Our Honor Defend

I had to pinch myself at the intermission.  I, like probably lots of other Buckeye fans, had to ask myself: “Is this really happening?”.  The corollary follow-up was probably “…and where was this all season?”, but that question can be addressed at a later time.

Against my initial thoughts entering the game, and the run of play against Purdue last week, the Buckeyes were finally on the kicking end of an ass-kicking.  The rout was on after the first half with the 28-0 halftime lead.  The Buckeyes finally won 45-7 in front of a capacity crowd at Spartan Stadium.

The rout of the Spartans was certainly a blessing, but it did have a drawback… albeit a drawback that is inconsequential in light of the victory.  The 28 unanswered first half points not only took the crowd out of the game, but altered the Spartans playcalling in an important way.  Javon Ringer, the Spartans’ sole means to offense, was no longer a tenable option when the Spartans needed points and needed them in a hurry.  Ringer finished with only 67 yards on 16 carries, well short of his average.  If nothing else, it was an awesome F-U to Ringer, who was on record in a pre-taped interview for ESPN College Gameday saying he wanted to win by 30 against Ohio State.  It was also a thumping of a Big Ten team in their own house, which is always nice.  It was also a thumping that I wasn’t sure the Buckeyes could be capable of this entire season.  However, it was also a game that wasn’t very demanding for Terrelle Pryor precisely at a time where a healthy test for Pryor would’ve been in his interest.  The Buckeyes ran the ball at least 16 straight times in the second half, with Pryor’s first pass coming well into garbage time.

The Buckeyes excelled at all facets of the game in the first half.  Pryor broke things open with a 32 yard run on the Buckeyes’ first possession.  Though the Buckeyes punted at the end of that possession, they essentially flipped field position.  This paved the way for the Buckeyes’ first score on their second possession, with Pryor waltzing into the end zone.  Sparty turned a triumph into a tragedy on their next possession, with a certain first down becoming a fumble returned deep into Spartan territory.  A chop block negated a Beanie touchdown, but Pryor found Robiskie in the end zone on third down.  The mood elevated for the Buckeyes when Pryor found Hartline deep in the secondary on a play that showed to me that life was worth living.  Beanie eventually cashed in on the goalline for a 21-0 lead.  Two possessions later, Beanie did what shall now be termed the Beanie-Hop into the end zone.  In the process, he no doubt created the Buckeye equivalent of the jumping in art museums phenomenon.  We encourage people to Beanie-Hop where appropriate (or inappropriate), and send in pictures for a gallery similar to the O-H-I-O pictures.

Things seemed to change after intermission.  Brian Hoyer, injected with an unsafe dosage of Laurinaitis for the first half, was yanked.  The Buckeye defense changed from man-blitz mode to soft-zone mode, rushing only 4 and sometimes as little as 3.  The Spartans scored at the beginning of the second half on an 8 play 85 yard drive.  The Buckeyes chewed up time on their first possession of the second half, but ultimately punted after some offensive line miscues.  Lo and behold, the now-passive defense let the Spartans back into the red zone.  However, much to everyone’s delight, the Buckeyes brought Jenkins on a corner blitz, jarring the ball loose from the backup QB, returned 69 yards for a touchdown by Thaddeus Gibson.  The Spartans punted after a 3 and out on the ensuing position.  It didn’t get any better, as the next three Spartan drives ended in a turnover on downs, a fumble and an interception respectively.  The Buckeyes got 10 points off of these Spartan fiascos, with the lone TD coming from Jermale Hines.

There are lots and lots of superlatives to hand around with this game, so we start with the offense.

