Ohio State threw a wrench into an otherwise fabulous sports day for “The State Up North”, throttling Michigan State 38-7 to run their winning streak to 14 in a row. On a day that saw Michigan avoid a Penn State “white-out” and elevate themselves to #2 in the polls, the Buckeyes did their part to continue setting up a potential epic showdown on November 18. On a day where Western Michigan held Northern Illinois’ Garrett Wolfe, the nation’s leading rusher, to only 25 yards, the OSU defense turned back MSU’s only real threat very early on and kept the Spartans off the scoreboard until very late. And on a day where the Detroit Tigers got a walk-off homerun from Magglio Ordonez to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1984, the Bucks refused to let 1974 and 1998’s meetings with Michigan State repeat themselves, instead recalling 2004 as Ted Ginn, Jr. again burned the Spartan punt team.
Things got off to a rough start as freshman tailback Chris Wells fumbled on a 3rd-and-1 carry just three plays into the game. Greg Cooper recovered for MSU at the Buckeye 31, and on the Spartans’ opening play Jehuu Caulcrick lumbered with a screen pass down to OSU’s one, but frosh wideout T.J. Williams was flagged for holding and the ball came back to Ohio State’s 24. Given the reprieve, the defense clamped down as Jay Richardson wrestled Caulcrick down for a 2-yard loss and James Laurinaitis chased down quarterback Drew Stanton for a 16-yard sack that pushed Michigan State out of field goal range. Brandon Fields came on to deliver a perfectly placed punt but Kendall Davis-Clark caught the ball a yard deep in the endzone for a touchback, capping off an implosion that the Green and White never really recovered from.
After Troy Smith missed Anthony Gonzalez to bring up a quick third down on OSU’s ensuing series, the senior signal-caller drilled a 12-yard strike to Brian Robiskie for a fresh set of downs. Smith went back to Gonzo on second down again, and Anthony responded with an amazing one-handed snag at the sideline. The great grab left the Bucks with a 3rd-and-5, and Troy dialed up Ted Ginn, Jr., who shook off Davis-Clark and flew 35 yards to the Spartan 24. Antonio Pittman and Chris Wells then took over, pounding down to the 2, where Pittman took a handoff and appeared to be stopped. All of a sudden he popped through the pile of bodies and dove into the endzone for his eighth score on the ground in 2006. The Akron junior now has a touchdown run in 12 straight games, this latest one putting the Scarlet and Gray up 7-0.
Michigan State appeared to have shot themselves in the foot again on their next march as Jerramy Scott’s option carry for a first down was negated by another holding call. But Drew Stanton scrambled for 8 yards on 3rd-and-7 to get the first down back and give MSU a little momentum. It went up in smoke on the very next play as tackle Jesse Miller was whistled for the Spartans’ third hold in ten snaps, and this time Stanton couldn’t overcome the lost yardage. Punter Brandon Fields pinned the Bucks back at their own 9, and OSU went three-and-out as Smith couldn’t hook up with an open Ginn on a third-down bomb. A.J. Trapasso punted to the Buckeye 44 as the first quarter ended.
Spartan coach John L. Smith tried opening his offense up with the good field position. Drew Stanton came out of play-action and fired long for Kerry Reed on first down but led him too much. Reed managed 8 on a double reverse, but Caulcrick came up empty on 3rd-and-2. Smith rolled the dice on fourth down but Quinn Pitcock pulled Stanton down on the option after one yard.
The Buckeye offense returned without Antonio Pittman, who remained on the sideline nursing his left ankle, which had been dinged on the previous drive. Chris Wells ground out a first down on two totes, then the Spartan “D” left Anthony Gonzalez all alone in the middle and he and Troy joined forces on a 29-yard catch-and-run to the MSU 19. The march fizzled, so Aaron Pettrey entered and banged home a 32-yard field goal, his fifth successful kick in eight tries, to widen OSU’s lead to 10-0.
Demond Williams brought the ensuing kickoff back 39 yards to his own 48, once again energizing the Spartan Stadium crowd, but the Buckeye defense quickly let the air out of the balloon, forcing a 3rd-and-10 play where Quinn Pitcock literally knocked down tackle Pete Clifford and popped Stanton for a 7-yard loss. Although it wasn’t the most brutal hit of the afternoon, it became evident as the game wore on that Stanton was playing on guts.
