Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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If you’re old enough as a fan, you remember a time when Colorado was regularly one of the most talented teams in college football. With names like Darian Hagan, Eric Bieniemy, Kordell Stewart, Michael Westbrook and Rashaan Salaam on offense, and Alfred Williams, Chad Brown, Ted Johnson and Deon Figures on defense, the Buffs of the early ‘90s were annually in the mix for conference titles and big-time bowl berths. They even won a piece of the National Championship in 1990 (albeit a tainted piece.)

The Colorado team that ventured to the Horseshoe for the first time since 1986 is a faint shadow of those Bill McCartney-coached powerhouses of two decades ago. These Buffaloes haven’t had a winning season in six years, are 22-45 since the start of the 2006 season and currently in the throes of an eighteen-game road losing streak, longest in the nation. Darian Hagan and Eric Bieniemy aren’t walking through that door.

Braxton Miller, however, is. A new era of Ohio State football began on Saturday with the talented freshman from Huber Heights under center. The kid didn’t exactly set the world on fire with his arm, but the occasional good throw and some active legs were plenty good enough to help bounce the Buckeyes back into winning form after the disastrous showing in Miami the week before. At 3-1 Ohio State is done with its non-conference schedule and more or less right where it was expected to be at this point in the season- young, raw and with plenty of room for improvement. You can say the same of its freshman quarterback.  

Miller High Life: In his first career start Braxton Miller didn’t make anyone forget Buckeye field generals of the past, at least not in terms of throwing the football. Miller was just 5-of-13 through the air for 83 yards and most of his passes were end-over-end wobblers, not tight spirals. Still, he did throw a pair of touchdown passes, one a very nice fade rout to Devin Smith, and most importantly, he didn’t throw an interception.

As could be expected, Miller’s best moments were with his legs. The freshman ran for 83 yards, matching his passing yardage output, and many of his runs were broken-field delicacies. Miller repeatedly used cutbacks and spins to leave Colorado defenders grasping at air. After fumbling twice last week at Miami, Miller didn’t put the ball on the ground once.

At this point Miller is no better as a passer than Joe Bauserman, and actually might be a little worse. But he adds an extra dimension with his running ability, one the Buckeyes will sorely need as they move into the Big Ten portion of the schedule. And he will get better as the season goes on. Saturday he moved the sticks, protected the football and made a few plays- and that was all his team needed. They’ll need more against opponents that aren’t Colorado if they want to salvage their season and make a run at the Big Ten title, or at least the title of whatever the hell division they’re in.

Unbalanced Line: Needless to say, Luke Fickell and Jim Bollman weren’t exactly looking to air it out with a true freshman making his first start at quarterback. Ohio State ran three times as many running plays as passing plays on Saturday. The first nine plays from scrimmage for the Buckeyes were running plays, and Braxton Miller didn’t actually complete a pass until more than twenty minutes of game-clock had elapsed. For the second consecutive game Jake Stoneburner was held without a catch.

Go Tigers: The only shining performer in the pass game was Devin Smith, who hauled in three catches for 64 yards and two touchdowns. The freshman from Massillon is averaging 22.9 yards on his eight receptions and has three touchdowns thus far on the season.

Ground Balance: Ohio State’s total offensive output might have been lopsided in favor of the ground game, but the ground game itself was far from a one-man show. The Buckeyes pounded out 226 rushing yards on the day and the headlining was almost equally split between two players. Jordan Hall picked up 84 yards on 18 carries with a touchdown while Braxton Miller ran for 83 on 17 totes. Carlos Hyde added forty yards on six carries with a score. This team is going to have near-ridiculous depth in the backfield when Boom Herron comes back in a couple of weeks- it’ll be interesting to see how the carries are divvied out.

Bounce-Back… Kind of: Give Ohio State’s defense credit for one thing- they weren’t as bad against Colorado as they were against Miami. That is damning with faint praise. The Buffs may have gained only 76 yards on the ground, but they ran the ball just sixteen times and came out with a fairly robust 4.8 yards-per-carry average. In other words, Colorado held itself to 76 yards rushing more than they were held to that total by the Buckeyes.

