Our Honor Defend

It wasn’t pretty.  At times in the second and third quarter, it was downright unwatchable.  However, it gone done.  In front of a somewhat domicile Camp Randall capacity crowd, the Buckeyes exacted some measure of catharsis for Buckeye fans, like me, still pissed off about 2003.  The late touchdown drive was enough to lift the Buckeyes to a 20-17 victory.

For the third straight game, the Buckeyes took the opening kickoff and stuck it in for six on their first drive.  That drive included a game-long 11 yard rush for Pryor, a 17 yard pass over the middle on 3rd down to Dane Sanzenbacher, and 43 yards on the ground for Beanie, with the final 33 of those coming on the touchdown play. With such an efficient drive spearheaded by the Buckeyes new dynamic duo, the Bucks looked like they were going to roll.

However, things kind of sucked from there.  After running with Pryor and Beanie very effectively for 3 plays, Pryor floated a pass for Brandon Saine, which was picked off by Allen Langford.  Some blame here goes to Saine as well for not getting into bat-down mode.  The next Buckeye drive saw Terrelle Pryor be sacked for a 16 yard loss on 3rd down.  It was an all-out blitz, and one that wasn’t concealed very well.  The next drive saw Pryor again sacked on 3rd down, which I think was also the play where Dan Herron got his bells rung.

Afterwards, Wisconsin embarked on a demoralizing 91 yard TD drive that spanned 15 plays and 8 minutes and 16 seconds.  On that drive, the Badgers converted on three 3rd down plays, hooking up with Travis Beckum for 9 yards and David Gilreath for 10 yards on two of those.  The Buckeyes were unable to stop David Gilreath’s end-arounds, were dominated up front by Wisconsin’s defensive line and, after Gilreath’s 3rd down 10 yard grab, were unable to hold the Badgers for less than 3 yards on each play afterwards.  After Gilreath’s grab was his 11 yard end-around, a 5 yard rush by John Clay, a 4 yard catch by Beckum, a 3 yard rush by Clay on 3rd down and 1, another end-around for Gilreath for 5 yards, an 11 yard rush for Clay, a 9 yard rush for Clay, a 3 yard rush for Clay and, afterwards, the TD.  Worse yet, I think the Badgers did all of this with a backup freshman left tackle, a 3rd string tight end, a whatever-string fullback and Allan Everidge at QB.

The Buckeyes got the ball back with 4 and a half left, but disaster followed.  After finding Sanzenbacher for a 23 yard catch, Sanzy promptly fumbled after a brutal 4 man car crash.  Wisconsin did punt, but so did Ohio State afterwards.  With the ball back and under a minute left in the half, the Badgers promptly showed how the prevent defense prevents teams from winning.  In 50 seconds, Allan Everidge looked like Art Schlichter, driving the Buckeyes all the way back to their own 2 yard line before settling for a FG at the half.  Again, I hate electing to receive to begin the game.

The second half fared better for the Buckeyes.  After forcing a Wisconsin punt, Beanie stormed out of the gates to the Wisconsin 26 on the Buckeyes’ first play of the second half for 54 yards.  The Buckeyes moved all the way to the 3 yard line before stalling and having to settle for a FG to level the score at 10.   At the end of the 3rd quarter, the Buckeyes started a drive on their own 41 yard line that eventually resulted in a go-ahead FG with about 10 minutes left to play in the 4th quarter.

And then Wisconsin woke up.  On Wisconsin’s ensuing drive, the Badgers’ offensive line gutted the Buckeyes’ front four.  Clay ran for 14 yards; Rentmeester followed with an 8 yard.  Clay was stuffed at the line of scrimmage on the next play, but then ran off a 5 yarder and 17 yarder.  Rentmeester came in with a 2 yard rush next, which was followed by a 15 yard rush by Gilreath¹ to get to the Buckeyes’ 1 yard line.  The eventual touchdown put the Badgers up 4 with 6 and a half left to play.  Terrelle Pryor was going to have his opportunity to win a game in the fourth quarter, something I don’t think he’s ever had to do since his junior year of HS football.

