IT’S MICHIGAN WEEK
Those three words are better than adrenaline when it comes to getting a Buckeye heart pumping hard. The 103rd chapter of this storied rivalry is in sight, and the prize has NEVER been sweeter. To the winner goes an outright Big Ten championship and a spot in the BCS National Championship game in Glendale, Arizona on January 8th, 2007. No ifs, ands or buts, no waiting around for conference title games to be played out, no endless speculation from the talking heads as to who goes where. Knock off your archrival in the only #1 vs. #2 matchup in this legendary series to date, and rake in the sweetest pot we may ever see.
Ohio State geared up for “THE GAME” with a 54-10 rout of Northwestern in Evanston, only the third time in the Jim Tressel era that OSU has hung “half-a-hundred” on an opponent (the 2002 national champs bombed Kent State 51-17 and San Jose State 50-7). The Buckeyes’ winning streak reached 18 straight, leaving them one short of the second-longest string of wins in school history (19 in a row in 2002-03). The all-time mark of 22 consecutive victories from 1967-69 would be safe until the Buckeyes travel to Washington next September 15th.
It didn’t take the Ohio State defense long to set the tone for this game. The Wildcats picked up a first down on their opening play as quarterback C.J. Bacher hooked up with Shaun Herbert for 10, but three plays later another completion to Herbert resulted in a fumble as James Laurinaitis stripped the ball out. Brandon Mitchell recovered and the Bucks were in business at their own 45. Replays did show that Herbert’s knee was down but the officials missed it. One guy who didn’t miss on OSU’s initial drive was Troy Smith, who hit Anthony Gonzalez with a 28-yard strike to launch the march, then came back with a 5-yard toss to Ted Ginn, Jr. Two Antonio Pittman runs moved the ball to the Northwestern 14 where Smith found Brian Hartline uncovered and fired a missile to the freshman for his first career touchdown. The game was less than four minutes old and the Scarlet and Gray drew first blood at 7-0.
up. Pitt bounced off his fullback and circled the right side for his 12th touchdown of the season, giving the Bucks a 14-0 lead at the 9:25 mark of quarter one.
Northwestern once again made hay on their first play as Tyrell Sutton wound his way for 34 yards on a screen to the Buckeye 46. Wildcat coach Pat Fitzgerald then went to the gimmick section of the playbook, having backup quarterback Mike Kafka throw off a reverse pitch. Vernon Gholston was having none of it and dropped Kafka for a loss of 8. Quinn Pitcock capped off the defensive
Tyrell Sutton continued to make plays on the ensuing series. Again the Wildcats got a first-play first down as Sutton motored for 12, and then he later swept right for 13 more. On the first play of the second quarter, Sutton worked another screen for 11 to the Buckeye 11, but the “D” stiffened and Joel Howells got the Purple and White on the board with a 29-yard field goal.
Troy Smith kept a hot hand as the Bucks took possession, finding Rory Nicol for 18 and then lobbing a perfect throw to Brian Hartline for 24 as the Northwestern secondary once again lost him. All three tailbacks pitched in as the ground game moved the ball to the Wildcat 10, including a 2-yard pop by Chris Wells on 3rd-and-1, his first action since fumbling at Illinois last week. On first-and-goal Pittman drove for 3, giving him his second straight 1,000-yard season. Pitt’s efforts put him in very select company with Tim Spencer, Keith Byars and Eddie George as Buckeye runners who have put up a grand in consecutive years. If Pitt honors his word to return for his senior season, he’ll have a chance to match Archie Griffin’s feat of three 1,000-yard campaigns. Unfortunately the bloom came right off the accomplishment on the very next snap as Pittman, fighting for the goal line after taking a swing pass from Smith, was stripped by Deante Battle. The Wildcats actually caught a bigger break as the fumble was recovered in the endzone, giving them a touchback and a first down at their 20. Not only did the Bucks come up short, but over at Memorial Stadium Michigan was able to continue the monkey-see, monkey-do routine, upping their lead over the Hoosiers to 21-3.
