Football
10 Things We Learned from Season-Changing Win over Penn State
By Brandon Castel10. JoePa can be more conservative than Tressel. Who would have known there was a more conservative coach in the Big Ten than the Sweater Vest himself? I’m guessing Penn State fans had a good idea that Joe Paterno wasn’t going to all of a sudden morph into Mike Leach after all these years, but it’s amazing how much he shuts down when the Nittany Lions play Ohio State. In each of the past two seasons, the Penn State offense has averaged more than 30 points per game, but have managed a grand total of 20 points against the Buckeyes in eight quarters as the “Spread HD” has looked more like black and white television. Since beating Tressel 29-27 in his first season in Columbus, Paterno’s teams have averaged just over 12 points per game against Ohio State and have not reached the 20-point mark since 2003.
9. Tresselball works when OSU wins the special teams and turnover battles. There aren’t many positive things to be said about Tresselball, but one fact remains: when executed to Tressel’s demands, it works. Win the field position battle, don’t turn the ball over and be excellent on special teams and Tressel’s gameplan works every time. That’s typically not how it has gone for OSU in recent big games, but it all came together for them Saturday in Happy Valley. Throw in over 200 yards rushing, zero sacks allowed and a staunch defense and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a two-touchdown victory.
8. Having depth at tailback is critical to this team’s success. Ohio State found out last season what happens when a team relies solely on one tailback and then that tailback happens to go down with an injury. Tressel has always said he needs “a pair and spare” to get through the Big Ten season and he couldn’t be more right about this year. Last year the spare was Mo Wells, this year it’s Jordan Hall. Big difference. Herron looked a lot more like his old self this week, hitting some holes hard, but then he tweaked the ankle late in the game and I doubt he will be completely healthy again until the bowl game. That means Hall and Jermil Martin will need to step up, so it’s a good thing the Buckeyes have a stable of backs this season.
7. Offensive line showed it could play. Think Pryor has taken a lot of flack in his time at OSU? Mr. Pryor meet Mr. Bollman. The perennial whipping boy for Buckeye fans, Bollman’s offensive line has been much-maligned again this season, but would you believe Saturday was the third time in nine games that they have not allowed a single sack? It obviously helps to have a quarterback like Pryor playing behind them (big part of the reason they made the switch from Todd Boeckman last season), but this was the first time it came against an “elite defense.” The offensive line was by no means dominant – having Aaron Maybin on the sideline as a visitor instead of in the game definitely helped – but the numbers are quite impressive never-the-less. Zero sacks allowed against the nation’s second-best sacking defense and 228 yards rushing against a Nittany Lion team that had been allowing a Big Ten-best 84 yards per game on the ground this season. It’s not time to praise a return to greatness for the OSU offensive line, but give credit where credit is due.
6. Ray Small can make an impact that goes beyond special teams. They looked like special teams plays in the stat sheet, but Small’s two big punt returns (41, 45) were tremendous energizers for the offense Saturday. Neither return got in the end zone, but his first one set up the opening touchdown of the game and the second one set up the final touchdown of the game.
“That was huge. That gave us awesome field position. We knew as an offense we had to get that in for a touchdown,” guard Justin Boren said of Small’s first punt return.
5. Terrelle Pryor was playing hurt. Want proof? Look no further than Ohio State’s version of the Wildcat – cleverly nicknamed the “Wild Turtle” (or as I prefer, Wild Tortoise) by a member of the Ozone message board. It wasn’t anything special, and it certainly won’t have the Miami Dolphins taking notice any time soon, as Tressel openly admitted after the game that it was a way of taking hits off his quarterback.
“Well we kind of work on the Wildcat all year because we run our quarterbacks. It’s the same plays, just running with quarterbacks. Had we done it with a back before this week? No. We just weren’t sure how much TP was going to be able to run. He probably ran about as much as we thought he would.”
If that doesn’t let you know that he was playing hurt, then this quote from Pryor after the game ought to do it.
“It's not my knee, it's my ankle. It was really hard to run. I had to wobble and kind of like stiff with it. I still ran pretty fast. You probably didn't notice it but it was hurting. It was a lot of pain but sometimes you've got to play with pain.
4. This was Terrelle’s best game as a quarterback. His numbers won’t pop off the box score the way they did in his 343-yard performance against Minnesota, but this was Terrelle Pryor’s best game as a quarterback. How can I say that after watching some of the balls he threw into the benches, not to mention the fact he was only 8-of-17 passing for 125 yards? Simple, Pryor took what the defense gave him all night long and never tried to win the game with one throw, and he did it against a good defense. He didn’t always make the perfect pass, but he did make some great passes when his team needed it most, and more importantly, he never tried to force the ball into places he had no business throwing. Even the miss fade route to Dane Sanzenbacher just before the half was a matter of throwing to a spot, Sanzenbacher just wasn’t fast enough to run under it on the goal line. People are going to talk about his pass to Posey, but the one that impressed me the most was the 22-yard strike he threw to Sanzenbacher in traffic on 3 rd down in the second quarter. It didn’t result in any points because of back-to-back penalties in the red zone, but it was a heck of a good ball he threw, and a heck of a good catch by Dane, who took a big hit on the end of the play.
3. Cam Heyward was a man among boys. 11 tackles and 2 sacks tell only part of the story for Heyward Saturday. The junior defensive lineman flat-out dominated the line of scrimmage and abused just about every one of the Penn State offensive linemen. He and Thad Gibson seemed to be in a race to get to Daryll Clark on every play, and Heyward came out on top tonight thanks to a fierce bull rush that looked like an NFL defensive lineman going against a college offensive line.
2. The Ohio State defensive front makes this team a viable BCS contender. Make no mistake about it, this is not a great Buckeye team. I know, shocking right? How could I say that after the way they dismantled No. 11 Penn State in their own stadium? Easy. The offense is young. The quarterback is young. The offensive line has been heavily damaged and inconsistent. The kicker is out for the year. Need I go on? The one thing that makes this team a contender is the defense, and the one thing that makes the defense BCS-quality is the defensive line. We didn’t really learn anything new about them today because they’ve been doing it all season, but to go on the road and completely take over a game the way they did today was impressive. It’s the kind of performance that wins regular season championships and the kind that wins bowl games.
1.Once again, the Buckeyes are the team to beat for the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl. After their loss at Purdue earlier this year, many were writing off the Buckeyes as legitimate contenders for the Big Ten in 2009. Not with the way Iowa and Penn State were playing. This was going to be the year where someone – either the Hawkeyes or the Nittany Lions – overtook the Buckeyes for conference supremacy. Then came Saturday Nov. 7 th. First it was the Hawkeyes tumbling at home to Northwestern, not to mention losing their quarterback in the process, and the Bucks followed that with a convincing win over PSU on the road. All of a sudden, Ohio State has a clear path to the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl. Beat Iowa at home next week – without Ricky Stanzi – and they are on their way to Pasadena. Beat Michigan the following week and they lock up an outright Big Ten title.
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