(17)Ohio State 45 New Mexico State 0
The cocktails, bread, salad, and soup have finally been polished off. The entrée is on its way out and Buckeye Nation is hoping it’s cooked to their liking.
New Mexico State should be able to put the six-figure check they collected for coming to Columbus to good use, making sure their football team is adequately fed unlike this past summer when they publicly pleaded for fans to donate snacks.
The Aggies played like a team that hadn’t had a decent meal in months, throwing up scant resistance to the Scarlet and Gray in a 45-0 yawner. The one stat that really sums this one up came from Columbus Dispatch columnist Rob Oller in his Sunday “Scarlet and Gray Matter” feature in the sports page- Seven different Ohio State players had more total offensive yardage by themselves than the Aggies did for the entire afternoon.
A big chunk of those yards came on the day’s first play as Terrelle Pryor laid one up for DeVier Posey. Despite good coverage, the pigskin was on the money for 43 quick yards. But just as it’s been too many times this season, TP’s inconsistency kicked in. An ill-advised pass into double coverage for Dane Sanzenbacher fell incomplete, and then Posey broke off a route that Pryor thought was to have gone deeper. Aaron Pettrey got the call for a 52-yard field goal but it looked like one of my tee shots as it sailed way right and short.
On Ohio State’s next possession, Aggie DB Davon House had a sure pick-six but couldn’t corral a telegraphed pass towards Posey. Pryor did make amends by dancing for 11 on 3rd-and-11 to sustain the drive. Needing 12 on the next third down, OSU went with the most obvious play choice- a one-yard pass to Posey. If one of those stupid crossing routes ever works on a 3rd-and-10 or more, I’ll donate a whole side of beef to New Mexico State for their players to snack on.
Aggie QB Jeff Fleming rang up his teams’ initial first down with a third-down scramble, but the march fizzled as Darrius Preston dropped what would have been an easy, chain-moving pitch-and-catch. The Buckeyes finally got their offensive act together, setting sail on a 13-play drive to paydirt. Jordan Hall did most of the heavy lifting while Pryor had the highlight reel moments, escaping on a scramble for 27 to convert a 3rd-and-12, standing up to heat from Donte Savage to find Jake Ballard for 10 before capping things off by going 8 yards around the right side untouched for the game’s first score. A “jumbo” look on the play with Jim Cordle and J.B. Shugarts both lined up on the right side made it an easy walk into the north endzone for Pryor. Aaron Pettrey booted the PAT, then dribbled an onside kick just past the required 10-yard mark before cradling it.
DeVier Posey was “the man” on the ensuing short march. In a three-play sequence, Posey carried for 16 on a 3rd-and-8, hauled in a 7-yard pass and drew an interference flag on Davon House. With plenty of time, Pryor found Dane Sanzenbacher for a 19-yard TD bullet, and in less than two minutes OSU had struck for 14 points.
The teams proceeded to play “hot potato” on the next three possessions. A Jeff Fleming pass was volleyballed around before Ross Homan snatched it for his second pick of the year. But Brandon Saine spun into the line on the next snap and was stripped by Donte Savage. Pierre Fils recovered for New Mexico State, but one play after Fleming had moved the chains with a 12-yard run, he coughed it up and Thaddeus Gibson fell on it for the home team. The offense couldn’t generate anything and Aaron Pettrey missed another 52-yard field goal.
The defense turned up the heat as Anderson Russell dropped Donyae Coleman for a loss of 5 on a reverse before Doug Worthington tripped up Tonny Glynn on a pass that cost the Aggies three more yards. The Buckeyes went back on offense from their 30 and Terrelle Pryor got loose for another 27-yard scramble. At the end of the play, Donte Savage dragged him down from up around the collar, causing Pryor’s leg to stick a bit on the field turf. He wouldn’t play at all in the second half (not that he needed to), and when the Big Ten Network’s cameras caught Pryor on the field near the end of a timeout, he was trying to stretch the leg out.
But who needs Pryor when you’ve got DeVier Posey? From the Aggie 39, the Bucks again overloaded the right side and ran a pitch that way with Dan Herron. “Boom” flipped the ball to Posey coming back right and DeVier, a lefty, let fly with a beautiful toss to Dane Sanzenbacher in the back of the endzone for six. The play was designed to go to Pryor, who was heading down the west sideline, but not only did DeVier go to his second read, he actually “looked off” the safety before throwing. It was a picture-perfect fundamental play from Posey and upped the count to 21-0.