Ohio State’s linebackers are not impressive. They don’t tackle or cover particularly well. No one in the middle of the Buckeye defense could handle Colorado tight end Ryan Deehan, who was wide open for all three of his catches for 71 yards. Let’s be blunt- when Andrew Sweat is your best linebacker, you’ve got some issues. Sweat is a nice player, but he should not be your headliner. He’s more Anthony Schlegel than A.J. Hawk. There isn’t much to say about Storm Klein or Etienne Sabino because they don’t do much worth talking about.

The front is pretty good, the secondary has promise, but this is not vintage Ohio State linebacker play we’re seeing this season. The playmaking, the pressure, the big hits, all of the things we’ve come to expect about the men in the middle of the Buckeye defense- they aren’t there. It just isn’t a very dynamic group, and unless the light goes on for a few of these guys- namely, the once-touted Sabino- it’s hard to see that situation changing for the better.    

Special-Teams Nightmare: Statistically the game was surprisingly close. Ohio State outgained Colorado by a modest 336-314, although much of the Buffaloes’ yardage came after the outcome was all but decided. Special teams was where Colorado really lost this game, as a series of disastrous plays in that area put the Buffs behind the eight-ball time and time again. To wit:

Following a three-and-out on their first offensive series, punter Darragh O’Neill shanked a twenty-yarder, setting up the Buckeyes at the Colorado 43-yard line. Seven plays later Jordan Hall vaulted over from the one to put Ohio State ahead, 7-0.

Early in the second quarter with his team trailing 10-0, Columbus-area native Rodney Stewart ill-advisedly fair-caught a punt at his five-yard line. The resultant poor field position, combined with a three-and-out, gave Ohio State the ball at the Colorado 46. Six plays later Braxton Miller hit a wide-open Devin Smith for a 32-yard touchdown strike to make it 17-0 and blow the game open.

With fifteen seconds left in the half and the Buffs trailing 17-7 and having stolen the momentum going toward halftime with a touchdown and a defensive stop, Rodney Stewart collided with a teammate and fumbled away a punt, setting up the Buckeyes at the Colorado eleven. They parlayed the break into a field goal and a 20-7 halftime lead.

After Colorado went three-and-out on the opening possession of the third period, O’Neill dribbled a 33-yard punt to midfield. Six plays later Miller and Devin Smith hooked up for their second touchdown connection of the afternoon, making it 27-7.

After a Colorado field goal cut the margin to 27-10 late in the third, the Buffalo coverage team gave up a ninety-yard return by Jordan Hall, leading to a five-yard Carlos Hyde scoring jaunt on the next play that made it 34-10.

In addition to these blunders, the Buffaloes were twice whistled for holding penalties on kickoff returns. They also gave up a long return of the opening kickoff by Jordan Hall which was wiped out by a completely unnecessary holding penalty on Zach Boren well behind the play. Had it not been for the repeated disasters on special teams, Colorado could have at least hung in the game and made it mildly interesting.

Decisive Field Position: Colorado’s special-teams struggles also contributed to the lopsided edge in field position enjoyed by the Buckeyes. Ohio State started six drives either at midfield or in Colorado territory; average starting field position for the Buffs was their own 19-yard line. The Buckeyes were in Colorado territory seemingly all afternoon.

Tough Homecoming: Colorado senior tailback Rodney Stewart came into Saturday’s game with plenty to prove. Despite growing up in Westerville and starring at Brookhaven High School, Stewart had been ignored by his hometown Buckeyes and jetted off to Colorado, where he racked up 3,642 yards from scrimmage going into his homecoming. With his college career coming to an end the bantam-sized, 5’6” Stewart had an opportunity to stick it to his hometown team.

