COMPLETE DOMINATION. THAT IS ALL I CAN SAY!
MADISON, Wis. -- By night's end, there was only one undefeated entity at Camp Randall Stadium.
The goal post.Somehow, they remained upright despite the dogged and drunken efforts of Wisconsin fans to bring them down the way their Badgers brought down No. 1 Ohio State. The posts clearly are made of sterner stuff than the Buckeyes, whose reign atop the polls lasted all of a week.
As we await the first BCS standings Sunday, this is your two-week scorecard in what is looking like a progressively wilder season in college football:
Alabama lost 35-21 to South Carolina -- which reverted to true form Saturday by losing to Kentucky for the first time in the Steve Spurrier era. Now the Buckeyes have been ushered out of realistic national championship contention with a 31-18 bruising from Bucky Badger.
Two top-ranked teams whipped. Two double-digit margins of defeat. Two No. 1s that combined to trail for more than 113 of a possible 120 minutes. Two field stormings.
"We just blew it as a team," a visibly depressed Terrelle Pryor said.
Now the field of title aspirants thins -- and it appears to be Oregon's turn to wear the voter-awarded bull's-eye. The No. 2 Ducks had the safest assignment of all Saturday -- a bye week -- and are likely to take over the top spot for the first time in history. But road trips to play USC, California and Oregon State remain, plus a home date with Arizona.
Behind the Ducks it gets more interesting, especially now that No. 5 Nebraska and its paper-thin résumé also were dismissed from the national title chase with a home loss to twice-beaten Texas. Boise State, the lightning-rod team of 2010, should move up to No. 2 in the polls and likely will be on top of the BCS standings. Which is where the Broncos should be.
TCU, Oklahoma, Auburn, LSU, Michigan State, Utah, Oklahoma State, Nevada (for now) and Missouri are the only other undefeated teams.
Those ranks will thin further next weekend with four unbeatens facing off (Oklahoma at Missouri, LSU at Auburn). Plus other potential mayhem.
This was 6-1 Wisconsin's first victory over a No. 1 team in 29 years, but the biggest news here was that Ohio State lost. And the way it lost should be perplexing and frustrating to Buckeyes fans.
• Jim Tressel's cherished special teams had another meltdown, giving up a 97-yard kickoff return touchdown to start the game and setting the tone for a 21-0 Bucky beatdown in the first 17 minutes.
"Nothing against our special teams," Pryor said, "but that really hurt us. That kicked us in our rear end."
Ohio State has shockingly had its rear end kicked a lot recently on kick coverage. It surrendered two returns for touchdowns against Miami last month. It surrendered a kickoff return TD late last season against Iowa.
"If you're on the road and you don't at least match their special teams, if you let the home team win the special teams part, whew, it's going to be tough to win," Tressel said.
• Tressel's normally rock-solid run defense was bludgeoned for 184 yards -- 138 of them in the first half, when Wisconsin pushed the around the Buckeyes with impunity.
"We felt like we were ready for this, and then the run game just overwhelmed us," said linebacker Brian Rolle. "… It's like, Did they really just do what I think they did? It really hasn't set in. They just lined up toe-to-toe and beat us."
Wisconsin is as subtle as a sledgehammer. The Badgers ran straight at Ohio State -- and by straight, I mean dead straight. Rarely even as wide as off-tackle. They mashed the Buckeyes between the guards, with John Clay and James White rushing for 160 of their yards on the inside.
But give Wisconsin credit for going to the air to regain momentum after Ohio State threatened in the fourth quarter. After the Buckeyes had cut the deficit to 21-18, the Badgers got the ball back and threw four straight times, completing three for 36 yards. Six plays later Wisconsin scored for a 28-18 lead.
Still, Ohio State had time to pull out a remarkable comeback until …
• Tressel's trademark conservatism helped deprive his team of chances to win. The Buckeyes went with some odd play calls inside the Wisconsin 5 in the first half, trailing by 21, and settled for a field goal. Then The Vest opted to punt with 6:29 remaining while trailing by 10, and it backfired.
The Buckeyes faced a fourth-and-10 at their 29 at that point -- a tough down to convert. But it certainly was no tougher than the Tressel plan at that point. When asked about it afterward, he said it was probably easier to hold Wisconsin, get the ball back and score, recover an onside kick and score again.
