Ohio State got off to an even bigger lead than they did in last year’s title game, the myth of "SEC speed" was no factor and the Buckeyes competed most of the way as opposed to the "Debacle In The Desert" a year ago.
Not good enough.
LSU blitzed OSU with 31 unanswered points in the middle quarters and coasted to a two-touchdown victory, securing their third national crown. The Tigers, who had been dominant in September with everyone healthy, lost two games and squeaked by several others in SEC play, but those tests of a senior-laden ballclub only served as a confidence builder when the Bucks grabbed a quick 10-0 lead in the championship game.
For me, the emotions are mixed. The media bent over backwards to get LSU in this game so that New Orleans and the state of Louisiana could have something positive to hang their hat on. But LSU was without question the better team and you wonder what they would have accomplished had they had better luck with health. For the second year in a row in the title game, the Ohio State defense made nothing more than a capable quarterback look like an All-American, but Matt Flynn did exactly what Todd Boeckman SHOULD have been doing- nickel-and-diming with the passing game instead of throwing up prayers. LSU’s defensive line certainly played a tremendous game, while Cameron Heyward’s personal foul penalty was about the ONLY time OSU’s D-line got noticed. Chris Wells put the "SEC speed" argument to bed by outracing the Tiger defense on a championship game-best touchdown run, but LSU (choose your favorite phrase here) was more physical/out-physicaled OSU/brought more physicality (my spell-check is going nuts).
Some bottom lines-
*The SEC, right now, top-to-bottom, is the best league in college football
*Jim Tressel needs to seriously redesign the passing playbook or put someone under center that can make better decisions
*The powers-that-be involved in football scheduling at OSU need to fill two of the four non-league games with BCS conference teams
*Buckeye Nation needs to remember that this year’s squad was picked to finish third in the Big Ten and 11th in the country, and they did/didn’t deserve to be in New Orleans anymore than any other team did/didn’t deserve to be there
Jamario O’Neal brought the opening kickoff back from his 9 to the 23. OSU would field kickoffs during the game at their own 9, 9, 12, 10, 10, 13 and 11. Not one touchback, but their best return would be Ray Small’s 35-yard runback on the final kickoff when the game had been decided. You knew there would be a dropoff with Ted Ginn, Jr. leaving, but this lack of spark from the kick return unit was a season-long problem.
The first series showed a lot of promise. Although the opening play was an incomplete pass to Brandon Saine out of the fullback slot, the mere fact that A) Saine was in the game early, and B) the Bucks were throwing to a back at all raised hope that the offensive game plan would keep LSU off balance. Better still was a 7-yard slant to Brian Robiskie for the night’s initial first down. After watching Todd Boeckman heave deep throws into coverage down the stretch, it was nice to see a move-the-chains passing game early on. The Bucks lit the scoreboard on their fourth snap as Chris Wells broke the "Power-O" behind great blocks from Dionte Johnson and Ben Person for a 65-yard scoring jaunt. It was the longest run in a BCS title game (save for the media who rushed the field in 2003 when it appeared Glenn Sharpe had gotten away with four or five penalties against Chris Gamble), and just over a minute in the Buckeyes were up 7-0.
The Tigers looked jittery on their first march. Senior wideout Early Doucet dropped a throw and Matt Flynn had to scramble to fall on a bad third-down shotgun snap. Ohio State launched their next drive from their 41, and thanks to a coverage breakdown in the LSU secondary, Brandon Saine got loose on a wheel route and hauled in a 44-yard strike from Boeckman to the Tiger 15. Wells hammered for 5, but in a blink the game took a subtle change. Guard Steve Rehring was called for a false start, and two subsequent runs by Boeckman couldn’t make up the lost yardage. Ryan Pretorius upped the lead to 10-0 with a 25-yard field goal, but you could sense a lot of the Buckeye energy deflate.
