Ohio State-Iowa: Buckeyes Get Emotional Roller Coaster Win

Drew Thurman (11:52 am)

After a Devin Barclay 39-yard field goal in OT, fans got a chance to celebrate a bid to the Rose Bowl for the Buckeyes. Watching this game was far from easy though, and there were a lot of highs and lows throughout. Let's take a look at the game, and assess the Buckeyes for the future...

Things that made me cheer

1) The running game for the Buckeyes was solid for the second week in a row. Brandon Saine recorded 103 yards and two touchdowns, while Boom Herron had 97 yards and a touchdown of his own.

People were talking about Jordan Hall starting just a few weeks ago, but you will not hear anyone bantering about that now. These two guys are now healthy, they are running the ball hard, and the offensive line is playing the way we hoped all season long.

Let's not forget either, they have racked up a ton of rushing yards the last two weeks against good defenses in Iowa and Penn State. Even more incredible is how predictable we have been.

Even girlfriends and spouses who know nothing about football, knew the Buckeyes were running the ball. Somewhere Woody was smiling, because his Buckeyes have ran their way to a Big Ten title.

2) The Buckeyes actually threw the ball to the tight end. I think Jake Ballard was even shocked, and was so excited he thought about hurdling a Hawkeye defender. As we all saw, it is not that hard to incorporate the tight end, and it makes Pryor's life easy.

3) Ross Homan has become a big time player. With Kurt Coleman and a incredible defensive line, it is easy to forget about Homan.

He now leads the team in tackles with 84, and yesterday brought in his fourth interception. The guy just makes plays, and he seems to be in the middle of every tackle.

He isn't flashy and he doesn't have some larger than life personality, but he gets the job done week in and week out. Folks, it's time to jump on the Homan bandwagon!

Things that frustrated me

1) Obviously the play calling bothered me a lot. In the end, Jim Tressel's super conservative mentality won the game, but I think it made it a lot closer than it should have been.

He never seems to be ahead in his thinking, but instead he always reacts. For instances, he never uses the run to set up play action. Rather he runs and runs and runs, until it finally gets stopped. Then on third and long he finally decides to throw the ball, when he has to.

Or how about how he likes to sit on a seven-point lead rather than being aggressive and putting the game out of reach. Tressel would not open things up until Iowa tied the game at 10-10, and he had to start throwing the ball with Pryor.

On top of that, it's hard to swallow how willing Tressel was to keep being conservative at the end of the game. With 2:37 left in the game I expected Tressel to try to take the game with a strong closing drive, he didn't. After Iowa got nothing in overtime I expected Tressel to try to make things easier on Barclay, he didn't.

I am glad Barclay bailed him out, but Tressel's conservative play could have easily produced a similar result to the Texas and USC games.

2) Passive defense killed the Buckeyes Saturday. Don't get me wrong, Iowa has a very solid offensive line (and they deserve credit), but the Buckeyes made them and Vandenberg into world beaters.

Rather than attack, like it did against Penn State, the defense sat back in more zone coverage hoping for mistakes. Not only that, but the corners were giving the receivers five to seven yards of space to start every play.

Against Penn State, the corners were up in the receivers' grills challenging them and forcing them off of their routes, but this week they allowed Iowa to dictate. It was amazing that late in the game when the Buckeyes started to finally bring some pressure and challenge receivers, that Vandenberg started making freshman mistakes (even though the Buckeyes negated a few of those with stupid plays).

I believe and always will that you force turnovers as a defense rather than waiting for them to happen, and Saturday validated that!

3) Special teams almost cost the Buckeyes this game. I know Barclay came through with the big field goal to win the game, but outside of that, the special teams looked terrible.

The three things that hurt the most

1) the 99-yard touchdown return that kept Iowa in the game.

2) Ray Small being drilled on every kick and punt return.

3) Thoma's awful punting. I think the special teams play will get better next week because it has been solid all year, but I don't know if Thomas is going to turn things around. Let's be honest, it's hard to play defense and field position with 22-yard punts!

Things that worry be a little

1) I wonder how hurt Pryor really is. There have been several reports that he is banged up, and I think he is probably hurt more than he or the staff will admit.

He was almost a non-factor yesterday, and was only asked to make plays on third down when there were no other options. I know others are criticizing Tressel and the staff for this, along with the fact that they feel he looked like Craig Krenzel yesterday, but I think it is because of health, not the game plan.

2) Our secondary got exposed big time. I think Kurt Coleman may have been the only guy in the secondary who didn't get burned on mulitple occasions.

I remember Devon Torrence biting on play action and giving up a huge catch, Anderson Russell whiffing on multiple tackles, and Chekwa looking like a freshman guarding McNutt.

I blame the scheme for some of this because these guys were on their heals, rather than attacking, but wow it was ugly. We learned something from this game, when the defensive line struggles, no one should plan on the secondary bailing it out!

All in all...

The game wasn't pretty, but the Buckeyes are going to the Rose Bowl. Tressel isn't getting much praise from anyone, especially the media, but he has turned this team around in a hurry.

It may not be my favorite style at the moment, but he is producing results. Now let's hope the Buckeyes keep the Michigan win streak alive, and overcome their recent bowl blues.