If you say so, Tress. But when your defense gave up a drive for the clinching field goal, it was all over but the unconvincing postgame spin that everything was going to be OK.
"This loss doesn't define us as a team," Pryor said. "It doesn't define me, I know that. There's going to be plenty more cheers and joy."
The cheers should return next week against Purdue -- but this loss does define a team that entered the season as co-favorite with Alabama to play in the BCS championship game. It defines Ohio State as good, but not good enough to reach its ultimate goals.
For the fourth straight season the Buckeyes have lost a league game, and for the third time in that span they lost to an underdog. Given the weakness of their schedule to date, this will be hard to overcome.
Along the way Ohio State forfeited control of its destiny -- not just for a national title, but also a Big Ten title. That now belongs to Michigan State, which is a surprising 7-0 and does not play Ohio State.
"It depends on if other teams lose," Pryor said. "We've just got to stop taking stuff for granted."
If the past two weeks have proved anything, it's this: nobody at the top of the rankings can take anything for granted.
BCS Standings
RK TEAM RECORD
1 Oklahoma 6-0
2 Oregon 6-0
3 Boise State 6-0
4 Auburn 7-0
5 TCU 7-0
6 LSU 7-0
7 Michigan State 7-0
8 Alabama 6-1
9 Utah 6-0
10 Ohio State 6-1
11 Missouri 6-0
12 Stanford 5-1
13 Wisconsin 6-1
14 Oklahoma State 6-0
15 Iowa 5-1
16 Nebraska 5-1
17 Florida State 6-1
18 Arizona 5-1
19 Texas 4-2
20 West Virginia 5-1
21 South Carolina 4-2
22 Kansas State 5-1
23 Arkansas 4-2
24 Mississippi State 5-2
25 Virginia Tech 5-2
Complete Standings »
AP Top 25
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Oregon (39) 6-0 1471
2 Boise State (15) 6-0 1433
3 Oklahoma (3) 6-0 1355
4 TCU (3) 7-0 1340
5 Auburn 7-0 1279
6 LSU 7-0 1132
7 Alabama 6-1 1121
8 Michigan State 7-0 1062
9 Utah 6-0 1019
10 Wisconsin 6-1 920
11 Ohio State 6-1 895
12 Stanford 5-1 828
13 Iowa 5-1 768
14 Nebraska 5-1 684
15 Arizona 5-1 619
16 Florida State 6-1 615
17 Oklahoma State 6-0 575
18 Missouri 6-0 552
19 South Carolina 4-2 372
20 West Virginia 5-1 346
21 Arkansas 4-2 343
22 Texas 4-2 267
23 Virginia Tech 5-2 122
24 Mississippi State 5-2 111
25 Miami (FL) 4-2 85
Dropped from rankings: Nevada 19, Florida 22, Air Force 23, Oregon State 24
Others receiving votes: USC 80, Kansas State 40, Nevada 19, North Carolina 8, Northwestern 8, Hawaii 8, Michigan 7, Georgia Tech 5, Oregon State 3, North Carolina State 2, Baylor 2, East Carolina 1, Air Force 1, Kentucky 1, Washington 1,
Complete Rankings »
USA Today Poll
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 Oregon (42) 6-0 1452
2 Boise State (11) 6-0 1385
3 Oklahoma (4) 6-0 1334
4 TCU (1) 7-0 1300
5 Auburn (1) 7-0 1238
6 LSU 7-0 1132
7 Alabama 6-1 1085
8 Michigan State 7-0 1037
9 Utah 6-0 1004
10 Ohio State 6-1 936
11 Wisconsin 6-1 867
12 Iowa 5-1 785
13 Nebraska 5-1 768
14 Stanford 5-1 689
15 Oklahoma State 6-0 659
16 Missouri 6-0 640
17 Florida State 6-1 608
18 Arizona 5-1 494
19 West Virginia 5-1 323
20 South Carolina 4-2 284
21 Arkansas 4-2 274
22 Texas 4-2 256
23 Virginia Tech 5-2 165
24 Mississippi State 5-2 133
25 Miami (FL) 4-2 127
Dropped from rankings: Nevada 21, Florida 22, Air Force 23, Michigan 24
Others receiving votes: Northwestern 60, Kansas State 53, Nevada 28, Michigan 23, Hawaii 9, North Carolina 8, Georgia Tech 6, Air Force 5, East Carolina 4, Baylor 3, Navy 1,
Complete Rankings »
Football
10 Things We Learned, the Hard Way
By Brandon Castel
He is the best Buckeye writer point blank!