But it didn’t work out that way. Numbers-wise Stewart wasn’t terrible- he rushed for 55 yards on eleven carries and added a team-high five catches for 27 yards- but his first-half mistakes helped open the door to a Buckeye rout. Midway through the first period Stewart and quarterback Tyler Hansen botched a read-option handoff and Adam Bellamy fell on the loose ball at the Colorado 22, setting up a field goal to make it 10-0. His punt-return misadventures- the fair catch at the five and the fumble late in the first half- effectively handed the Buckeyes ten more points. On a day of Colorado miscues, those of the hometown kid might have been the costliest.

However, he has called games from the Roman Colosseum: Hard-to-believe fact of the day- Mike Patrick has been calling college football ever since the Flying Wedge was in vogue, yet before Saturday had never set foot in Ohio Stadium. Sounding as much like a tourist as a seasoned broadcaster, Patrick spent much of the game gushing over the Horseshoe as well as the gorgeous early-fall afternoon in Columbus.

 

Around the Nation

Game of the Week- Oklahoma State/Texas A&M: Saturday’s showdown between the unbeaten Cowboys and unbeaten Aggies at Kyle Field was truly a tale of two halves- the first dominated by the home team, the second dominated by the road team. In the first thirty minutes it all went A&M’s way. Ryan Tannehill’s 65-yard touchdown run on the fourth play from scrimmage set the tone as the Aggies rolled to a 20-3 halftime lead.  Mike Sherman’s team owned the halftime statistics as well as the scoreboard, outgaining the Cowboys 301-180 and keeping Oklahoma State’s star quarterback Brandon Weeden more or less in check. With thirty minutes down and thirty to go it looked as if Mike Sherman’s team was about to take a massive step forward in its quest for the program’s first conference title since 1998.

But everything- the momentum, the lead and the game- slipped away from the Aggies during a disastrous third quarter. Oklahoma State turned it around immediately, rolling eighty yards to a touchdown on its first possession of the half, and from there everything went downhill for A&M as well as the stunned Kyle Field crowd. O.K. State’s ownership of the third period was comprehensive: the Cowboys outgained the Aggies 277-50, controlled the ball for nearly eleven minutes and forced turnovers on three consecutive A&M possessions. By the end of the quarter it was 24-20 Oklahoma State, and the Aggies were fortunate it wasn’t worse- Justin Blackmon had ended one Cowboy drive with an inexplicable fumble as he was going into the end zone.

Trailing 30-20 with 6:24 remaining, A&M made one final bid to steal back a victory that had once seemed assured. But it was too late. Tannehill’s third interception of the half with 1:31 left completed the collapse, as Oklahoma State hung on for a 30-29 victory. For Oklahoma State, a major hurdle on the way to the program’s first major-bowl bid since 1946 has been cleared, and in dramatic fashion. For Texas A&M a golden opportunity to return to the nation’s elite before the program heads to the SEC is up in smoke. Just goes to show that in college football, thirty minutes of domination is thirty minutes too few.

Player of the Week- Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State: The senior quarterback threw for 285 yards and two touchdowns in the second half, part of a 47-of-60, 438-yard, no-interception effort as the Cowboys came from behind to stun Texas A&M. Weeden threw six picks in O.K. State’s first three games but was near-flawless in College Station. His domination of the quarterback matchup- A&M’s Ryan Tannehill threw three picks, all in the second half- was the difference.

Armageddon in the Making: According to the college football calendar the BCS National Championship Game will be played on January 9, 2012 in the Louisiana Superdome. The calendar might be wrong. This year the real National Championship Game could very well be played on November 5 in Bryant-Denny Stadium, when the Alabama Crimson Tide hosts the LSU Tigers. If the events of this past Saturday are any indication, it will be a matchup of the two best teams in college football this season.

LSU’s statement was loudest. For the third time in four games the Tigers took on a ranked opponent away from home- and for the third time they dominated, waxing West Virginia 47-21 in front of a prime-time crowd in Morgantown. Playing in hostile conditions, LSU didn’t turn the ball over and enjoyed near-perfect balance on offense, with 186 rushing yards and 180 passing yards. Jarrett Lee had another poised performance with three touchdown passes while the tailback tandem of Spencer Ware and Michael Ford combined for 174 yards on the ground. The speed and ball-hawking of the Tiger defense was once again on display. Pay no attention to the 533 yards West Virginia piled up; LSU’s defense controlled the pressure points.