Offense

Terrelle Pryor didn’t have to do much in this game.  The game got out of hand pretty quickly, so Pryor wasn’t put in an uncomfortable spot at all against the Spartans.  Even when it was 3rd and long, the Buckeyes handed off to Beanie.  The end result was sometimes even a first down or a touchdown.  But that said, Pryor started the game off with authority.  His 32 yard run on the zone-read flipped field position, playing a role in the Buckeyes’ TD on the second possession.  His ability to keep the eyes downfield and eventually find Robiskie in the end zone put the Buckeyes up 14-0.  His recognition of Hartline streaking past the Spartan secondary set up Beanie’s first rushing touchdown of the game.  Hell, he even threw in a nasty stiffarm or two in the game.  Though Pryor wasn’t really tested this game, he certainly laid to rest any questions of whether or not Boeckman should see the field.  He finished 7 for 11 on passing plays for 116 yards and a TD.  He has only two interceptions this season, with one of them coming on a hail mary at the end of the second quarter against Troy.  He also upped his QB rating to a healthy 138.74.  Pryor also added 72 yards on the ground with 12 carries.  More than a few of these carries were daggers for the Spartan defense.  If you control for a few sacks that the Spartans were able to tally at Pryor’s detriment, this number might actually approach 100 yards.

If there was any kind of head-to-head matchup of all-conference tailbacks between Javon Ringer and the Beanie, Beanie won this contest emphatically.  Though still hampered by his toe injury that’s clearly compromised his top-end speed, Beanie still had 140 yards off of 31 carries and two touchdowns.  That’s good enough for 4.5 yards a carry.  It might have been some astute playcalling by the coaching staff as well, but more than a few of these yards came on 3rd down and long.  It was a 3rd and long draw play that set up Beanie’s second touchdown, with Beanie introducing the Beanie-Hop ™ into popular discourse on that play.  During the game, Beanie went from a handful for the Spartan defense to absolutely demoralizing.  He really is the best tailback in college football, and it shows more when our offensive line can actually block for him.

I’ve dogged the offensive line before.  Actually, I think everyone has.  However, they showed up today.  Perhaps Rory Nicol accusing them of having no claim to masculinity was actually the cue that the offensive line finally responded to.  Better late than never, I suppose.  Much of the blocking showed in the interior, with most of Beanie’s rushing yards coming right up the gut of the Spartan defense.  Alex Boone also set up a critical block on the draw play that resulted in Beanie’s second touchdown.  Blast fax kudos all around.  That said, that chop block penalty was potentially deflating, though the offense responded well to it.

With only 116 yards coming through the air, there wasn’t much to read out of the receiver corp.  And yet, there was some high points.  Pryor only hooked up with fellow freshman and good buddy DeVier Posey once in the game, but it’s always a blessing to see it this early into both careers.  Further, the pass play in question was for a first down.  More importantly, the Brians had some high points today.  Robiskie sprung loose in the end zone, with Pryor hooking up with him for six.  He only had 2 catches for 10 yards, but one of them was absolute gold.  Hartline only had one reception, but it was a beauty that set up the Buckeyes’ third touchdown.  It was also a play very reminiscent of Terry Glenn’s first touchdown against Pitt in 1995.  Hartline broke free against the corner, caught the ball in a tight spot with both Spartan defensive backs colliding into each other and streaked for the end zone.  Glenn scored on his play, but Hartline did well enough to get to the goal line, with Beanie scoring on the next play.  I’m not sure if Brandon Smith ever expected to catch as many balls in his Ohio State career as he did today (2 catches, 30 yards).  One of those grabs, on a dump pass, almost resulted in a TD and almost resulted in me having to change my pants after the excitement.

Defense

The rout of the Spartans was in large part made possible by the imposing play of the defensive line.  This was most definitely the case in the first half, where the defensive line was dominant.  It also doesn’t necessarily show statistically, though.  Heyward was the leading performer statistically, with 2 tackles (1 solo) and a TFL.  Dexter Larimore had 2 assisted tackles.  Nathan Williams ran all the way around the opposite side of the field to chase down Javon Ringer from behind.  Abdallah and Worthington each had an assisted tackle, but their play in particular seemed to be dominant.  Abdallah had an assisted TFL with Laurinaitis on a Ringer screen.  The pressure from Worthington also forced the Hoyer interception at the end of the half.  Simply put, the stats for the defensive line seem meager, but their pressure forced the underneath or safety throws, the dumb decisions by Hoyer or allowed the linebackers to run wild on the Spartans.  The defensive line cooled off in the second half, but much of this was playcalling.  Lost in this little synopsis is the play of Thaddeus Gibson.  Though he didn’t register much in the stats column, he was in the area to run back the Cousins’ fumble for a touchdown.  Afterwards, Gibson devoured a whole goat on the sideline, washing the sacrifice down with a cocktail of grain alcohol, paint thinner and the tears of the Spartan Stadium fans still in attendance.

