Football
The-Ozone Note and Quotebook
By John PorentasHissy Fit: Football is a funny, funny game. The Buckeyes dominated the Spartans every way you could on Saturday, but the game ended up close on the scoreboard due to two costly OSU turnovers that resulted in defensive scores for the Spartans.
Kirk Barton "I think that statistic you bring out shows you the importance of turnovers, you can't turn it over and give them 14 points and have it look like those statistics tell the tale," said OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel.
Offensively, the Buckeyes were very crisp but had three very bad plays, the two turnovers and a near-turnover when Beanie Wells lost the handle on the football but was able to get that one back. With the exception of those three plays, the offense played very well, but those three plays really stuck in the craw of OSU offensive lineman Kirk Barton.
"It's hard to go out there with your family after a game like this, when you're outclassing a team, and all of a sudden they come back because you give them a couple easy bunnies," said Barton.
"Our defense has been lights out, as they have been in every game, and our offense was doing a couple stupid things. It's hard to be calm and not throw a hissy fit right now, but I'm not happy," Barton said.
Defense Strong: The Buckeye defense was strong throughout the contest against the Spartans as it has been throughout the season. OSU's defenders definitely made an impression on Spartan offensive coordinator Donnie Treadwell.
"I'd say pretty darned good," said Treadwell when asked just how good the OSU defense looked to him.
"Our bread and butter going into it was to get the ball into the hands of our backs and maybe try to take some shots (downfield) when appropriate, which we did. We didn't want to try and make it a drop back game or anything of that nature.
"We were not able to establish the run the way we wanted to. That's probably the most frustrating thing," Treadwell said.
"Rally is probably the word I'd use," Treadwell said describing OSU's defensive speed.
"You might have them blocked for a minute, but unless you keep the other guy blocked somebody else is running to the ball. We felt like we had to hit a crease and had to hit it quick because it's not like it stays there long."
MSU Head Coach and former OSU defensive coordinator Mark Dantonio shared Treadwell's impression of the OSU defense.
"I was surprised we couldn't run the ball better because I know we have very good players as well, but, yeah, it looks like a great defense," said Dantonio.
"They have great linebackers, their secondary will get after you, they run a lot of people in on defense up front. Coach Heacock and Coach Fickell and those guys do an outstanding job.
"When you make opponents punt 72 times in seven games, and you only line up to block 11 field goals or extra points, you have issues when you're playing against that team.
"When you only have 17 kickoff returns in seven games, that means your defense is playing very, very well. That's what this situation is. They're playing very, very well. Nobody is getting into the endzone."
High Standards: Tailback Beanie Wells had a huge day against the Spartans, going for 221 net yards on 31 rushes. Almost everyone in the stadium was impressed with Wells' performance. Wells himself, however, was not one of them.
Beanie Wells "I think I did OK, I had on OK day. I didn't do everything properly. It was an OK day, it could have been a lot better," said Wells.
"I felt I could have done a lot better. There were a few reads I missed," Wells added.
Wells' performance is made all the more remarkable in view of the fact that his injured ankle was bothering him most the game.
"It was so-so. There were some times where it was pinching a little bit. I sucked it up today," said Wells.
"Throughout the game it was hurting a bit, but I was able to just hold on and stay in the game.
"Sometimes it's just a pinch and then it goes away after a second. It's so much pain. I don't think I'll be at 100 per cent throughout the season. It's real frustrating. I want to be 100 per cent so bad. It's just a nagging injury. I just get in there and rehab as much as I can, just to get as healthy as I can to go out there and play football and help the team win," Wells said.
Wringers: OSU's lapse on offense in the third quarter that allowed 14 points to go on the board for the Spartans left many of the Buckeye faithful wringing their hands and with a sick feeling in the pit of the stomach, particularly in view of the history of the game. Some of the players on the field felt like wringing some necks, but better judgment prevailed.
Alex Boone "You run off the field and you want to yell at everybody, but you can't yell. A lot of guys are frustrated, a lot of guys are down on themselves. You have to take the attitude that it's over, it's football, this is what happens in football and you've got to come back from that," said OSU offensive lineman Alex Boone.
Boone said the interception return for a touchdown was a real shocker to him as the play unfolded.
"The first thing that ran through my head was 'Wow! What am I doing?'
"That interception, I thought I had him but Steve (Rehring) ran into me so I kind of got thrown off. Obviously you don't ever want to see a defender running with the ball," Boone said.
The two turnovers could have been an excuse for panic, but the Buckeyes fought through it and avoided the upset.
"It's tough when you have two series like that," said quarterback Todd Boeckman.
"You have to go out there and keep your head up and keep on fighting."
Even Head Coach Jim Tressel admitted to being uneasy, particularly after Beanie Wells fumbled.
