Jim Tressel's Moxie Proven Greater than McGloin's in Ohio State Buckeyes Win

I'm not going to lie; like most of you Buckeye fans out there, I was in utter disgust throughout the first half. The team looked flat coming off the bye week, and I was wondering where the passion and leadership was on this team. The defense was being picked apart, and Matt McGloin seemed totally unfazed by anything that the Silver Bullets threw at him. On the other side of the ball, OSU had little identity and Pryor was unable to handle any pressure PSU brought.

The Buckeyes found themselves quickly down 14-3, and the Nittany Lions were knocking at the door for another score. It was at that point that the Buckeyes came up with a play that would turn the game around.

Penn State attempted a fourth-and-one conversion from the Ohio State 20-yard line with 1:46 to play in the first half, and they had already had success on fourth down during the drive. This time Silas Redd tried to bounce outside and was met by Jermale Hines with Orhian Johnson and Ross Homan coming to help clean things up.

Some have pointed to Torrence's picked in the second half as the turning point in the game, but this play gave the Buckeyes momentum to build off of at halftime. In fact, a very focused and fiery

Tressel got after it at halftime. Michael Brewster had this to say about Tressel's attitude and demeanor in the locker room: “Tress doesn’t really come out and yell very much. He stays very even, so when he comes out and gets after it in the locker room you can see the urgency on everyone’s faces.”

It is a rare occurrence that we hear of Tressel showing this kind of of passion and intensity. The last time I remember it being a media story was during the Washington game in 2007, when Boeckman and Tressel combined to light a fire under the Buckeyes in a comeback win. Again, this rare showing of passion focused the team in the second half, and they never looked back.

The Buckeyes started off the second half by forcing the Nitanny Lions to punt, and putting together an 11 play, 96 yard drive to make it 14-10. With things tightening up, McGloin forced a pass that was picked off and taken to the house by Devon Torrence. He had been picked on throughout the first half, but responded with a big second half.

Malcolm Jenkins was predicting on Twitter in the first half that the corners would eventually jump on one of those shorts routes, and wow does he ever look smart now. At 17-14, the Buckeyes had the momentum and went into full blowout mode, adding three more touchdown in the fourth quarter, including another pick six by Travis Howard. All in all, the Buckeyes piled on 35 unanswered points in the second half, helping them to a 38-14 win. It must have been one riveting speech from Tressel!

Here were a few of notes from the game:

This game was all about the Buckeyes running game, namely Boom Herron. He had a career day, rushing for 190 yards and one touchdown on only 21 carries (9.0 ypc). The guy just seems to be coming into his own, and has been running with a ton of confidence the last two weeks. I always liked Boom, but never dreamed we would see this kind of production from him. I also have to give some props to Brandon Saine, who looked solid as the No. 2 back. I have been pretty critical of his play this season, but he ran the ball well when he replaced Boom, including a 19 yard scamper to set up the first scoring drive of the second half. Pryor also had 49 yards, which seemed to help open things up for the offense. 

Helping Boom, Saine and Pryor was the offensive line, and had a great day. If we could just cut out the false start penalties (*cough* J.B. Shugarts), I would have very little to complain about with their play.

Terrelle Pryor didn't really have the day many of us would have hoped. After looking so poised in the Rose Bowl game last year, he has been shaky on the biggest stages this season. The first half he looked very uncomfortable in the pocket and overthrew several receivers. On top of that he continued to not see open receivers in the middle of the field, which would have opened things up.

He was much more stable in the second half, outside of the a forced throw to Sanzenbacher that resulted in an interception. All in all, he ended the day 8-for-13 for 139 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Not superstar numbers, but I did appreciate his attitude with the media afterwards, especially in the interview with Erin Andrews. He made it clear that it wasn't his best performance and that the win was thanks to the defense and guys like Boom Herron. The guy is way more of a teammate than in the past, and he is continuing to grow as a leader.

For all you guys out there trashing Orhian Johnson in the first half because of his one missed tackled, he ended up leading the defense with eight tackles. While I don't think the guy is a better option than C.J. Barnett, he has grown as a tackler and with his physicality. He wasn't the only guy missing tackles in the first half, and it was a little ridiculous how many people were throwing him under the bus.

Believe it or not this was the biggest comeback in Tressel's tenure with the Buckeyes. I have appreciate the fight in this team, both against Wisconsin and Penn State. In years past, many of Tressel's teams laid down when they got down, but this year's team has been very resilient.