… And just barely, too.
Even as Ohio State bombed its way to a three-touchdown first-half lead in Tuesday night’s 31-26 Sugar Bowl win over Arkansas, there was a feeling (at least on the part of Yours Truly) that the Razorbacks were capable of getting back into the game- and a feeling that the Buckeyes were equally capable of letting them back in it.
Both wound up happening. Ohio State led 31-13 late in the third quarter. The Hogs devoured most of that margin like barnyard slop, and for much of the fourth quarter they seemed on the verge of eating it all. But Jim Heacock’s defense, led by a rampaging Cam Heyward, made every big play it had to make in the roller-coaster final moments- and the result is the end of a very annoying streak. For the first time ever the Buckeyes have conquered an SEC opponent in a bowl game. It took every member of the “Tat Five,” some help from the opponents and a gut-check fourth quarter to do it.
September 24, 1988: That day, when Ohio State overcame a 33-20 deficit with 4:29 remaining to stun LSU, was the last day the Buckeyes defeated an SEC opponent. Since that day there are more members of God’s Conference that have beaten Ohio State (seven) than those that haven’t (five.) As it happens, 1988 was the only losing season for Ohio State in its last forty-four seasons of football.
Great Start: Yours Truly suspected that the controversy surrounding “Tat-Gate” would not hinder the performance of the Buckeyes in New Orleans; that indeed, the rhubarb might just sharpen their focus all the more. They certainly looked ready to go as the game began. After holding Arkansas to three-and-out on its opening possession (aided greatly by Joe Adams’s drop of what might have been an eighty-yard touchdown pass, the first of a bunch of killer drops by Hog receivers) Ohio State rolled 74 yards in eight plays to a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. It was the fifth straight time the Buckeyes had scored first in a BCS game.
Sign of Things to Come: Given the aforementioned recent history the quick first strike was no surprise. Nor was the fact that Dane Sanzenbacher scored the touchdown; Dane has been on chummy terms with the end zone all season. The method, however, was unconventional. On third-and-nine from the Arkansas 37-yard line, Pryor took the first of several high shotgun snaps, scrambled right, broke a couple of tackles and got all the way inside the ten before being stripped of the football. Two Razorback defenders had a point-blank shot at the oblong but knocked each other off of it and it rolled into the end zone, where Sanzenbacher recovered for the score.
Offense Doesn’t Rest: Ohio State’s opening drive set the tone for the first half. After Arkansas tied the score on Ryan Mallett’s 17-yard scoring fade to Joe Adams (one of the few balls Adams managed to catch) the Buckeyes ripped off 21 unanswered points on three long scoring drives. They followed the Razorback score with a seven-play, 68-yard march that took less than two-and-a-half minutes. Boom Herron raced through a gaping hole for a nine-yard touchdown and it was 14-7 Ohio State at the end of the first quarter. It was the team-leading sixteenth touchdown for Herron, who finished with 1,155 rushing yards.
The offense continued to hum in the second period. Following a failed fourth-down attempt by Arkansas from the Ohio State 30, the Buckeyes rambled 70 yards in eight plays, finishing the drive on Pryor’s fifteen-yard third-down scoring strike to a diving Dane Sanzenbacher. It was the twelfth touchdown of the season for Lil’ Dane, who finished a remarkable season with 55 catches for 948 yards.
Late in the first half Ohio State went 68 yards in six plays, scoring on Pryor’s 43-yard bomb to DeVier Posey. It was now 28-7 with less than two minutes remaining in the first half. Arkansas salvaged a little momentum with a quick drive to a field goal but the Buckeyes, thanks to their big-play offense, remained in control at 28-10 as the teams repaired to the locker room.
Numbers: Ohio State put up plenty of them in the first half. The Buckeyes racked up 338 total yards in the first thirty minutes, converting six-of-eight third downs along the way. Like last season’s Rose Bowl win, they went against tendencies on offense. The Buckeyes caught Arkansas off-guard with a hurry-up attack and did something else they rarely do- utilize the tight end. Jake Stoneburner and Reid Fragel combined on four catches for eighty yards in the first half, with Fragel’s 42-yard catch-and-run setting up the score that made it 21-7.
The Buckeyes also did what they haven’t done with enough regularity under Jim Tressel- they finished drives with touchdowns. All four of Ohio State’s first-half scores were seven-pointers, although Devin Barclay did miss a fifty-yard field-goal attempt in the second period. The ability of the offense to close out drives with touchdowns instead of field goals gave the Buckeyes a sizeable halftime cushion- a cushion that would be badly needed by the end of the night.
Cam Crazy: On paper, at least, Cameron Heyward was not the overpowering force in 2010 that he was throughout 2009. And he hadn’t had a mindboggling individual effort to match the one-man-wrecking crew performance against Penn State in Happy Valley last season.
