#2 Ohio State 36, #12 Miami 24

THE SCORE

#2 OHIO STATE 36, #12 MIAMI (FL) 24

THE STAR

Jim Tressel. With one exception, Ohio State’s coach got everything he wanted from a typical conservative game plan. Kicking, defense, special teams, and a quarterback who can manage the game.

Senior kicker Devin Barclay connected on 5-6 field goal tries (and it should have been all six since the one miss was from 32 yards) and the kickoff team performed well after their one blunder. Defensively, the Buckeyes asserted themselves, holding Jacory Harris to 23-39 passing and intercepting him four times. Admittedly, not all of the blame belongs on Harris’ shoulders. On one of the interceptions, it appeared that the receiver was lining up the defensive back for a run block when the ball went right over his shoulder into the hands of the guy he was going to block.

Terrelle Pryor appears to be much the same quarterback that lit up the Pasadena night last January in the Rose Bowl. While he only completed 12-27 passes, he threw for 233 yards and a touchdown without any turnovers. Some of his passes were offline but some of them were nothing short of stupendous and the only thing standing between him and being a Heisman finalist is consistency. One thing I saw in him today was that not too many of his passes were near interceptions. There were some but most of his passes fell into the category of “if my guy doesn’t catch it, nobody will”.

On top of his decent passing day, Pryor ran the ball 20 times for 113 yards and a touchdown and was by far the most reliable runner for Tressel.

The elephant in the room is special teams. In less than one half of football, the Buckeyes gave up an 88 yard kickoff return and a 79 yard punt return for two of the three touchdowns Miami managed. Without those, the score might have looked more like the 36-10 margin that it should have been.

BY THE NUMBERS

Ohio State outgained Miami 414-346, 233-232 through the air (let’s call that one a tie) and 181-114 on the ground. The Hurricanes committed 8 penalties for 59 yards while the Buckeyes (in typical Tressel fashion) committed just 2 for 25 yards. The biggest number in the entire box score though is 4. Miami threw four interceptions and Ohio State did not turn the ball over.

THE SPIN

First and foremost, I realize that this game was played in front of more than 100,000 fans, most of who were not pulling for the Hurricanes. Nevertheless, what I saw was two teams that both had the same goal and only one that had a chance to realize that goal.

Ohio State did make some mistakes but overall they played a very solid game. Their defense was excellent and opportunistic, their offense was efficient and just needs a few tweaks that can easily come with more game time this fall, and their special teams has room to improve. This is a team that can go all the way and right now the only thing that I think can hold them back is Jim Tressel’s playcalling. If he opens up his playbook the way he did in the Rose Bowl, look out.

Miami came into this game ranked #12 and leading up to this game it appeared that they wanted to let the world know that they had returned to prominence and that they were seeking revenge for a title game loss that occurred when the current crop of seniors was in 8th grade. On both goals, they fell flat. Their defense played well but had no answer for Terrelle Pryor and allowed too many big plays. Their special teams were solid but allowed a few big kickoff returns, including one where senior kicker Matt Bosher was juked by the Buckeyes return man, nearly fell down, and then recovered and ran him down a few yards later to make the tackle.

Offensively, the Hurricanes struggled with Ohio State’s defense. Even putting the four turnovers aside for a second, they managed to get into the red zone just twice and those two possessions resulted in a missed field goal and an interception that was nearly returned for a touchdown.

I understand that they were playing in a hostile environment against a top tier team. When the newest rankings come out this week, I don’t think they’ll be hurt too much by this loss and I don’t think that Ohio State will benefit too much from this win. The most important thing that I’ll take away from this game is these two teams are on two different levels.



To all you Alabama fans out there:

FEAR THE SWEATER-VEST!