The first play of that drive was a drop for Hartline, though in credit to him, the ball was thrown a little high.  After the next play (a 4 yard rush by Beanie), Hartline let loose.  His 19 yard grab put the Buckeyes’ at their own 43 yard line.  After a 5 yard loss and recovered fumble by Pryor, Hartline snared in a 27 yard catch.  However, he thought it imperative to fumble the ball, but fortunately Brian Robiskie was in the area and was attentive to the play.  Now at the Wisconsin 35 yard line, Beanie’s two rushes for 11 yards brought them to the perimeter of the red zone.  After a 4 yard loss by Pryor, Small’s 13 yard reception put the Buckeyes at the Wisconsin 15.  3 plays later, a shotgun double option keeper put Pryor 11 yards and into the endzone for the gamewinning score with about a minute left.  Wisconsin gets a lot of credit for making this happen because, as I’ve said before, they don’t know how to defend the option.  You’ll see from this play that the defenders made a b-line for Beanie, springing Pryor.  The score on the extended drive was most good, because I was not comfortable sending our defense out to win the game with anything more than a minute to play.

However, lady fortune did smile on the Buckeyes to end the game.  Wisconsin’s chaotic return team stuck themselves at the 19 yard line.  Wisconsin’s first play from scrimmage was a soon-to-be coverage sack that Everidge decided to keep alive, in spite of pressure from Worthington and Gibson.  But by doing so, Everidge found the waiting arms of Malcolm Jenkins to end the game.

So, on to superlatives.

Offense

Pryor didn’t exactly have a great game.  He did have the game winning rush, but most of his stats were a little pedestrian (13-19, 144 yards, 0TD, 1 INT; 15 carries, 20 yards, 1 TD). I think I included the picture to the left to underscore just how awkward he looked throwing the ball at stretches during this game.  His costly sacks came at the expense of open receivers, either in the form of DeVier Posey or Brian Robiskie.  I finally got to see first hand just where I knew he struggled with his passing in high school: the intermediate pass.  Many of those passes floated a bit or otherwise looked like wounded ducks.  Some of his short passes looked a little rushed as well.

I think the achilles heel for Pryor this game is precisely the reason that makes him such a great prospect going forward.  There were several times in this game where, if he had tucked and ran with it, he would have had big yardage.  It’s good for Pryor to be looking downfield and to be looking to prove that he has an arm as well.  However, if he had just gone the Juice Williams route against the Badgers, his night would’ve been much, much easier.  It’s good that Pryor is open to instruction and wants to do the right thing.  It’s better to have that type of freshman phenom than the stubborn, uncoachable freshman phenom counterpart (see: Clarett, Maurice).  However, I’d like to see the staff take a more cybernetic approach to Pryor and not bog him down — or allow him to bog himself down — with the particulars and the nuances.

Beanie, well… Beanie is just… the balls.  Without Beanie and his 22 carries for 168 yards and an overwhelming 7.6ypc average, there’s just no way the Buckeyes win this game.  He was at the least, dominant.  At the most, he was otherworldly.  2-3 yards for the average tailback is 7-8 yards for Beanie.  That’s the Beanie difference.  His 33 yard TD rush, where he carried Shane Carter — brother of Buckeye legend Cris Carter — for the final 10 yards was awesome, to say the least.  It was the most appropriate way for the Buckeyes to begin the game.  His 54 yard burst to begin the second half was a necessary momentum changer for the Buckeyes.  The Buckeyes are just a much different team with him in the lineup and at full speed.  Maurice Wells got a carry for no yards on an awkwardly designed pitch play out of the two-back pistol formation.  Only Pryor and Beanie accounted for the Buckeyes’ ground game, which tallied over 183 yards.

With Pryor struggling, there wasn’t a lot to judge the receivers on.  There were plays were Robiskie and Posey were open, but Pryor missed them.  Robiskie only had 2 catches for 10 yards, but his recovery of the Hartline fumble in the 4th quarter is worth about 5 Buckeye stickers.  Hartline, who seemed to be the most frustrated with the direction of the passing game than anyone else, led all receivers with 3 grabs for 57 yards.  However, 2 of those catches and 46 of those yards came in the gamewinning drive.  Dane Sanzenbacher was well en route to vindicating my intrigue in him (2 catches, 40 yards), until he committed that most unforgiveable sin of fumbling the football.  After having his brains scrambled on the same play, he wasn’t heard from again.

