(11)Ohio State 30 Illinois 0
Set your goals high, right? Well, here goes- The last time Ohio State pitched three shutouts in a row was 1973. Northwestern was pummeled 60-0 on October 27th, and then- cue the “Twilight Zone” music- the Bucks blanked Illinois 30-0 one week later. The “three-peat” was capped off with a 35-0 whitewash of Michigan State. Want even more historical irony? The previous shutout trifecta by OSU commenced with a 28-0 beatdown of Michigan to conclude 1962. Following a 17-0 win over Texas A&M to open the ’63 campaign, Woody’s troops ventured to Bloomington the first week of October and shut down Indiana 21-0.
I think you have to go back to the ’06 Penn State game- complete with JoePa’s infamous in-game nature call- to find a soggier regular season game in the ‘Shoe. After morning rain, the skies still looked threatening most of the early afternoon but were quiet. As TBDBITL took the field for pregame, here came a quick deluge, sending most of the crowd scrambling for ponchos. You knew right then and there the football wouldn’t be in the air a whole lot.
The Buckeyes did nothing on a weak opening 3-and-out, and Jon Thoma’s 22-yard punt didn’t help matters. Illinois had great field position at the OSU 49 and worked down to the 24, aided by a 10-yard scamper by “Juice” Williams who looked like he was picking right up where he left off the last time he was on this field. ABC’s announcing team of Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham had already made three or four mentions of the ’07 upset before the freakin’ game had even kicked off, but before those ghosts could rise, the OSU defense pulled off a quick exorcism. Forced into a throwing situation by an illegal substitution flag, Williams fired over the middle for Arrelious Benn and was picked by Brian Rolle. Rolle didn’t quite get the angle that he had on the Navy 2-point return to take it the distance, but he did motor for 39 yards and little did anyone know that the game had pretty much turned right then and there. While Brian isn’t the biggest guy, he brings quickness to the linebacking corps. No offense to any of the DB’s in waiting, but when Kurt Coleman and Anderson Russell are gone next year, why not try Rolle at safety? There would be a lot of receivers thinking twice about going over the middle on him.
Dan Herron got a solid day off and running with a 14-yard burst following the INT. The play came with a new wrinkle- tight end Jake Ballard pulling into the middle and being a lead blocker. Having watched Bryant Browning fail miserably trying to pull around on the “Power O” so far this year, it was a nice change of pace. What still is a problem is running the option. Terrelle Pryor tried to work it to the left on 3rd-and-2 and had nothing but white shirts in front of him. Shaking a tackle, he reversed his field and had visions of the pylon in front of him, but DE Clay Nurse swiped a leg out from under Pryor and brought him down for a 9-yard loss. Coach Tressel actually let Aaron Pettrey try the resulting 50-yard field goal attempt, and what do you know, he nailed it to put the Bucks in front 3-0.
ABC’s Ed Cunningham needs an Ohio State football history lesson, apparently. When commenting during the Buckeye drive about how young the offense still is and how they’re working to gel, he opined that one reason for their struggles was the loss of “two of the best receivers in their history”. Silly me, I didn’t know Cris Carter and David Boston played last year. It’s no big secret that Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline’s numbers were hampered last year with the QB switch and clamped-down offense, but let’s not get carried away there, Ed.
By the way, for those of you who were watching the game warm and dry in your den, did you catch North Carolina hoopster Tyler Hansbrough helping a young girl find her lost dog in the AT&T commercial? OK, so he’s not Michael Jordan with Hanes just yet, but it’s a start.
Hansbrough could have helped Illinois’ A.J. Jenkins find the endzone on the ensuing kickoff. Jenkins stopped and started twice before bringing the kick out and getting buried on his own 10. The Illini overcame a third-and-long with back-to-back grabs by Arrelious Benn, and utilized their hurry-up “O” to work into Buckeye territory once again. But the Scarlet and Gray rose to the occasion as Jermale Hines blitzed, forcing “Juice” Williams to retreat before Todd Denlinger cleaned up for an 11-yard loss to stymie the drive.
The Buckeyes took over at their own 8, and the skies opened up again in force. But “Hurricane Saine” was about to come inland. The Piqua junior got the next seven carries and dodged tacklers and raindrops all the way to the Illini 28. It wasn’t a bad idea to try a change of pace, but Terrelle Pryor’s quarterback draw lost a yard. Aaron Pettrey doubled the lead to six-zip with a 46-yard field goal.
The next time Ron Franklin does an Ohio State game; could someone in the sports information office get him a pronunciation guide? Brandon Saine’s hometown was christened as “Pee-qua”, our kicker was Aaron “Pee-trey” and apparently we have some guy on the “D”-line named Todd Derlinger. Good grief…
The Buckeye defense forced another stop, but with Andrew Sweat in at linebacker. At some point, Ross Homan suffered a concussion, which radio analyst Jim Lachey guessed at when he saw Ross still in pads standing along the sideline. However, he was minus his helmet, which Lachey said had probably been strategically hidden to prevent Homan from getting any ideas about returning.
The Bucks made quick work of their next scoring march, getting help from an Illini facemask flag and another 15 after a late hit out of bounds on Pryor. “Boom” Herron took an option pitch to the northwest corner to expand the lead to 13-0.