Matt Flynn got the Tiger offense in gear on its next possession, converting three third downs on a march to the Buckeye 13. The Scarlet and Gray defenders dug in, dropping Flynn for nothing on a keeper and pouncing on him for a 2-yard loss when Trindon Holliday forgot to take a shotgun handoff. Vernon Gholston and Cameron Heyward forced Flynn to throw it away on third down, so the Tigers settled for Colt David’s 32-yard field goal to get on the board. The OSU "D" had made the plays when it counted, but it was also apparent that the Tiger offense had found some rhythm.
The Bucks managed one first down on their next series behind the continued strong running of Chris Wells, but things bogged down and A.J. Trapasso entered to punt. Shaun Lane and Marcus Freeman stripped Chad Jones of the football on the return, but Harry Coleman made a huge recovery to keep LSU in business. The first quarter ended with the Buckeyes holding the 10-3 lead, but it wouldn’t last long.
After Jacob Hester had helped moved the sticks with a pair of runs, backup quarterback Ryan Perrilloux came on and started an option. Larry Grant was all over him but somehow the sophomore got the pitch off to Keiland Williams. Williams circled the left side for 10 yards, but as he tumbled out of bounds, here came the laundry. Kurt Coleman had shoved Williams towards the sideline while both were completely inbounds. Donald Washington, who was also inbounds, got a quick shove in as well, but with no kind of force. The idiot official who threw the flag told the referee the flag was on Todd Denlinger, who was behind the play when it happened. It was a classic case of an official thinking he saw something when he didn’t, which was proven when he called out Denlinger, who wasn’t even involved. The 15-yard walk-off got the ball into OSU territory, and the yellow flew again on the next play as Matt Flynn beat a Coleman blitz with a throw to Demetrius Byrd. The junior wideout navigated for 20 yards before James Laurinaitis twisted him around by the mask. When the dust settled, LSU was on the Ohio State 13, and out of the huddle came a 4-pack of receivers to the right. With the Buckeye secondary completely out of whack trying to line up, tight end Richard Dickson slipped uncovered down the middle and pulled in a touchdown toss from Flynn to knot the score.
OSU countered right back, with Wells storming for 30, planting corner Chevis Jackson with one of the best stiff-arms you’ll ever see. Brian Robiskie racked up 19 more on a nice catch-and-run, and just like that the Bucks were camped at LSU’s 28. Wells got squat on his next carry, but to add insult Brian Hartline was whistled for a personal foul. Facing 2nd-and-25 thanks to Hartline’s loss of composure, it looked as though the “O” would shake it off as Brandon Saine reeled in a 22-yard throw. But again the game would take a serious turn for the worse for Buckeye Nation.
Todd Boeckman looked for Robo on the fade route and made arguably his best throw of the evening, hitting his junior wideout in stride in the endzone. But Chevis Jackson, he of the C-Dub stiff-arm, atoned by prying the ball loose. Ryan Pretorious trotted on, but the Tigers weren’t settling for any moral victory. Ricky Jean-Francois cut through Ben Person like a hot knife through butter and blocked the field goal try, giving LSU possession at their own 34. The SEC champs used 7 plays to advance to the OSU 15, where again the “D” put up a valiant fight. Larry Grant batted down a pass, then Matt Flynn was stopped after a 5-yard keeper. On third down, LSU cleared out the left side for Brandon LaFell, coming from the inside out. Malcolm Jenkins had decent coverage, but Flynn made an absolutely pro-type throw where only LaFell could snag it in the back of the endzone. The PAT gave the Bayou Bengals their first lead of the game at 17-10.
Things really unraveled on OSU’s following drive. A stop of Chris Wells for zilch and an incompletion to Brian Hartline had the pro-LSU crowd in the Superdome ramped up, and when Todd Boeckman tried to go long to Ray Small, Chevis Jackson turned in time to pick it off, bringing the pigskin back 34 yards to the OSU 24. Matt Flynn wasted little time, dialing up Byrd for 8 and Richard Dickson for 15 to put the ball at the doorstep. The Buckeye defense held tough for two downs, denying Jacob Hester from the fullback spot, but the senior dotted the "I" on third down and finally bulled over from a yard away, fattening the Tiger lead to 24-10.
