Ohio State Will Beat USC: And Here's How It Will Happen

rsquo;t know about you, but reading the words “Trojan territory” make me giggle a little bit.)

I hand off to Saine on my first play and he plows over USC linebacker Brian Cushing for 12 yards—Cushing has to leave briefly with back spasms. I get another first down on a pass to Rory Nicol slicing in front of Rey Maualuga, but the all-everything linebacker gets the better of me on a few runs and I have to settle for a 39-yard field goal to make it 10-0 with 2:42 left in the half.

Then, the big plays happen.

I send Marcus Freeman on a blitz when USC gets the ball back, and Mark Sanchez rushes his throw. He completes it…to Malcolm Jenkins, who returns it 37 yards untouched to put me in front 17-0.

No time to relax, though. Two plays later, Johnson breaks a couple of tackles— I’m piping mad at that—and runs 63 yards for the TD to make it 17-7 with 1:53 left.

I try to answer, but throw a terrible pass with Boeckman that gets picked off when Taylor Mays steps in front of Saine.

Big possession here before halftime. USC moves inside my 10-yard line, but faces a 4 & 2. Again, Carroll goes for it, and Sanchez lofts a ball into the corner for Patrick Turner. But Jenkins is there to slap it away, and I run out the clock to halftime. “This one is far from over as they head to the locker rooms,” Nessler declares as the little animated men stream off the field.

USC gets the ball after half, and pick up a 3 & 15 when Turner catches a short pass and spins out of two tackles for the first down. (Unrepeatable words by me uttered here.) That gets the Trojans deep into my territory, but I’m able to stop them again, and Carroll settles for the field goal to make it 17-10.

I know I need to answer points with points, and open up the playbook a bit. Boeckman hits Brian Hartline for eight yards and Brian Robiskie for five. I slip Saine out of the backfield with a screen and get 26 yards, down to the USC 32.

Drop back to pass again, and find the speedy Small matched up with a linebacker, and the completion nets me 19 yards. On 3 & 8, USC blitzes its corners and I get Robiskie on a hitch for eight and a half yards and the first to end the third quarter.

“A great game so far and it looks like it will be decided in the fourth” intones Nessler.

It actually took about four seconds to decide it in the fourth. I run a toss to the right side, and Saine has more than enough speed to get around Meaualuga and to the corner for the TD. 24-10, Bucks.

“These guys [USC] need to get off their horse and find a new horse, because the old horse isn’t going to get them two scores as quickly as they need them,” Corso says.

“That’s an analogy I’ll never understand,” answers Herbstriet, and the playful, fake banter ends.

USC picks up a few first downs, but I stop them on a 4 &10 inside my 30 when Jenkins slams Turner to the ground after an eight-yard pickup. With 3:07 left, it’s a steady dose of Saine, Saine and more Saine, while Boeckman mixes in a play-action pass to Nicol for a third-down conversion to ice the win for the Bucks. 24-10, final.

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