Oklahoma State lost badly to #3 Texas today. The Buckeyes should pass Virginia Tech, possibly Oklahoma State too. That should put them at #15.
Don’t expect USC to fall below Ohio State, despite losing decisively to Oregon. After all, USC (barely) beat the Buckeyes in week 2. Voters won’t forget that. Of course, the BCS rankings are done by computers. So who knows? Stranger things have happened.
-dcf