But in his last game as a Buckeye, playing in the same Superdome his daddy called home, the Son of Ironhead was the stuff of legend. He demolished all comers on the Arkansas offensive line, caving in the pocket, snuffing out screen passes and dropping Ryan Mallett to the artificial surface with frequency. He did so despite being held and cheap-shot all night long- once even by Mallett, who put Cam’s arm in a wrap with a sore-tempered kick during Arkansas’s frustrating first half.
Dexter Larimore was almost as good, sacking Mallett twice in the first half alone, one of which killed off a promising Razorback drive that had reached the Buckeye 40-yard line. John Simon also made himself a frequent uninvited guest in the Razorback backfield. Ohio State’s defensive front took over the game in the second quarter, snuffing out the volatile Arkansas offense and giving the Buckeye attack an opportunity to blow the game open- which it did.
Thank God for the D-Line: Ohio State needed every bit of pressure it got up front. An already depleted secondary got even thinner early in the game when senior cornerback Chimdi Chekwa, the anchor of the unit, went down with a serious wrist injury. With Travis Howard on the bench for much of the second half with cramps, the Buckeyes put redshirt freshman Dominic Clarke and true freshman Christian Bryant on the firing line against one of the nation’s most prolific passing attacks.
“Go for Tressel Ball- I repeat, we are go for Tressel Ball”- The green light for everyone’s favorite coaching tactic came with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter, when the Buckeyes ran three straight times from the Arkansas 34 and settled for a 46-yard Devin Barclay field goal and a 31-13 lead. It was clear from here on out that Ohio State was going to spend the rest of the night basically falling on the football.
This stuff is all thought out. They have 19 minutes to make up an 18-point deficit. They need to score at least three times to win the game. If you get some first downs, don’t turn the ball over and are solid in the kicking game and on defense they won’t have enough time to come back, even if you don’t score. It’s safe, simple and, judging by Jim Tressel’s overall record usually works.
The death of Tressel Ball is bad field position, turnovers and problems in the kicking game. The Buckeyes experienced all of those in the fourth quarter (with the safety being equivalent to a turnover.) By the midway point of the period they weren’t winning as much as hanging on for dear life against an aroused opponent in a building where every man’s hand seemed against them. Arkansas’s comeback would be remarkable not only for itself, but for how Ohio State managed to withstand it.
The Comeback Begins: The Arkansas revival began immediately after Barclay’s field goal, when the Razorbacks used Mallett’s arm and the pounding legs of Knile Davis to march 75 yards to their second touchdown. At one point it looked as if Ohio State had stopped the drive when Devon Torrence stripped Davis and Dominic Clarke seemingly recovered at the Buckeye 36. But after a long scrum the officials ruled that Arkansas had retained possession. Two plays later the Razorbacks were in the end zone, courtesy of Mallett’s perfect 22-yard back-shoulder fade to Jarius Wright. After a successful two-point conversion it was 31-21 and when a fired-up Razorback defense stuffed the Bucks on three plays to close the period the game had turned.
Safety Last: Following a poor Ben Buchanan punt Arkansas took over at midfield early in the final period, seemingly poised to cut further into Ohio State’s ten-point lead. But the Buckeye defense wasn’t having it. Heyward and Larimore combined to sack Mallett and kill the drive, forcing a punt. Dylan Breeding, who had a wonderful game, pinned Ohio State back on its four-yard line. One play later Boom Herron was nailed at the two, forced into the end zone, and after briefly breaking free was gang-tackled by a host of Razorback defenders. Forward progress? Nope- safety and a one-score game at 31-23 with nearly twelve minutes still to play.
I know a lot of Buckeye fans were unhappy about the safety call, noting that Herron’s forward progress had actually been stopped within the field of play. Fair enough. But what if Boom had slipped that first end-zone tackle, gotten outside and motored thirty yards up the sideline? Would everyone still want the quick whistle in that scenario?
Buchanan’s free kick was as poor as his previous punt and Arkansas took over at its own 44-yard line. (This would turn out to be their worst starting field position of the period.) The Hogs quickly drove to a 47-yard Zach Hocker field goal, making it 31-26 with 8:55 left. They now needed just one touchdown to go ahead, and they had more than half the quarter to get it. Their next chance at that touchdown would come swiftly.
Once-in-a-Career Gaffe: Ohio State’s next possession started at its 14-yard line, typical field position for the second half (more on that in a minute.) This time the Buckeyes managed to put together some semblance of a drive, highlighted by Pryor’s scramble for Ohio State’s first successful third-down conversion of the half. With fourth-and-one on his own 37-yard line Jim Tressel decided to go for it. Boom Herron took a deep handoff, leaped over the pile and appeared to have the first down by a healthy margin.
