Ohio State beats Iowa, 27-24 in OT - Earns a Trip to the Rose Bowl
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
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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