Ohio State’s next series looked promising as Troy Smith got his team out of a 2nd-and-12 hole with a 12-yard toss to Ted Ginn, Jr., and then scrambled around before nailing Brian Robiskie for 19 on 3rd-and-12. Jim Tressel then headed to the seldom-used part of his playsheet, calling for a reverse pass from former Cleveland Glenville quarterback Ginn. Anthony Gonzalez was the intended receiver deep, but he was covered. Stan White, Jr. was lonesome in the middle of the field, but Ted didn’t see him and fired late to tight end Rory Nicol, who couldn’t haul it in. SirDarean Adams sacked Smith on the next play, so A.J. Trapasso was called on to do his thing and responded by booting the ball out of bounds at the Michigan State 4.
The Spartans could get nothing going, and Brandon Fields got a little too much into his punt, a 51-yard effort down the middle that Ted Ginn, Jr. gathered in at his 40. Brandon Underwood decked one defender to spring Ginn, who split Larry Grant and Andre Amos who had to do nothing more than shield their guys from Ted. Just for good measure, Brian Hartline crossed Ginn’s path to belt one final Spartan, and that was all she wrote as the junior speedster cruised unmolested for a 60-yard touchdown, his sixth career punt-return score. Pettrey’s PAT made it 17-0, and Ginn was now the Big Ten’s all-time leader in punt-return TD’s, breaking the former mark of 5 held by Iowa’s Tim Dwight.
On MSU’s next drive, Kerry Reed made a nice catch for a first down on a 3rd-and-6 throw that Donald Washington almost picked, and Jehuu Caulcrick carried three straight times for another first, moving the Spartans to their 47. Stanton then rolled right and tried a screen back to the left, but Marcus Freeman was lying in wait and plucked OSU’s 13th interception of the season, returning it to the Spartan 40. Antonio Pittman was back in the lineup and immediately bolted for 13, but a holding call on Doug Datish pushed the Bucks back to midfield. Once more Troy Smith was unfazed by the setback, as he looped a 24-yard rainbow to Gonzalez right over safety Nehemiah Warrick’s shoulder.
Ohio State moved down to the MSU 12, where on first down blatant pass-interference on Brian Robiskie went unnoticed. Smith fired too hard to Ginn on a slant, bringing up a 3rd-and-10 as the Bucks called timeout. As coach Jim Tressel would relay after the game, Anthony Gonzalez made a suggestion for the next play call. Tress, admitting afterward that he, unlike Gonzo, isn’t a Rhodes Scholar candidate, deferred to his junior slot receiver. Troy Smith danced around a bit before letting rip towards Gonzalez in the back of the endzone. Gonzo made a beautiful leaping grab, coming down with one foot inbounds before rolling into a happy group of TBDBITL members. Pettrey converted once more, and the Buckeyes enjoyed a 24-0 advantage at the break.
After Jehuu Caulcrick scooted for 10 on MSU’s first play of the third period, the Buckeye defense tightened the screws. Quinn Pitcock stunted around the Spartan line on third down and slipped as he tried to grab Drew Stanton, but Quinn didn’t give up on the play and as soon as Stanton spun around and tried to reverse field, Pitcock was there to bag him. Nehemiah Warrick interfered with Anthony Gonzalez as he tried to field Brandon Fields’ punt, giving the Bucks good field position at their own 47.
OSU came out firing with something Jim Tressel said later he didn’t think he had ever done as a head coach- ordering up back-to-back reverses. First up was Gonzo, who got a nice block from Rory Nicol and galloped for 29. Next was Ginn, who got sprung by an Alex Boone block for 16 more to the MSU 8. Both Ginn and Gonzalez had carried one time previously in ’06, with Gonzo losing a yard and Ginn losing 6. Needless to say the rushing averages will be much more palatable now. The Spartans made one last-ditch effort to hold the Bucks out, forcing a 3rd-and-goal call and then getting pressure on Smith from Ervin Baldwin. Troy spun out of Baldwin’s grasp and faked pumped, holding an oncoming David Herron, Jr. up just long enough to give himself an alley. Smith fired a bullet into the endzone where Brian Robiskie found himself on the receiving end of another addition to his quarterback’s Heisman audition tape. “Robo’s” third TD of the season gave the Buckeyes a commanding 31-0 lead.