There was one problem, though- he didn’t have the football. The tough little tailback had it knocked out on his way up. Ohio State recovered, but the Buckeyes were short of the first down. Boom’s first career fumble had given Arkansas a golden opportunity to take it in for the go-ahead touchdown.
But the Razorbacks couldn’t take advantage of another monumental break. A first-down holding penalty and yet another dropped pass, this one by Lance Ray, took the steam out of the Razorbacks, who were forced to punt from the Ohio State 44. Dylan Breeding got off another gorgeous kick that bounced out of bounds at the four and once again the Buckeyes were in jail.
Field-Position Nightmare: Thanks to Breeding’s brilliance and an aroused Razorback coverage unit Ohio State’s first three possessions of the final period began at its four, fourteen and four-yard lines.
Last-Drive Drama: Ohio State took over at its own four with 4:33 left and a five-point lead. Arkansas had two timeouts left. A small handful of first downs would force Ryan Mallett to go the length of the field to the end zone with no timeouts. On first down Dan Herron, who had suffered through a nightmarish fourth period, broke loose for a 17-yard gain. Two plays later Pryor snuck successfully on third-and-inches. One more first down and the Buckeyes could go into the Victory Formation.
They couldn’t get it. Pryor, gimped on the third-down sneak, left the game and in came Joe Bauserman, who would be an All-American if he played at, say, Augustana. Two runs and two Arkansas timeouts set up third-and-five at the Buckeye 36. Under the circumstances there was .0000000000% chance the Vest would air it out, and sure enough Herron plunged ahead for a gain of two. Fourth down. But the last drive did change field position, burn three-and-a-half minutes off the clock and force Arkansas to use its final timeouts. Now the Bucks needed to execute the most important play in football- the punt.
Hell, Even Scott Terna Would Do: Andy Groom would have boomed it about 58 yards downfield. But Andy Groom wasn’t walking through that door. Ben Buchanan had a woeful night kicking the football, and the last swing of his leg was the crowning achievement for him and a specialty team that was downright queasy all season. Buchanan’s punt was blocked by Colton Miles-Nash at the 25-yard line. The ball bounced back toward the Ohio State goal line, surrounded by Razorbacks. Any three of them could have picked it up and run unimpeded for the go-ahead touchdown. Instead, freshman receiver Julian Horton covered it at the Ohio State 18-yard line.
Jim Tressel maintained a pretty solid poker face in the wake of that block. But he had to be dying inside. No coach puts more emphasis on the kicking game than this one. To lose this game on a blocked punt would have been especially agonizing.
The Buckeyes dodged more than a few bullets Tuesday night. That was the most potentially lethal of them. A touchdown would have made it 32-31 Arkansas; 34-31 with a two-point conversion. Ohio State’s offense had operated on idle for a long time. Terrelle Pryor, who threw for two touchdowns and over two hundred yards in the first half, had thrown six passes in the second. The game wouldn’t have been over, not with more than a minute remaining. But after blowing an 18-point lead and giving up the go-ahead score on a blocked punt…
Dick LeBeau Loved It: Arkansas took the ball one last time with eighteen yards and the Ohio State defense between them and victory. On first down D.J. Williams committed the last of a seemingly inexhaustible list of Razorback drops. On second down Ross Homan’s blitzed forced Ryan Mallett into a hasty pass right to Solomon Thomas (the Ray Jackson of the Tat Five) who had dropped into coverage. Jim Heacock’s well-timed zone blitz resulted in the first turnover of the night, and it finally decided this crazy, unforgettable game.
How About That Petrino Ball? Job-Jumpin’ Bobby Petrino beat the Vest at his own game Tuesday night. The Arkansas kicking game was fabulous, with Zach Hocker drilling three field goals and Dylan Breeding pinning the Buckeyes inside their five-yard line three times. The Razorbacks out-kicked Ohio State all night long.
But Tressel Ball has its limitations- inefficiency one of them. Arkansas scored three times on field goals and twice on touchdowns- not a good ratio. The Razorbacks came up empty on five separate possessions in Ohio State territory. In the fourth quarter alone they got a safety, a fumble in Ohio State territory and a blocked punt in the Buckeye red zone- and wasted those chances almost entirely. They left a lot of points off the scoreboard.
And in very un-Tressel Ball fashion, they made mistakes- six penalties and all of those dropped passes, including at least two by Joe Adams that might have gone for touchdowns. Ohio State committed just two penalties, didn’t turn the ball over, got big plays out of its receivers and scored on five of seven possessions in Arkansas territory- four of them touchdowns. The more experienced team made fewer errors. The Razorbacks haven’t played in an elite bowl game in a long time and it showed.