"That was not a good feeling. I can't tell you exactly what I was feeling or maybe even saying, but just sometimes you don't do as well as you'd like and you have to gather yourself and try to get going back in the right direction and we had good fortune to get back on that ball and here we are," said Tressel.
Hawkism: Former OSU linebacker A. J. Hawk was in Columbus this week and had a chance to impart a few words of wisdom to the OSU defense, words the Buckeyes apparently took to heart.
Doug Worthington "A. J. Hawk was in and he talked about how it was disrespectful for a team to want to run the ball on any defense, especially if you're considered a great defense. He just said hit them in the mouth and play four quarters of football," said OSU defensive tackle Doug Worthington.
Worthington and the rest of the OSU defense came up big against the highly touted MSU rush offense, limiting the Spartans to 59 net yards rushing. Ironically, Worthington, who had an interception in the game, got small to do it.
"I don't think he saw me," said Worthington.
"I try to stay low, bend my knees, play as a linebacker, get as low as I could get. He didn't see me. Vernon had the pressure and he threw the ball away and I got the interception," Worthington said.
That's quite an accomplishment and some mighty deep knee bending for a defensive lineman who is 6-6, but Worthington was able to pull it off.
" Knee bend. You've got to have great knee bend in this sport," grinned Worthington.
After his play, his little buddies on the OSU defense made sure he felt like he was one of them, not one of the big uglies in the trenches.
"Out on the field all the DBs were running up to me. I felt like a DB out there for about five seconds," said Worthington with a laugh. "It was great."
Pressure: Both defenses in the game had the same philosophy, stop the run and affect the quarterback. The Spartans could not stop the OSU run, but MSU could not run on the Buckeyes. Advantage OSU. As to affecting the quarterback, both teams brought pressure in the form of blitzes, and that turned out to be a standoff. OSU's pressure simply did not allow the Spartans to move the football. MSU's pressure was not as effective in that regard, but did play a large part in their turnovers that resulted in touchdowns.
"They were blitzing like crazy," said offensive lineman Alex Boone.
"They did a good job bringing some blitzes off the front that we hadn't prepared for," said OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel.
"If you look at the fumble we had today, Todd was hit kind of from a blind side," Tressel said.
OSU was also guilty of 14 penalties in the game, a number of them due to linemen jumping at the line of scrimmage. Tressel said the MSU pressure played a part in those penalties as well.
"Our offense knew that once we got up there that they were going to just be coming after us like wild indians and sometimes that makes you jerk a little bit in your stance when you've got blitzes running up all the time," said Tressel.
The MSU pressure did force mistakes by the OSU offense and at times frustrated them.
"Offensively we've got to keep the ball in our hands, it put us in the hole kind of, made it a better game than it should have been," said defensive back Malcolm Jenkins.
"Aw man, we shot ourselves in the foot. Without the turnovers and the penalties today the score wouldn't had been that close," lamented Beanie Wells.
Despite some frustration after the game, the Buckeyes handled the situation fairly well during the game.
"There's going to be adversity throughout a game," said James Laurinaitis.
"Things are going to go wrong. You can either let it snowball on you or you can stop it. We had some adversity but it doesn't matter. We have to accept those challenges," said Laurinaitis.
Closing it Out: The Buckeye offense was put under some pressure late in the game when the Spartans pulled to within a touchdown after Brent Swenson kicked a 43 yard field goal with 3:42 left to play to make the score 24-17. The Spartans needed one more possession, but didn't get it when the OSU offense was able to control the football and run out the clock. Everybody in the stadium knew the Buckeyes would run the football, and the Spartans did everything they could to stop the OSU running game, but the Buckeyes still got it done.
"We did a fairly good job putting some run drives together there when they were just sending the kitchen sink and all, and the blitz, and Beanie stepped up and toted it a bunch of times," said Jim Tressel.
Wells was OSU's only ball carrier over that last 3:42. He carried is six times for 24 yards.
"That last drive I could have taken the ball 20 times. I felt real strong that last drive," said Wells.
"At the very end we had to close it out. For a while it looked like our twos (second team) were going to be in there in the fourth quarter but we had to finish it," added offensive lineman Kirk Barton.
On the day Wells carried 31 times despite a nagging ankle injury.
"We knew for us to be a good team, we were going to need Beanie to be a warrior, a workhorse," said Tressel.
"That's what he wants to be. That's what we want him to be."
Wells loved the opportunity to assume that role against the Spartans.
"Of course. I always want to be that guy can carry the football every time the team needs me," said Wells.
Wells was appreciative that Tressel called his number at crunch time.
"Yeah, he did. I love Coach Tressel so much. I can't say enough," Wells said.
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