MADISON, Wisc. — It was a tough night to be an Ohio State fan. Watching your team lose is one thing, but watching them get dismantled in the trenches is hard to stomach.
Not only was Wisconsin the more physical team, but they flexed their muscle in the run game in a way that would have made it Woody Hayes proud.
“You don't get hurt running straight ahead...three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense,” Woody used to say.
“I will pound you and pound you until you quit."
Of course Woody would have been physically ill over watching the Buckeyes get trampled 31-18 by a team that was tougher, better prepared, more technically sound and just all around hungrier.
“I've had smarter people around me all my life, but I haven't run into one yet that can outwork me,” Hayes famously said.
“And if they can't outwork you, then smarts aren't going to do them much good.”
It wasn’t a brilliant game-plan by Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema, except that it was. Most coaches would not have the guts to dial up a game plan that challenged the supposed strengths of the No. 1 team in the country.
But Bielema did just that. He didn’t try to get cute. He stuck to what Wisconsin football is all about and his offensive line whipped the Ohio State defensive line into submission. It wasn"t fancy, it was just good ole’ fashion Big Ten football, and the Buckeyes weren’t ready for it.
We take a look at the 10 things we learned from a Bucky beat-down.
1. Ohio State wasn’t the best team in the country. It was only one loss, but all of a sudden Ohio State’s once-promising 2010 season hangs in the balance. The Buckeyes are sure to plummet in the polls after their 31-18 loss at Wisconsin Saturday. How far, we won’t know until Sunday, but it will likely be even further than Alabama’s plunge to No. 10 after their upset loss at South Carolina.
Though not entirely out of the picture, a national championship would seem highly unlikely at this point. Even if they did sneak back into the title-game picture, a la 2007, the team we saw on the field against the Badgers would have about as much success playing in the big game as that ’07 team did.
2. Kick coverage has gone beyond concerning. Tressel will say David Gilreath took the opening kick back for a touchdown because one or two guys on the coverage team did not maintain gap integrity. It’s time to call it out for what it is: bad football. For nine years Jim Tressel-coached teams have not had these kind of problems covering kicks and now all of a sudden nobody can go out there and make a tackle? Gilreath wasn’t even touched. He went 97 yards and wasn’t even touched, all because he made one little stutter-step in the hole. Ridiculous. The excuses are as bad as the coverage itself. The punt coverage team is full of starters like Brian Rolle and Ross Homan, yet the kick off squad still features guys who have never played a meaningful down of football at Ohio State. This was a disaster waiting to happen and whoever is allowing this deserves to have it cost them a game. The rest of the football universe can run down, break up a block and tackle a guy except Ohio State. It makes no sense and it’s unacceptable for any good football team.
3. Wisconsin has their number. Jim Tressel is 4-4 against the Badgers in eight meetings. That’s not exactly getting owned, but there is no question after Saturday that Wisconsin has Ohio State’s number. Of their four wins over the Badgers since Tressel took over in 2001, only one has been convincing. The Buckeyes smashed them 38-17 back in 2007 behind three Beanie Wells touchdowns.
In 2002, the Buckeyes barely kept their undefeated season alive with a 19-14 win in Madison thanks to a Chris Gamble interception at the OSU 20 yard line in the final three minutes. In 2008, Terrelle Pryor led a last-minute touchdown drive that shocked the crowd at Camp Randall in a 20-17 victory. Last year, the Buckeyes had only 184 yards of offense and eight first downs in a 31-13 win.
This team knows it can play with Ohio State, and more importantly it knows how to play with Ohio State.
4. Ohio State’s defense not dominant. Maybe they can be before it’s all over, but right now the OSU defense is not playing at an elite level. Yes, they held Indiana’s high-scoring attack to just three points last week, but this game should serve as a wake-up call for those who thought the offense and special teams were the only parts of the team with problems. The Buckeyes were exposed defensively, particularly up front, where they are nowhere near the same level they were last year with Thad Gibson, Doug Worthington, Todd Denlinger and Lawrence Wilson.