I’ve been skeptical of the offensive line previously, but I have no real complaints from this game.  They were kinda streaky, which was masked by the fact that Beanie is just really hard to tackle.  At times they were brilliant, and at some times they were a little listless in creating running lanes.  However, Brewster gets praise for getting to the second level and knocking Casillas out of the play on Beanie’s touchdown.  Alex Boone also pancaked his man on Pryor’s final touchdown.  Where there was pressure on Pryor, the culprit was more the Badgers sending more people than the offensive line could account for.

Defense

Our defensive line worries me greatly.  I don’t feel like rubbing more salt in the wounds.  I don’t feel like saying that what has already been said.  Further, I just don’t know what to say or prescribe that’s feasible for the rest of the season.  Our tackles look tired; they look slow and they look like they’re relying on overpowering their man to get pressure, which I don’t think is very efficient.  Doug Worthington didn’t register a single statistic, though he was instrumental in forcing Everidge out of the pocket on that game-sealing interception.  Cam Heyward had 3 tackles (2 solo, 1 assisted), with one of those tackles being a sack.  If pressed to name a hero of the game for the defensive line, the recipient would probably be Thaddeus Gibson.  Gibson’s second quarter stunt, spy and eventual blowup of Everidge forced the fumble recovered by Ross Homan.  However, that was his only registered stat, though he too was instrumental in the Everidge interception to end the game. Hmm…

I still talk with my freshman roommate a lot, and he was sold on Ross Homan entering the season.  Homan, for my friend, certainly didn’t disappoint.  He registered 10 tackles, split evenly between solo and assisted.  His one TFL came on blowing up a Wisconsin rush at the goal line.  His fumble recovery was, if nothing else, a welcome reward for Gibson’s hard work.  Per my friend, Homan was an animal.  Speaking of animals, Laurinaitis had another good game with 10 tackles (6 solo, 4 assisted).  Freeman chipped in with 6 tackles (5 solo, 1 assisted) and 2 TFLs for a combined loss of 13 yards.  His blowup of a Gilreath end-around was a welcome sight to say the least.  With average-at-best play from the defensive line, the linebackers are certainly going to continue getting a workout each game.

I wasn’t particularly impressed by the play from the secondary.  Anderson Russell got hurdled and there were some gaps in coverage by the safeties that led to some big plays in the second quarter.  Malcolm Jenkins had 4 tackles (1 solo, 3 assisted), but did have the game-ending INT.  Kurt Coleman had 8 tackles, with 6 of those being solo.  Anderson Russell had 7 tackles, with only 2 of those being assisted.  Yet, more than a few of those tackles came after big yardage for the Badgers.

Passing Thoughts

• Special teams had zero margin of error in this game.  Credit AJ Trapasso and Ryan Pretorius on this regard.  Trapasso was probably the second best player on offense, averaging 48.8 yards a punt, including a 67 yard screamer.  Without Pretorius being perfect on FGs, the Buckeyes don’t win this game.  Superlatives all around.
• Vince Workman was an honorary captain for this game.  He currently works in Green Bay for the Packers’ weight room staff.  His son, also named Vince Workman, is currently on the market for a college in the 2009 class.
• Beanie questioned Terrelle Pryor’s manhood during this game.
• This was Bret Bielema’s first ever loss at Camp Randall.  It was also only his second loss after leading at half.  The first such loss was last week against Michigan.
• Again: suck it 2003.  I’ll see you in hell, Lee Evans.
• Apparently Hartline was Pryor’s third read on both of his catches in the 4th quarter go-ahead TD.
• Per Terrelle Pryor after the game: “I don’t want to let my seniors down,” Pryor said. “That’d be the worst thing ever.”

1. his end-arounds got to be quite annoying [↩]