It’s officially Michigan Week
November 15, 2008
Bring it on, bitches!
Ohio State, fresh off a 30-20 win at Illinois, now gets to focus on That Team Up North without looking past anybody. The Buckeyes return home for their final regular season game at 9-2, while TTUN comes to Columbus at 3-8.
Today’s game was rather anti-climactic, but any fan of the Buckeyes could see that coming. Ohio State has a long, storied tradition of underachieving in the game before The Game. For example;
- 2007 - Ohio State never got their game plan working, as Illinois tole a big win away from the #1 Buckeyes, 28-21
- 2006 - Ohio State 17, Illinois 10. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Prior to that game, OSU had 7 games of scoring 35 or more points. It was a win, but not at all pretty
- 2004 - A 24-17 loss to Purdue in the final two minutes, one of only two regular-season losses for Troy Smith
- 2003 - A scary overtime win at home against Purdue, 16-13. A missed Purdue FG saved the day.
- 2002 - Overtime win against Illinois (and a serious nail-biter)
- 2001 - A 34-22 loss to Illinois at home, secured by a late INT return for the Illini
Need I go on? We just rarely play well before The Game. The only exception to the rule in Tressel’s tenure is a 48-10 pasting of Northwestern in 2005.
So I expected revenge, but I didn’t think it would be pretty. Still, we looked good enough and got the job done.
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Beanie Wells moved into the #5 slot of all-time rushing leaders at Ohio State, sliding past Pepe Pearson. He cracked the 3,000 yard mark on his first carry, and kept moving all day long. Here’s the current standings;
- #1 - Archie Griffin - 5,529 yards (2,386)
- #2 - Eddie George - 3,768 yards (625)
- #3 - Tim Spencer - 3,553 yards (410)
- #4 - Keith Byars - 3,200 yards (57)
- #5 - Beanie Wells - 3,143 yards
Wells will top 1,000 yards for the season, and move past the legendary Keith Byars against TTUN at home on Saturday, barring injury and any other natural disaster. Odds are good that he’ll stay at #4 even adding in the bowl game. Getting another 410 yards against TTUN and a bowl opponent seems unlikely, even if you factor in Wells’ proven ability to rush for over 220 yards against the Wolverines.
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Speaking of Wells, holy f-ing poopbags, did you see him leap four feet in the air to clear an Illinois tackler? I’ve gotta get video of that posted. Best hurdle I’ve ever seen.
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Sweet Jesus, are Illinois fans the biggest WATBs you’ve ever seen? Have you ever heard ANYBODY whine about the refs in a game where they only get flagged four times? They were still moaning at the end of the game (those that hadn’t abandoned their seats before the game ended, that is).
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Penn State struggled for a half against Indiana, but pulled away in the second half and won 34-7. This means that their home game next week against Michigan State will determine half of the Big Ten Championship. Ohio State plays Michigan at Noon, and if the Buckeyes win, they clinch a share of the title. PSU-MSU is at 330, and if the Bucks win, the Spartans and Lions will do battle for the other share.
Let’s speak hypothetically.
- If Ohio State wins and Michigan State wins, Ohio State goes to the Rose Bowl.
- If Ohio State wins and Penn State wins, Penn State goes to the Rose Bowl
- If Ohio State loses, the winner between MSU and PSU is the outright winner of the Big Ten and goes to the Rose Bowl.
Penn State controls their own destiny. Both Sparty and the Buckeyes need help.
However, I do believe that Ohio State will secure a BCS Bowl with a win. More on that after the jump.
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Ohio State stands at #11 in the current BCS Standings. Ten teams make BCS Bowls. but there are tie-ins involved that could hurt us.
Six teams will guarantee themselves BCS Bowls by winning their conferences. Let’s make some assumptions here;
- Championship Game - #1 Alabama - #2 Texas Tech
- Big 12 representative - #3 Texas
- Big 10 Representative - #8 Penn State
- SEC representative - #4 Florida
- Pac-10 representative - #6 USC
- Big East representative - #22 Cincinnati
- ACC representative - #24 Wake Forest
This leaves two at-large bids open. The remaining schools in the Top 14 of the BCS Rankings are;
- #5 Oklahoma
- #7 Utah
- #9 Boise State
- #10 Georgia
- #11 Ohio State
- #12 Missouri
- #13 Oklahoma State
- #14 Ball State
Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, and Oklahoma State are ineligible for the BCS, because of the rule only allowing two teams from each conference to play in the big 5 bowl games. That leaves Utah, Boise State, Ohio State and Ball State as the only possible teams able to get those final two bids.
Utah and Boise State have won BCS bowl games before and will use that in their lobbying efforts. Ball State can forget it. No MAC school is getting in, especially in a year when the #5 school will get left out.
If we don’t secure the Rose Bowl, we are left to the mercy of the selection committee. We’ll need to hope that the Fiesta Bowl remembers our massive numbers at previous bowls and how we travel better than any other team, during bowl season. But if BYU can do us a favor and knock off Utah, we can consider ourselves in. Maybe Fresno State can help out more and beat Boise State on November 28th?
So, in this order, let me just say….
And yes, I know it’s the BYU Cougars. Did you?
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