The Ohio State Buckeyes used dominating defense and a kick return for a touchdown to give them enough for a closer than the score indicates 31-13 win over the visiting Wisconsin Badgers.
Ohio State holds their share of the Big Ten lead by eliminating Wisconsin from the undefeated ranks,although Ohio State is still tied with Iowa for first place in the conference.
Ohio State travels to Purdue Saturday in an effort to tie the all time Big Ten road winning streak record.
Buckeye Branches
1) Wisconsin outgained the Buckeyes by almost 200 yards and posted 22 first downs to OSU's eight and had a huge time of possession edge,but between Kurt Coleman and Jermale Hines taking Badger passes back for touchdowns and Ray Small returning a kickoff for a TD,Wisconsin had the ball more without forcing Buckeye possessions.
2) The Buckeye secondary slammed the door on the passing game with the TD's,but the key was controlling Badger superback John Clay to 59 yards on 20 carries.
Note to Iowa this week against the Badgers-shutdown Clay-you win.
3) Terrelle Pryor was erratic again under center,but his late first half drive that culminated in a 32 TD pass to Devier Posey gave the Buckeyes the lead at the half and gave OSU momentum that carried over into the second half.
4) Pryor's passing skills just aren't where I hoped they would be by this point in the season.
Just too many balls that wind up nowhere near their targets and with the toughest part of the schedule approaching,I would be lying to say that I wasn't worried about the offense against Penn State and Iowa on the horizon.
5) Wisconsin has quite a kicker in Phillip Welch,whose heavy leg scored 6 of the Badger 13 on field goals of 46 and 50 yards.
Welch could be another Wisconsin pro kicker in the future.
6) The special teams had the proverbial good news bad news.
Good on the Ray Small kick return as everyone made their blocks and didn't make a silly block to ruin the return.
Bad allowing the only Badger TD on a fake field goal when a player was in position to stop the runner short of not only the first down,but the end zone.
7) Kurt Coleman was replaced against Indiana,but not truly and his return for a Buckeye touchdown showed the type of speed that could land him All America honors.
Coleman has been such a leader on this team and has a great case for defensive MVP.
8) Wisconsin had allowed two sacks all season entering the game.
Ohio State sacked them six times.
Enough said.
9) Brandon Saine was just OK,but the surprising news was Boom Herron attempting to play with two carries.
This was a poor decision by Herron,the coaches or whoever as he reinjured his ankle and is now ruled as out for the Purdue game.
10) The win improves Jim Tressel to 4-3 against Wisconsin and a winning record against all Big Ten teams....
No comments:
Post a Comment