Alabama looked as good, if not better, in its 38-14 rout of a good Arkansas team in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide defense held the explosive Razorbacks to 226 total yards while the offense, led by Trent Richardson’s 211 yards from scrimmage, had its way all day. Coming at the Hogs from all angles, Nick Saban’s team scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams. Alabama’s early schedule- Kent State, Penn State and North Texas- wasn’t nearly as daunting as that of LSU. The Tide needed to make a statement against Arkansas. Consider that statement made.

And while you’re at it, clear your calendar for November 5.

Carolina Enigma: On paper the South Carolina Gamecocks look eminently prepared to successfully defend their God’s Conference East title and provide the sacrificial lamb for either LSU or Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. The Cocks have two gifted skill players- Alshon Jeffery who is arguably a top-five receiver in college football, and Marcus Lattimore, who is arguably a top-one running back. They have a big-play defense led by defensive end Melvin Ingram, who has scored three of the unit’s four touchdowns in four games. They’re talented, experienced and they get their main competitor for SEC East laurels, Florida, at home in Columbia on November 12.

Yet there’s still an issue of consistency with the Gamecocks, thanks in no small part to the struggles of senior quarterback Stephen Garcia. Inconsistency is nothing new to Garcia, of course, but it seemed in 2010 that he’d conquered at least some of his demons, throwing for 3,059 yards and twenty touchdowns, completing 64 percent of his passes and displaying some clutch acumen in his team’s drivce to its first-ever SEC divisional title. (Naturally, Garcia also threw 14 interceptions.)

If Garcia had built on his junior-year success in 2011 the Gamecocks would be threat not just to win the SEC East but challenge whatever juggernaut comes out of the West. But he’s regressed. In his first four outings, including three starts, he has completed just 54.7 percent of his attempts with three touchdown passes and seven interceptions, including three in the first half to make last Saturday’s 21-3 victory over Vanderbilt a lot tougher than it had to be. He and Alshon Jeffrey aren’t making the connections- Jeffrey, who had 88 catches for 1,517 yards and nine scores last season, is on pace for 49 catches for 861 yards and four scores this season. There’s enough talent to give any team a run for its money. But until Stephen Garcia gets it, they’ll be fodder for the real elite of God’s Conference.

Holy Toledo: It’d be hard to blame the Toledo Rockets if they feel a little snake-bitten so far this season. In Week Two they let an eminently winnable game at Ohio State slip away because of penalties and special-teams gaffes. In Week Three they had a chance to make Boise State sweat before self-destructing with turnovers in the red zone. But those heartbreaks proved scant preparation for the out-and-out travesty that marked Toledo’s overtime loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last Saturday.

With 2:07 left in the fourth quarter of a back-and-forth struggle, Ryan Nassib looped an 18-yard touchdown pass to Alec Lemon to give the Orangemen a 29-27 lead; the sixth lead change in the game. With a chance to put his team up by a field goal, kicker Ross Krautman then pulled his extra-point attempt wide to the left- or so it looked to everyone except the two officials on the back line of the end zone, both of whom shot up their arms in the familiar “good” signal.

The original call was bad. What followed was worse. After a video review- which clearly showed the kick passing in front of the left upright- the referee upheld the call. Instead of the 29-27 lead which they’d earned by dint of the missed extra point, the Orangemen now had a 30-27 lead. When Toledo kicker Ryan Casano booted a twenty-yarder at the gun it didn’t give the Rockets the win- it just tied the game and sent it to overtime. Aided by an interception, Syracuse went on to win in the extra session on Krautman’s field goal (which was legitimately good, for whatever it’s worth.)

Toledo, naturally, petitioned to have the result of the game changed. It’s an understandable move- and a futile one. We can’t just assume the course of events that would have followed had the Syracuse PAT been called correctly. It’s a parallel universe; we have no way of knowing. It’s just one of those bizarre things, like the Fifth Down, which happens once or so a generation. Not much will come of it: Toledo still has every opportunity to win the MAC West, still very well might, and Syracuse, at most, will leverage the gift into a bid to a lower-tier bowl. But it’s certainly strange enough to mention. How, exactly, in this day and age of TWO chances to get a call right, does a thing like this happen?