The Wildcats then set sail on their only touchdown drive of the afternoon, and it didn’t take long. Bacher nailed tight end Erryn Cobb for 26, then Tyrell Sutton ate up 12 more yards on yet another screen. Rasheed Ward got in on the act with a 23-yard reception, then after an incompletion Ward snared a 6-yard aerial, bringing the ‘Cats to the OSU 8. Sutton caught a flare in the left flat and easily scored from there, capping off a quick 75-yard, 6-play drive to make it 27-10 with 2:10 to go.
The Buckeyes had all three timeouts at their disposal, but starting from their own 26 Antonio Pittman carried twice to the Wildcat 40. It appeared Ohio State was content to run out the clock, but Troy Smith went deep into the wind for Ted Ginn, Jr. and Sherrick McManis picked off the underthrown pass. Now it was Northwestern’s turn at the “two-minute” drill, but the only drilling on first down was done by Jay Richardson who buried Bacher just as he threw the ball out of bounds. Bacher rolled right on the next play and threw back to Rasheed Ward on a screen, but Malcolm Jenkins knocked the ball loose and Richardson swooped in to recover it at the Wildcat 29, giving OSU one last shot.
Troy Smith, in the grasp of a defender on first down, got a pass away to Roy Hall who took it into the endzone, but T.J. Downing was called for a hold to negate the score. Smith went deep for Ginn but McManis made a super play, tipping the throw away as he was practically parallel to the ground. It didn’t phase the Glenville twosome, though. Smith, once more under heavy pressure, wasn’t even set as he dropped back on 3rd-and-20 but still heaved a deep throw for Ginn, who completely baited McManis as the football dropped into his lap for a 34-yard touchdown. A.J. Trapasso couldn’t handle the extra point snap and ended up being stopped short of the goal line as he tried to run. The Buckeyes took a 33-10 lead into the locker room as the coaches made a mental note to devote a chunk of practice time this week to the extra point attempts.
TBGUN had been keeping pace with the Bucks all throughout the first half, and a look at the quarterback numbers was eerie. Troy Smith was 9 of 14 for 148 yards, while Chad Henne was 9 of 13 for 143 yards. Both had thrown one pick while Troy had the edge in touchdown passes, 3 to 2.
Henne led his team to a 28-3 lead as the second half got started in Evanston with Ted Ginn, Jr. nearly breaking the kickoff. A third-down throw from Troy Smith to Roy Hall was originally ruled a catch, but upon review it was overturned and the Bucks were forced to punt. The defense immediately seized control as linebacker Ross Homan made his first career interception as C.J. Bacher tossed an ill-advised pass near the Wildcat sideline. Homan returned the pick to the Northwestern 39, and on 2nd-and-11 Smith scrambled for 11 with a personal foul facemask penalty on NU thrown in for good measure. Three plays later it was Smith to Gonzo on the slant for a 6-yard score, Gonzo’s 7th TD catch of the year and Troy’s 4th scoring strike of the day, tying a career high. Aaron Pettrey’s PAT made it 40-10, Buckeyes.
The OSU defense gave up a couple of first downs on Northwestern’s next drive, but then tightened the screws, forcing a Slade Larscheid punt that carried into the endzone. With Antonio Pittman’s day effectively done, it was time for Chris Wells to redeem himself. C-Dub pounded through for 8, 14 and 4, then behind great blocks from Steve Rehring, Doug Datish and Dionte Johnson on the “Power O”, the freshman burst for a season-high run of 25 yards, running over safety Reggie McPherson in the process. Maurice Wells entered and gained two before Troy was sacked for a loss of 9. After a Buckeye timeout, Smith shook away from defensive end David Ngene, rolled left and hit Maurice Wells in the flat. Wells did the rest, snaking all the way to the 3-yard line with an excellent burst. Two cracks by Mo advanced the pigskin to the 1, then Chris Wells polished off the 80-yard, 9-play march by diving over for the touchdown, hiking the Buckeye lead to 47-10.