Don’t get me wrong, the OSU defense is still one of the best in the Big Ten. They might even be a top 15 defense in all of college football, but for them to know exactly what Wisconsin was going to do and not be able to stop it says they don’t have the talent we thought they did. Jermale Hines had 10 tackles and played great in run support. Andrew Sweat showed up for the first time all season, but the defensive line had its lunch handed to it and Chimdi Chekwa really hurt them with a few big plays he allowed.
5. Cam Heyward not going to be the next Suh. Don’t get me wrong, Heyward is an excellent football player. He is the best defensive lineman Ohio State has, but can we drop any comparisons to Ndamukong Suh, or any other dominant defensive lineman. Guys like that are supposed to take over games the way J.J. Watt did on the other side. Instead, the Badgers had no fear running the ball right at Heyward on a number of occasions. He did see a good amount of double-teams, but so did Watt and he went right through them. That might say more about Wisconsin’s offensive line, but Heyward is supposed to be ready to go against guys a lot better than that in the NFL. He might be playing great and just not getting the numbers, but this team needs numbers out of him. Dexter Larimore is supposed to be that guy who plays great but doesn’t put up numbers. The problem is, nobody on the line except Nathan Williams is putting up any numbers this season.
6. Dane Sanzenbacher is the best wideout on the team. And one hell of a tough kid, I might add. Over the years, Sanzenbacher has developed kind of reputation for putting up big numbers against lesser opponents like Eastern Michigan and not showing up (at least on the stat sheet) in big games. That definitely was not the case Saturday night. The senior from Toledo was knocked out in the game at Wisconsin two years ago, but this time around he stood tall and made big plays in the passing game despite getting clobbered pretty good a few times. He made six catches for 94 yards and was running open on the final play when Pryor was intercepted. His horizontal catch over the middle was straight out of the Anthony Gonzalez vs. Michigan playbook.
7. Offensive tackles struggled. Overall, the offensive line did a pretty good job protecting Pryor Saturday night. Getting a little bit of his mobility back certainly helped, but the pass protection was relatively good all night considering how badly the Buckeyes were out-physicaled in the trenches. That still doesn’t preclude us from knocking the job Mike Adams and J.B. Shugarts did against J.J. Watt. Part of that is just Watt being a darn good football player. The Big Ten seems to be full of great defensive ends lately, and Watt has to be one of the best of the bunch. However, the fact he was getting to Pryor on the final drive despite the fact he was getting double-teamed is just unacceptable. After tossing Shugarts around for a while on the right side earlier in the game, Watt spent most of the fourth quarter working Adams on the left side. Not a great showing by either of these guys, particularly Shugarts who doesn’t seem to use the right technique now that this foot problem is flaring up.
8. Run game started to pick up. Finally. The Buckeyes finally started to run the ball consistently Saturday, only it came far too late to help them win the game. Being able to run the ball, and let’s be careful with that because they still only averaged 3.8 yards per carry, doesn’t do a whole lot of good when a team is down 21-0. That score might have had something to do with why OSU could run between the tackles, unlike the last 2-3 weeks, but Boom Herron also deserves a lot of the credit. He ran for 91 yards on 19 carries and also scored two touchdowns on the ground.
9. Jordan Hall in the Wildcat should be part of the offense. Herron scored his first touchdown on a 13-yard run out of the Wildcat, but that play wasn’t nearly as impressive as the seven-yard run by Jordan Hall. That doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you saw the way Hall looked back there running the Wildcat. He brings a whole new dimension to that look and it should become a part of the offense. Hall has only gotten three carries since become the No. 2 tailback, and that number needs to go up dramatically.
10. This team didn’t quit. There are no moral victories in football. There just aren’t. Ohio State got its butt kicked and there is no way to sugar-coat it. Because they came back and scored a few touchdowns in the second is no reason to start handing out medals, unless of course there are medals for being the least mentally prepared team on the field. The Buckeyes came out flat, they couldn’t match Wisconsin’s energy and it’s clear they didn’t have the same level of focus all week. It was a poor, poor showing for a team that had national title aspirations, but the Buckeyes can take some stock in the fact they didn’t give up.
Nothing was going their way and they were down by three scores at the half, but Pryor led them right down the field on the opening drive of the second half and got them back into the game. They still came up short because they couldn’t get the stop they desperately needed, but the fact they continued to fight should provide a ray of hope for what the rest of the season will look like.
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