Displaced Cleveland Fan

The Buckeyes rolled into Ann Arbor having already guaranteed their spot in the Rose Bowl after defeating Iowa last week. This one was just about beating Michigan for the sixth straight year.

On the other side of the rivalry, the Wolverines were looking to end their five game losing streak to the Buckeyes. At 5-6, they were needing a win to become bowl eligible. They were losers of six out of their last seven. Michigan needed to win this game.

Fortunately, the Buckeyes weren’t going to let them have it.
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The Buckeyes are still the best in the Big Ten. They proved that today and punched their ticket to Pasadena.

Playing Iowa in a de facto Big Ten championship game, Ohio State pulled out a victory in overtime off the leg of former professional soccer player, Devin Barclay.

I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed last week when the Hawkeyes’ starting QB Ricky Stanzi went down and wouldn’t be available for this game. Sure, having freshman James Vandenberg under center should have favored the Buckeyes, but I wanted Ohio State to win against the best team possible.

As it turns out, Vandenberg did a more than adequate job filling in for Stanzi. He rallied his team to a comeback against a tough Ohio State defense and force overtime. He was 20 for 33 passing (60.6%) for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did have 3 interceptions, but one was a tipped ball and another was on a desperation 40+ yard pass to the end zone in overtime. Overall, a good game for the freshman. (Though I got very tired of commentator Matt Millen saying he looked like a 5th year senior out there.)
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The first of three big games at the end of the season that will determine how successful this year was ended with #16 Ohio State solidly beating #11 Penn State on their home field.

Buckeye quarterback Terrelle Pryor, a native of Jeannette, PA, came into Happy Valley and led his team to victory over the university that tried so hard to recruit him. He had 3 touchdowns in the game today (2 passing, 1 rushing).

Once again, the victory came in large part from the play of Ohio State’s defense. The Buckeyes held the Nittany Lions’ offense to just 7 points (none in the second half), 201 total yards. They came inches away from shutting out Penn State. The one touchdown came after the Nittany Lions got a first down on the Buckeyes’ 2 yard line. The defense made three stops to get to fourth down. Joe Paterno chose to go for it. QB Daryll Clark dove forward on a quarterback sneak. It was ruled a touchdown, though the replays made it look like the referees were being a little generous. Regardless, the defense played well again, helping Ohio State to a comfortable win over a tough opponent.
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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.
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Maybe you noticed that I didn’t update following last week’s embarrassing loss to Purdue. That wasn’t just because they lost. It was a hectic weekend here, so I didn’t really feel motivated to post a reaction to the game.

What last week’s game did was end any shot the Buckeyes had to play for a national title. I know, it was a long shot. And with the way the offense has played the past few weeks, they didn’t deserve it. But they were at #7 going into last week’s match-up against the Boilermakers. This week, when the first BCS standings came out, Ohio State was at #19. No way they reach one of the top two spots.

But this team can still reach a BCS bowl. They still have games against Iowa (#6) and Penn State (#13). If they win these games, as well as their remaining games against New Mexico State and Michigan, they’ve got a shot. So all is not lost, especially if the offense plays as well as it did today.

So on to today’s game against Minnesota.
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Looking at the final score, it looks like the Buckeyes were on top of everything this game. The offense put up 31 points. The defense held the Badgers to 13. Good solid game right?

Not exactly. The defense and special teams won this game for the Buckeyes. They had two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns and one kickoff return touchdown. Take those away, and the Buckeyes lose 13-10 on Terrelle Pryor’s unimpressive 5/13, 87 yard, 1 TD, 1 INT performance.
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The Buckeyes continued to roll through the Big Ten with a 33-14 win over the Hoosiers in Indiana.

Coming into this game, the Ohio State defense had held opponents scoreless the past two weeks. Indiana finally broke that streak with a touchdown in the second quarter. They added another meaningless TD in the final seconds. All in all, another good showing by the Buckeyes’ defense.
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