Justin Zwick was at the helm on the next series, which started with a 15-yard Mo Wells gallop. “Z” converted a third down with a pass to tight end Jake Ballard, but couldn’t overcome a 4th-and-6 later and Ohio State turned it over on downs. Northwestern then faced its own 4th-down call later, but quarterback Mike Kafka was stopped short by Lawrence Wilson at the Wildcat 43. Todd Boeckman took his turn at the controls, and this time the Bucks found some 4th-down magic as Chris Wells took the handoff on 4th-and-1 and popped through for a new season-long run of 26 yards to the Wildcat 8. Once again a 4th-down situation arose from the Northwestern 5, but Boeckman shot right through the middle for his first career touchdown. Ryan Pretorius booted the point-after to account for the final score of 54-10.
Northwestern will close out their season next Saturday at noon ET with their traditional windup against Illinois, and the Wildcats will actually come calling a lot earlier on the Buckeye schedule next season, as their September 22nd visit to Columbus will be the Big Ten opener for both schools.
RANDOM THOUGHTS- THE GAME will mark the first time that two teams from the same conference have both started 11-0. In 1935, Southwestern Conference foes TCU and SMU were both 10-0 when they met on November 30th, with the Mustangs going into Fort Worth and coming away with a 20-14 win over the Horned Frogs…The last time two Big Ten teams started 10-0 was way back in 1904, when Michigan finished their season with that 10-0 mark while Minnesota would go on to post a 13-0 record…
Brian Hartline and Todd Boeckman’s touchdowns last Saturday make them the eighth and ninth Buckeyes that have scored their first career TD’s this season…Troy Smith goes into Saturday with 26 touchdown passes in ’06, leaving him three short of tying Bobby Hoying for the single-season standard of 29 which Bobby set in 1995…A record 1,100 media credentials have been issued for THE GAME, including one for someone from Japan…The Bucks have been made an early 7-point favorite…Coach Tressel announced today that left tackle Alex Boone will be available for Saturday…Troy Smith was named co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for last weekend’s 4-TD pass effort at Northwestern. Smith shares this week’s award with Penn State tailback Tony Hunt and is the fourth such honor for Troy this season…
TBGUN UPDATE- There’s nothing left to say, really. We held up our end, they held up their end. Hurry, Saturday…
ds.
Ohio State 54 Northwestern 10
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VS
November 11th, 2006
Ryan Field -
Evanston, Ill
Attendance 47,130
ABC was showing a constant score and clock of the Michigan/Indiana tilt throughout the OSU telecast, and as they returned from break after Hartline’s score the Wolves had claimed a 7-0 lead themselves. Northwestern’s second drive got off on a good note with a 14-yard Ross Lane reception, but Bacher bobbled the snap from center on the very next play and Antonio Smith dove on the ball at the Wildcat 27. A Smith-to-Rory Nicol pass gained 9, and Pittman rammed for the first down. After a famke-pump, Smith fed Pittman again and the Akron product scooted for 14 to the NU 1. Antonio tried to follow Stan White Jr. up the middle on first-and goal, but White was stood
uprising by sacking Bacher on 3rd-and-13, then Gholston delivered again, partially blocking Slade Larscheid’s punt, which rolled dead at the OSU 28 just as TBGUN extended their lead in Bloomington to 14-0. The Bucks couldn’t get anything going and booted back to the ‘Cats at their 29. Bacher dialed up Sutton for 9 to convert a third down, but two plays later the sophomore signal-caller all but got on the P.A. system and announced an out route to Ross Lane. Brandon Mitchell snagged the throw and coasted 46 yards for his second career interception return for a score (his other was a 57-yard pick-six at Indiana last year). With 3:38 still to go in the first period Ohio State had a 21-0 advantage.
Northwestern was unable to jumpstart the offense, and the OSU special teams came through as Larry Grant stormed in to block Larscheid’s punt, giving the Bucks a first down at the Wildcat 16. They wouldn’t be denied this time, as two Pittman runs preceded another touchdown toss from Smith to Brian Hartline, this time from 10 yards away. Aaron Pettrey’s extra point was blocked, leaving the margin at 27-3.