The commentators picked up on it.  Surely you saw it with your own eyes: Laurinaitis was all over the field.  He was the leading tackler for the Buckeyes, with 11 on the day.  Only 4 of those were solo, which would add fuel to the fire of claims of “pile-jumping” for critics.  However, you would need to have seen Laurinaitis play to really appreciate how good he was this game.  On any play, it seemed Laurinaitis was either the one making the play or was just a second away from making the play before someone else beat him to it.  Apparently Javon Ringer and James Laurinaitis grew to respect each other on a personal dimension at the Big Ten Media Day earlier this year.  They probably got even better acquainted this game, with Laurinaitis drilling Ringer on most plays.  In the past couple games, it seems that Laurinaitis is the star of the show with either Homan or Freeman having an exceptional game along side him.  In this particular game, it was Ross Homan.  Homan finished with 9 tackles (6 solo), which was good for third on the team.  2 of those tackles were also TFLs.  Freeman was no slouch either, finishing with 5 assisted tackles and splitting a TFL with James Laurinaitis.  With the defensive line complicating things for the Spartan offensive line, the linebacker corp was that much more lethal.

I think anyone could’ve told you that the battle of Brian Hoyer versus the Ohio State secondary would be a losing battle for Hoyer every time.  I wasn’t expecting that level of dominance, though.  For the second straight game, Malcolm Jenkins looked like a professional out there with amateurs.  His 9 tackles (7 solo), in spite of the dominance of the linebackers, was good enough for second on the team.  Mark Dell, the Spartans’ leading receiver and Jenkins’ principal priority, was held to only 53 yards on 4 catches.  Most importantly, his lone TFL on the game came at the most opportune time for the Buckeyes.  With the Spartans driving against soft zone coverage, Jenkins came from Cousins’ blindside, jarred the ball loose, allowing Thaddeus Gibson to run it back for 69 yards and a touchdown.  Jenkins understably gets most of the attention in this unit, but Washington, Chekwa and Coleman played well also.  Coleman in particular made the play on the ball to secure the INT at the end of the first half.  Though it was in garbage time, Jermale Hines scored on a fumble.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

• I hope it wasn’t lost on anyone that Nathan Williams’ lone tackle in the game came the way it did.  He was on the opposite side of the field on a pitch play to Ringer.  Williams chased down Ringer all the way from the backfield to make the tackle.  If and once Williams gets some of the nuances down, he’s going to be a nightmare for opposing offensive lines.
• 1998 can suck it.  I don’t carry any particular grudge against the Spartans, but I’m glad that this type of victory came on the 10 year anniversary of that stupid game.
• On that note, if I ever run into Nick Saban down here, I’m getting a damn apology for that game.
• Dantonio is now 0-4 against Jim Tressel in head-to-head matchups.  He’s also now 0-4 against ranked teams as Spartans’ head coach.
• With that noted, I still think the Spartans are heading in the right direction under Dantonio.  He’s the right guy for the job.
• I was pulling my hair out during some parts of the third quarter, since it seemed that the defense had gone into passive mode.  However, the benefit of that approach was having the Spartans’ take up time in order to score.  Still, though, Cousins was looking like Tom Brady and 4 man rushes is no way to initiate a backup QB into the game.
• Terrelle Pryor still has some work to do on the passing game.  His pass to Hartline was from the back of his foot.  Further, there’s some communication issues he needs to work out with Robiskie and Hartline.  When the wideouts made route adjustments contingent on the defensive alignment, Pryor obviously didn’t pick up on it.
• No Todd Boeckman in the game.  It’s amazing in the game that the commentators went from asking for Todd Boeckman to lavishing praise on Terrelle Pryor.
• This game was so weirdly commentated on by Nessler-Griese-Maguire.  At times, I wish I had hit the mute button.
• Man coverages + blitzes = win.  It seems like we figured that out now.