Boeckman, and/or the offensive braintrusts, continued to panic on the next series. Boeckman again threw deep for Hartline but Jonathan Zenon, who had scored the gift TD on an interception return in the SEC championship game, almost got his hands on this one. OSU was eventually forced to punt and Trapasso pounded one 63 yards into the endzone. With only 49 seconds left, LSU ran Hester on first down for all of a yard. The Bucks had all three timeouts at their disposal but didn’t use any and the half ran out. I guess there’ll be a sale on timeouts down on campus, so be sure and go get one. Maybe you can make better use of them then the Buckeye coaching staff.
In a bit of déjà vu, Ohio State got the better of their opponent in a halftime kicking contest. In the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, two Buckeye cheerleaders booted field goals to raise six figures for the school’s scholarship fund while their Miami counterparts came up empty. This time, former Buckeye kicker Josh Huston outdueled LSU alum David Browndyke, earning 100 grand for the scholarship fund.
The Tigers took the second-half kickoff and began another painfully intricate march to the endzone. A Matt Flynn keeper on 3rd-and-1 at midfield was good for his offense’s 10th 3rd-down conversion in 12 tries, but the Buckeye defense stiffened, forcing Flynn into an intentional grounding call and pressuring him into a third down incompletion. With LSU facing 4th-and-23 from their own 39, Jim Tressel put on the "punt block". Austin Spitler came free and somehow missed the football while roughing punter Patrick Fisher. It was another unbelievable turn of events, prompting Fox play-by-play voice Thom Brennaman to utter "Holy Moses..." Buckeye fans surely substituted something else for Moses on the next snap as Cameron Heyward lost his cool and belted an LSU blocker after the whistle. The two gift-wrapped flags helped the Tiger offense reach the OSU 29, and it became evident that the mental mistakes were taking a toll on the defense. Jacob Hester sprung loose from two tackles for a 9-yard pickup, and Charles Scott worked a screen pass for another 16 as two more tacklers came up empty. Flynn swung one out to Early Doucet, who slipped Kurt Coleman before being hit by Donald Washington. As D-Wash was trying to wrestle Doucet down, Anderson Russell flew in and, as he’s done too much this year, came with a hit instead of wrapping up. All Russell did was knock Doucet free from Washington’s grasp and he went in standing up for the backbreaking touchdown. LSU’s lead increased to 31-10 and for all intents and purposes, it was over. The only mystery that remained was whether or not the Buckeye effort- and the game’s point spread- would go the way of last January.
On LSU’s next possession, the beleaguered Buckeye defense finally got a break. The man covering freshman receiver Terrence Toliver had blitzed, so naturally Matt Flynn tossed a quick pass Terrence’s way. Only Toliver had broken in while the ball headed out. Malcolm Jenkins, who had broken towards Toliver right at the snap, managed to corral the ball and sped to the endzone, only to be ruled out of bounds at the LSU 11. Two pops from Chris Wells got 9, but C-Dub was stacked up on third down for a three-yard loss as center Jim Cordle absolutely got steamrolled. All those wondering why Jenkins just couldn’t have scored got a reprieve, but barely. Brian Robiskie fought off Chevis Jackson in the endzone, but had to lay out to grab another poor throw from Todd Boeckman. The deficit was cut back to 14, and as the game moved into the fourth quarter, the Ohio State stop troops forced another punt and kept the EKG machine from going flatline.
The offense took its cue and worked their way into enemy territory, with a 10-yard Chris Wells run sandwiched between first down grabs by Brian Hartline and Robiskie. The Tigers forced a 3rd-and-5, a makeable down, for sure. But Robiskie and Ray Small both broke deep and couldn’t get open, forcing Boeckman to take a sack. Again, the LSU defenders covered tremendously for the most part in this game, but why does seemingly every pass pattern in the OSU playbook have to be a bomb?
The lights went out on the next play. OSU had no choice but to go, and as Todd Boeckman scrambled to his right, Ali Highsmith honed in like a missile and blasted Boeckman, who coughed up the football. The pigskin rolled all the way back to the Buckeye 46, where Harry Coleman picked it up and rumbled down to the 31. While the "glass is half-empty" crowd might have gone back to the blocked field goal to pinpoint where the game was lost for Ohio State, even the "half-full" optimists needed to go no further than this play. I’m sure many had grabbed the remote and doused the set before Coleman even pounced on the fumble.