Just like that, though, the air seeped right out of the balloon. Aaron Pettrey was blocked illegally below the waist on the ensuing kickoff and was carried off the field, putting no pressure whatsoever on his kicking leg. On Monday, it was revealed to be a torn MCL which will sideline Pettrey for the remainder of the regular season. Aaron certainly had his struggles this season, but the prospect of not having him in Beaver Stadium this Saturday is uneasy at best.
NM State went three-and-out, and three Pryor carries led an excursion to the Aggie 30 as the first half wound down. On back-to-back plays, defenders got their hands on poor passes from Terrelle, but the second of those produced an interference flag and a fresh set of downs at the visitor’s 15. Pryor stood among heat in the pocket and zipped one to Posey for a dozen, preceding Brandon Saine’s three-yard trot to the endzone on an option pitch. Devin Barclay split the uprights with the point-after, giving his team a 28-point bulge at the intermission.
Joe Bauserman took the reins at quarterback at the outset of the second half, and his first series got off to a fast start as Ray Small motored for 23 on a reverse. OSU couldn’t move the sticks from there and Devin Barclay misfired on a 47-yard field goal try. On the Buckeyes’ next offensive thrust, they got another big play as Jordan Hall scooted for 39 yards. This effort bogged down in the redzone, but Barclay hammered through a 29-yard field goal, his first as a Buckeye, to widen the margin to 31-0.
After a punt exchange, New Mexico State coach DeWayne Walker inserted Waverly, Ohio native Trevor Walls into the lineup at quarterback. Walls had upwards of 250 friends and family in the ‘Shoe to watch him, but unfortunately they saw him fumble the ball inside his own 10. Walls tried to cover it, but was hit by Lawrence Wilson and the pigskin squirted free again. Brian Rolle beat everyone to the football in the endzone for his second touchdown of the campaign, and the scoreboard now read 38-0.
NM State’s non-existent offense continued to fire blanks, and when the Buckeyes got the ball back they capped off the day’s scoring. Jermil Martin pounded on the Aggie “D” to soften them up for “Boom” Herron, who took a handoff around the right side, got a great kickout block from backup fullback James Georgiades, and scampered untouched to the goal line from 53 yards away. Those who gave the 44 points were breathing easier as what would eventually be the final tally of 45-zip went up.
Joe Bauserman didn’t set the world on fire with a 2-for-9 passing performance, but the pair of completions were for 35 and 40 yards to Duron Carter, and both were right on the money. Carter also returned two punts in the game, perhaps foreshadowing 2010?
New Mexico State will take a week off before packing the grass skirts for a visit to Hawaii on November 14th. Ohio State’s November needs no introduction.
RANDOM THOUGHTS- Ohio State’s only other 45-0 game in school history was a November 2, 1996 win in Columbus over Minnesota. ’96 is also the last year OSU pitched three shutouts in a season … The home finale with Iowa, as expected, will kick off at 3:30 for regional coverage by ABC. Those of you not in the Midwest will get the game on ESPN 2 … Former Iowa coach and athletic director Forest Evashevski passed away last Friday at the age of 91. “Evy” served as blocking back for Heisman winner Tom Harmon at Michigan before becoming a Hall of Fame coach at Iowa. His very first win was an 8-0 shutout of Ohio State in 1952, and he would prove more of a pain four years later when his Hawkeye team ended OSU’s 17-game Big Ten winning streak with a 6-0 victory in Iowa City. Evashevski earned outright Big Ten titles in both 1956 and 1958, and led Iowa to Rose Bowl wins to conclude both seasons. He also coached back-to-back Heisman runners-up (Alex Karras in 1957, Randy Duncan in ’58). He and Woody Hayes nearly came to blows at a press conference after Wayne Woodrow, convinced that “Evy” had let Iowa’s grass grow long to slow up the Buckeye rushing game, threatened to get a lawn mower and cut it himself.
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October 31, 2009
Ohio Stadium
Columbus, OH
Attendance 104,719
11/3/09
VS
By Joe-S-U
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