Terrelle Pryor’s Line: 14-of-25 for 221 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions; 115 yards on fifteen carries. Pryor won game MVP honors (Cam Heyward deserved it a little more) in a BCS game for the second consecutive year and, like the Rose Bowl, went over 300 combined yards (336, to be exact.) The junior from Jeanette finished the season with 2,772 passing yards, 27 touchdown passes to 11 interceptions and 754 rushing yards with four touchdowns. More impressively, he led an offense that set a program record by scoring 504 points, shattering the mark of 475 previously set by the 1995 team.
There is a lot you can say about Pryor- he throws like a shot-putter, he runs east-west instead of north-south, he behaves like a brat on the sidelines and shows up his team in the process, he Tweets too much and thinks too little, he doesn’t exactly place a high sentimental value on the keepsakes of Ohio State football- but while you’re at it don’t forget to say two other things: he’s a big-game player and, at 31-4 as a starter, he’s a winner.
Beyond the Stats: It may be hard to believe that a team can give up 402 total yards, 23 first downs and 24 points and still play excellent defense- but it would be easy for anyone who watched the Sugar Bowl to believe Ohio State did just that. Time and time again, especially in the fourth quarter, Arkansas set up shop in superb field position- and time and time again the Buckeyes turned away the Razorbacks with little to no dividends. Arkansas reached the Ohio State 34, 27, 37 and 18-yard lines on their fourth-quarter possessions and got a total of three points out of those deep forays. The Buckeyes gave up a lot of little plays on Tuesday night. They didn’t give up the big ones. Arkansas, the ninth-ranked offense in the nation, scored just two touchdowns.
Jim Heacock’s defense got a little help from its foes, however. The dropped passes have been duly noted; so too should be Arkansas’s failure to take full advantage of its running game. Knile Davis pounded through the Buckeyes for 139 yards on 26 carries and was especially successful in the second half. Fullback Van Stumon abused Brian Rolle, repeatedly shoving the undersized middle linebacker into the backwash of the play. At times it looked like a reprise of the Wisconsin game, with Davis often reaching the second level before he was even touched.
Yet despite the success he was having on the ground, despite the inability of his offensive line to contain Heyward, Larimore and Co. and despite the horrid night his receivers were having, Bobby Petrino called nearly twice as many pass plays as run plays. Even facing their big second-half deficit, the Razorbacks still had enough time to really establish its running game. Instead they put the game in the hands of Ryan Mallett, and it cost them a chance to win their first elite bowl game since 1978. Knile Davis never got a chance to be Roland Sales.
Where does it Rank? Ohio State has won six bowl games during Jim Tressel’s regime- five of them BCS games. Obviously Tuesday night’s win, in a BCS bowl over an opponent from God’s Conference, was big. But how big was it in comparison to the other bowl wins under the Vest’s watch?
Obviously the 2003 Fiesta Bowl conquest of Miami was the biggest- maybe the biggest victory in the history of the program. Second, at least to me, was the 2010 Rose Bowl. First of all, it’s the Rose Bowl. Secondly, it was played against an outright conference champion that was top-ten ranked and favored. Third, Ohio State controlled the tempo throughout, winning in impressive fashion.
I’d put the 2011 Sugar Bowl third. It loses points to the Rose Bowl because it’s not the Rose Bowl, it wasn’t against a conference champion and because the Buckeyes didn’t play as well on Tuesday as they did last season in Pasadena. It gains points on the other bowl wins because it was a fabulous game and because the win came against an SEC opponent- and getting that monkey off the back of the program was pretty damned important.
SWC, Still Owned: Maybe, in those final frantic moments, the football gods remembered where Arkansas used to play and not where they currently play. The Razorbacks spent 76 years as a member of the Southwest Conference, a circuit Ohio State has dominated in perpetuity. The Buckeyes are 24-4-2 against ex-SWC opponents, 3-1 against the ex-SWC opponents in bowl games and remain the only Big Ten team to win the Cotton Bowl.
And the Season? Well, it was a National Championship-or-Bust kind of season and the Buckeyes, of course, will not win the National Championship. But they went 12-1, grabbed a share of the Big Ten title and won a BCS game. Is it disappointing that this team won’t raise the crystal football on January 10? Absolutely. But I’m not going to call this season a failure. I remember the 1990 Liberty Bowl loss to Air Force too well to get that spoiled.
I’m sure some people are disappointed. I was certainly disappointed by what happened to the Buckeyes in Madison, Wisconsin. But this is as good as it gets for Ohio State football. You can’t ask for much more than this- perennial double-digit-win seasons, Big Ten championships and BCS bids.
Sure, you can demand National Championships. But the only guarantee of a National Championship- or the closest thing to a guarantee- is a perfect record. And the Buckeyes have only had three of those since 1954. Perfect seasons don’t come along often- that’s why they’re special. Since 2002 Ohio State is 99-17 with four shared Big Ten Championships, three outright Big Ten Championships, a BCS National Championship, five BCS bowl victories and three BCS Championship berths. Savor it, because this is a golden age for the program.