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 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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The Buckeyes opened their Big Ten schedule at home against Illinois by beating the Illini 30-0.

A rainy first half finished with Ohio State leading 13-0. The Buckeyes had zero passing yards for the half. But they were able to move the ball effectively on the ground. They rushed for 236 yards in the game, led by Brandon Saine (81 yards) and Dan Herron (75 yards and 2 TDs).
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After last week’s tough loss to USC, the Buckeyes traveled north this week to take on the Toledo Rockets at Cleveland Browns Stadium. If there was any wonder whether this team would be able to move on after last week, that was settled early on in this game. After scoring two first quarter touchdowns and building a 24-point halftime lead, the Buckeyes never looked back.

This was not necessarily going to be an easy win for Ohio State. Sure, they were playing an over-matched in-state school. But this team beat Michigan last year. And Toledo quarterback Aaron Opelt came into this game leading the nation in total offense (437 yards/game). But the Buckeyes defense completely shut down the Rockets offense. The closest Toledo came to scoring was in the fourth quarter when wide receiver Eric Page had the ball stripped at the goal line. Ohio State recovered the ball in the endzone for a touchback. The Buckeyes then marched down the field for a touchdown to go up 38-0.
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