His Mother’s Name Might Be Jughead: Separated at birth- West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen and Bobcat Goldthwait.

 

Winners of the Week

Georgia Tech: An offseason of turmoil has given way to a 4-0 start, the best since 1990 when the Wreck split the National Championship with Colorado. Leading the way Saturday was quarterback Tevin Washington, who threw for 184 yards, ran for 74 and accounted for three touchdowns with his arm and legs as Tech knocked off North Carolina, 35-28.

Clemson: You never really know with Clemson, but at this point it certainly appears that the Tigers are for real. They followed up their snapping of Auburn’s 17-game winning streak with a 35-30 victory over a beat-up Florida State team, Taj Boyd throwing for 344 yards and three touchdowns in the process. But even after two impressive victories there’s no rest for Dabo Sweeney’s troops: up next is a trip to Blacksburg to face Virginia Tech.

Arizona State: After eleven consecutive defeats to USC the Sun Devils finally got over on the Men of Troy, defeating their tormentors from Los Angeles by a deceptively decisive 43-22. ASU blew a 21-6 first-half lead and trailed 22-21 in the third quarter before exploding for three unanswered touchdowns, the last two a result of Matt Barkley turnovers. USC outgained the Sun Devils 402-392 but turned it over four times and committed ten penalties.

Akron: They showed the Citadel who was boss. If you’re a third-rate Confederate military academy you can’t just walk into Infocision Stadium and come out with a victory.

Kent State: They didn’t really show South Alabama who was boss in an unimpressive 33-25 decision- they tried but failed to blow a 26-0 halftime lead- but they did win the football game. They might even win another at some point. Meanwhile, KSU basketball starts in about a month or so.

Losers of the Week

Miami: How do you follow up the program’s best victory in years? If you’re the new-era Hurricanes you follow up by losing at home to a team Kennedy, Maryland and Co. would have wasted by about forty points. K-State ran all over Miami’s defense in the 28-24 Wildcat stunner with 265 yards on the ground, and the Hurricane offense couldn’t punch it in on four tries from the two in the dying seconds.  Back to the drawing board for Da U, who are 1-2 and host Bethune-Cookman before their annual trip through the treacherous waters of the ACC.

Indiana: It’s bad enough Indiana has to play on the road against a Sun Belt school- worse that the Hoosiers lost to North Texas down in Denton, spotting the Mean Green  a 24-0 fourth quarter lead and falling 24-21 when an eleventh-hour rally fell short.  Kevin Wilson has a lot of work to do at the worst job in the Big Ten.

Maryland: Actually, I should be lauding Temple here. A week after losing a heartbreaker the Owls went down to College Park and flat-out dominated, pounding out 285 yards on the ground and neatly reversing the 38-7 loss to the Terrapins in Philadelphia six years ago. That’s a pretty good football team. Still, no major program should get killed at home by Temple, and they really need to find a uniform that works.  

UNLV: A week after scoring a stunner over Hawaii the Rebels were walloped at home by FCS Southern Utah, committing five turnovers in a 41-16 loss to the Thunderbirds of Cedar City, Utah. Three of those turnovers were interceptions for touchdowns, as UNLV managed to lose by a ton despite outgaining the visitors 402-256.  

New Mexico: Or maybe the Lobos were Winners of the Week, despite losing at home to Sam Houston State in overtime. They finally got rid of Mike Locksley, after all.

 

Next: Saturday at 3:30 when Ohio State opens the Big Ten schedule at home against Michigan State. It’s the first meeting between the Buckeyes and Spartans since 2008, when Ohio State won in East Lansing by a score of 45-7. Once a thorn in the side of the Scarlet & Gray, Michigan State hasn’t won a game in the series since 1999 and went 0-7 against the Buckeyes under Jim Tressel.