The defense again came up with a stop, and the Buckeyes looked like they’d have an opportunity to work the two-minute drill. But Ray Small couldn’t handle the punt and the Illini had the ball right back. I said in this very forum earlier in the year that Ray was going to cough one up before long, but that was in the context of his catching balls on the dead run or reaching behind his head. There was nothing dramatic about this one at all, it was just flat dropped. “Juice” Williams tried to capitalize immediately with a deep throw and drew laundry on Chimdi Chekwa, who was beaten and had no choice but to interfere. But Illinois couldn’t stand its own fortune, as they gave five right back thanks to an illegal formation. Jarred Fayson dropped a pass, and then cut the wrong way which almost resulted in an interception. The circus ended with a holding call and another shot deep which Chris Duvalt caught out of bounds. Ron Zook’s troops let a tremendous opportunity slip and the half ended at 13-0. OSU’s total offense after two quarters? 135 yards. Passing yards? A big, fat fuggedaboutit. It was Ohio State’s first half of football with no yards through the air since the second half of the 2007 Michigan game.
It was all Thaddeus Gibson as the third quarter got underway. Big 9-0 rang up a 5-yard TFL, smacked “Juice” Williams as he barely got a short pass off, and topped it off with a sack and forced fumble which Illinois managed to get back. The tone was set for the second half and the offense cashed in. Terrelle Pryor got free around the left side for 23 yards on another of those runs that make you wonder, “It looks like he’s not moving very fast, but how come no one can get an angle on him?” Dan Herron pounded over from two yards out for his second score of the afternoon and the lead ballooned to 20-0.
To Illinois’ credit, they didn’t throw in the towel. They set sail on an 8-play march that forced the Buckeye sideline to burn a timeout to try and stem the tide. You don’t like to see timeouts taken early on like that, but two plays after the stoppage Lawrence Wilson deflected and picked off a Williams aerial, so kudos to the coaching staff and if there’s anyone on the OSU roster who deserves a handful more big plays this year, it’s Lawrence Wilson.
With the rain stopped, Tressel let Terrelle air things out and the sophomore signal caller hooked up on back-to-back plays with Dane Sanzenbacher for 19 and 14 yards. But the redzone “gotchas” re-emerged as Pryor had to fall on a fumbled handoff and was lucky not to be intercepted a play later as he threw back late across the middle for Ray Small. Aaron Pettrey salvaged the march with his third field goal from 27 yards out, fattening the advantage to 23-0. Andrew Sweat and Doug Worthington put a nice bow on the third quarter with consecutive sacks of “Juice” Williams.
The visitors had one final glimmer to get on the scoreboard when Terrelle Pryor fumbled the ball away at the 5:22 mark, but on the very next snap backup QB Eddie McGee fired a pass right into the waiting arms of Jermale Hines. Keyed by a 19-yard run by Pryor, the Buckeyes worked to a third-and-goal at the Illini 3 where a quick toss for Adam Homan was incomplete. Urged on by the crowd, and probably sparked by the criticisms of conservatism, Jim Tressel ordered up a 4th-down pass and Pryor wasted no time gunning a seed to Dane Sanzenbacher to round out the scoring.
All that was left was to preserve the shutout, and with mostly second-teamers in the lineup, the Bucks were able to stifle Illinois a final time, punctuated by a Robert Rose sack on the last play of the game. But the final moments weren’t without controversy.
One of the few starters still in the game, Kurt Coleman delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit on Eddie McGee which drew a personal foul flag, prompted the coaches to remove him from the game, but worst of all resulted in a one-game suspension from the Big Ten office. I’ve watched the play numerous times, and I don’t see anything malicious on Coleman’s part. Andrew Sweat and Rob Rose had McGee wrapped up, but as Coleman moved in and lowered his head, McGee still wasn’t down.
But therein lies the problem- Coleman went in head first. I highly doubt the OSU coaches teach that, and anyone who has ever played the game has always been taught to keep your head up. I get all the safety arguments, and Michigan and Purdue can tell you that there’s precedent for suspensions. But if Coleman doesn’t lead with his helmet, than this summary is wrapped up several paragraphs ago.
The Buckeyes travel to Bloomington this Saturday for a 7PM tilt with Indiana on the Big Ten Network at newly remodeled Memorial Stadium. Illinois returns to Champaign and stays in the 3:30 Eastern time slot for a matchup with Penn State. Although Iowa’s lines were the main reason for the Hawkeyes’ win in Happy Valley last weekend, the Lions cream puff schedule didn’t have them ready in the least. Penn State has a home-and-home with Alabama starting next year, but that doesn’t help this season.
RANDOM THOUGHTS- With Iowa/Michigan already in the 8PM slot for October 10th, it’s no surprise that the Buckeyes’ home tilt with Wisconsin that afternoon will kickoff at 3:30 … OSU has six interceptions on the season so far, each by a different player … Sophomore DB Donnie Evege is quickly becoming this year’s Shaun Lane. He’s made practically every tackle while defending kickoffs this season … In response to complaints, Ohio State added captioning to the scoreboard to aid the hearing-impaired. I have no problem with that, but the black bar on the scoreboard that contains the wording covers up stats and scores. You barely get any up-to-date scores as it is at Buckeye home games, and now unless the caption bar is amended, you’ll only get “partial” scores … Halftime was highlighted by the introduction of the 2009 inductees to the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame. Be sure to copy and paste this link to check out a rundown of each of the newest Hall of Famers.
Click B50 Logo to return to Home Page
September 26, 2009
Ohio Stadium
Columbus, OH
Attendance 105,219
9/5/09
VS
By Joe-S-U
2000-2009 Buckeye50.com, All Rights Reserved