The heat kept coming on OSU’s next series. Glenn Dorsey got in another shot on Boeckman to dislodge the football, but the quarterback was able to get on it. Two plays later, Boeckman airmailed one towards Hartline who never had a chance as Curtis Taylor picked it off for the Tigers at his 47. LSU stitched together a final scoring drive, with Flynn capping it by faking a keeper and pegging a second touchdown throw of the night to tight end Richard Dickson. John Cooper always "credited" the whuppin’ OSU took against Florida State in this same Superdome in the ’98 Sugar Bowl for helping him see that rotating defensive linemen to keep people fresh wasn’t such a bad idea. It might behoove the current Buckeye coaching staff to take notes from this game on how Rory Nicol and Jake Ballard can actually be used in the offense. I wondered if Rory would jump offside late in the game just to get his name mentioned. It’s games like this that make you realize the days of Rickey Dudley and John Frank seem SOOOOOO long ago.
Ray Small finally got a decent kickoff return out to his 46, and Ohio State was able to add a little window dressing as Brian Hartline grabbed a 15-yard slant for the game’s last points, polishing off a 5-play drive and providing the 38-24 final score.
RANDOM THOUGHTS- The Buckeyes finished 5th in the final AP poll, and settled in at #4 in the coach’s poll... Buckeye 50 has gotten unofficial notice that next season’s Purdue game on October 11th at the ‘Shoe might be under the lights. Stay tuned... Senior linebacker Larry Grant apparently has the dubious distinction of being a member of four straight national championship runner-up teams. In addition to OSU’s two losses, Grant’s City College of San Francisco JUCO squad came in second nationally during his two-year stay there. Although this was mentioned during the Fox broadcast, Grant’s profile in the Ohio State media guide only touches on his 2005 season with the Rams...
This marks the third consecutive year that Ohio State has played, and lost, to that season’s eventual national champion. A historical look back at others who have lost to an impending title team at least three years’ straight-
Northwestern- ’40-’43 Michigan- ’40-’43 Pittsburgh- ’41-‘44
Illinois- ’41-’43 Purdue- ’46-’49 Northwestern- ’46-‘48
Tulane- ’63-’65 Oklahoma- ’69-’71 Pittsburgh- ’73-‘75
Miami, FL- ’75-’77 Vanderbilt- ’78-’80 Florida- ’78-‘80
Tennessee- ’78-’80 Auburn- ’78-’80 Nebraska- ’81-‘83
Miami, FL- ’92-’94 Kansas- ’93-’95 Washington St.- ’02-‘04
Oklahoma- ’03-’05 Ohio State- ’05-‘07
Down through the years there have been a handful of split national championships, with the writers of the AP poll differing from the coach’s poll from UPI, CNN/USA Today or ESPN/USA Today. A few teams have managed to lose to both national champions. In 1978, Washington lost to Alabama (AP champ) and USC (UPI champ). It happened twice in 2003 as Arizona and Auburn both went down to defeat by USC (AP) and LSU (ESPN). But for now, this dubious achievement would have to be retired by Nebraska. In 1990, the Cornhuskers were beaten by both Colorado (AP) and Georgia Tech (UPI). Then they turned right around in ‘91 and lost to Miami, FL (AP) and Washington (UPI).
The Buckeyes don’t need to panic just yet with their active three-game losing streak to eventual national champions. The all-time leader in this category is Navy, who rung up defeats to the nation’s best team in the final AP poll SEVEN straight times. They lost to Notre Dame in 1943, fell to the Glenn Davis/'Doc' Blanchard Army teams of ’44 and ’45, stumbled twice more against the Irish in ’46 and ’47, were knocked off by Michigan in ’48 and capped it off with another loss to the Domers in ’49. =
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January 7th, 2008
Superdome
New Orleans, LA
Attendance 79,651
1/19/08
(2) LSU 38 (1)Ohio State 24
VS
By Joe-S-U