Drew Stanton’s day ended on the Spartans’ next possession. On a 3rd-and-16 play, Stanton scrambled towards the OSU sideline and was drilled by Marcus Freeman, sending the quarterback skidding head first into a Gatorade cooler. After several minutes Stanton was able to walk to the opposite sideline, where he would spend the rest of the afternoon with an icepack.
The teams exchanged punts, and the Buckeyes began to work on the clock during a drive that carried from quarter 3 to 4. All three tailbacks chipped in while Troy Smith topped off another big day with first-down strikes to Gonzalez and Robiskie as the “O” steamrolled to the Spartan 25. After T.J. Downing’s THIRD procedure call of the day (You’d think with the Mohawk ‘do that big 72 could hear the cadence), Smith dialed up Gonzo one last time for 24 yards to the MSU 6. Two plays later, guard Steve Rehring pulled from left to right and delivered a crunching block to smooth the way for Chris Wells’ second touchdown of the year. Ohio State’s lead was now at 38-0 as they equaled their season high in points.
The only suspense left was whether the defense would get OSU’s first shutout since the Northwestern game in 2003. A 7-yard sack of Spartan backup quarterback Brian Hoyer by Robert Rose and Larry Grant disrupted Michigan State’s next-to-last drive, but after a Buckeye punt, Hoyer, a Cleveland St. Ignatius product, began picking at Ohio State’s backup defenders. Hitting passes to 5 different receivers, Hoyer moved the Green and White to the OSU 32, where he hooked up with Terry Love for 22 yards to the 10. The stubborn second-teamers forced a 3rd-down play, and Hoyer crossed up the Bucks with a handoff out of the shotgun to A.J. Jimmerson, who ran through Kurt Coleman into the endzone to spoil the shutout with only 1:08 left on the clock.
Ohio State will return home next Saturday to battle Indiana, who is fresh off a 31-28 upset of Iowa. The game will be telecast on ESPN-U, which is available to about six people, so the radio team of Paul Keels and Jim Lachey will have a larger audience than usual. Michigan State, needing three wins to become bowl-eligible, will head to Northwestern for a noon matchup with the Wildcats.
TBGUN UPDATE- Michigan (aka “The Bad Guys Up North”) handled Penn State by the same 17-10 score that was the final for last season’s “white-out” game at Beaver Stadium involving the Buckeyes. Not only are the Wolves keeping pace with Ohio State at 7-0, they have jumped to #2 in the AP poll. The Bucks and UM have never faced each other in a #1 vs. #2 meeting. The only other time the teams held down the top two spots was for two weeks in September of 1976. A wounded Iowa team heads to Ann Arbor this weekend, and realistically only Drew Tate and Co. stand between Michigan and an 11-0 record coming into Columbus on November 18th.
RANDOM THOUGHTS- Ted Ginn, Jr. was voted the Big Ten’s Special Teams Player Of The Week after his record-setting punt return against MSU. Ginn’s 6 TD punt returns leaves him two short of the NCAA career record, shared by Texas Tech’s Wes Welker and Oklahoma’s Antonio Perkins…Michigan State’s late touchdown prevented the Buckeyes from ascending to the #1 spot in scoring defense in the country. OSU is now third at 9 points a game, trailing surprising Rutgers (8.3) and LSU (8.6)…In the last 3+ years, John L. Smith’s Michigan State teams have started the season a combined 18-4, but finished 3-18…MSU’s opponents are a perfect 20 for 20 in the “red zone” against the Spartan defense…With the 13-play, 88-yard drive that led to Ohio State’s final touchdown taking 7:34, the Buckeye offense now has one 7-minute drive in each of their last 3 games…Ohio State has had 21-0 and 24-0 halftime leads in their last two contests, respectively, so it shouldn’t be a big shock to see the second-half play calling has featured 40 runs and 18 passes…
Ohio State 38 Michigan State 7
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VS
October 14th, 2006
Spartan Stadium - East Lansing, Michigan
Attendance 73,498
