Indiana no match as Buckeyes' win streak sets school mark

The last 23 times Ohio St has stepped onto the gridiron, they left victorious. The 42-14 whooping they gave Indiana last Saturday broke the tie with the 1967-69 teams for the most consecutive wins in school history. The Hoosiers nearly matched OSU in terms of yardage, but failed to finish off drives time and time again. With the win, the Buckeyes clinched a spot in the Big Ten Title game against Michigan St. But of course, there’s one more relatively important game before that.


Game Recap
Ohio St received the opening kickoff, and for what seems like the 11th time this year, marched right down the field and began the game with a touchdown. Braxton Miller had a 41-yard run to help set up Carlos Hyde’s 16-yard score. A quick IU punt left the Bucks with a short field to work with, and Braxton didn’t waste time making it 14-0 on a 37-yard run. The Hoosiers were able to grind out a couple of first downs on their second crack, but still ultimately punted. Miller had the Buckeyes on the move again but fumbled the ball away when he was sacked by Ralpheal Green. If there was ever a knock on Brax, it would be his ball security, but I can live with a fumble every now and again if it means several jaw-dropping runs in between. No word on whether or not Green used his twin daggers to aid in the sack. The quarter came to a close with the score 14-0, moving Ohio St’s 1st quarter scoring to 83-0 in the last four games. I don’t even know how to respond to that statistic.

The second quarter opened up with a Mitch Ewald missed field goal. Ewald came into the game a perfect 8/8 on the year, but the blistering wind and flurries of snow did not make kicking conditions optimal this afternoon. The teams matched punts, but Indiana’s was blocked by (any guesses?) Bradley Roby. Roby’s coverage skills seemed to have dropped off a bit from the last two seasons, but he still has a knack for big plays. Miller ran in his second TD of the game two plays later.

After each squad punted again, Tre Roberson and Nate Sudfeld split time under center and had the Hoosiers in business. They were unable to convert it into points again, however, when Michael Bennett sacked Sudfeld on 4th down. Bennett was a menace all afternoon. A Jeff Heuerman 34-yard catch had OSU in the red zone again, and Hyde capped the drive with a 5-yard score to end the half at 28-0.

Indiana put together another good drive to begin the second half, but it just wasn’t Mitch Ewald’s day. A Joey Bosa sack on third down made Ewald’s attempt a little longer, and it made the difference as he was no good from 41-yards out. Miller was intercepted on the first Buckeye possession of the half but he got it right back when IU went four-and-out with their second failed 4th down attempt of the day. Braxton threw a quick swing pass to Dontre Wilson, and ‘Tre did the rest with 24 yards after the catch to extend the lead to 35-0.

In what was the theme of the day, the Hoosiers continued to rack up yardage but failed to turn it into points. On 4th-and-goal from the two, Roberson’s pass fell incomplete. In an attempt to possibly impress voters, Brax and Hyde were still in the game in the 4th quarter and took the Buckeyes on a 98-yard drive. Devin Smith, who has been relatively quiet in recent weeks, caught the 34-yard touchdown.

It was clear that would be Miller’s last throw of the game, and I along with thousands of others waited on the edge of my seat in anticipation of Kenny G’s final appearance in Ohio Stadium. The Buckeye defense couldn’t close out the shutout, as Sudfeld threw a 4-yard touchdown to Shane Wynn. Guiton entered to a raucous ovation, but unfortunately fumbled on his first play after a long run. Indiana capitalized with another scoring drive to make it 42-14. Guiton came back on the field to take a few kneel downs so his final memory at The Shoe wasn’t his turnover.


Game Ball
It was just another ho-hum 300-yard and four-score day for Braxton and 117-yard, two-score output for Hyde, so I finally get an opportunity to give Ryan Shazier some praise. Shazier, wearing #2 in honor of injured senior Christian Bryant, was an animal all game long. He was seemingly in on every single play, finishing with 20 tackles, four for a loss, two sacks and a forced fumble, as well as often affecting plays in pass coverage. Although I really hope it’s not the case, it was most likely the Junior’s final fantastic performance in Columbus.
Game balls to date: Guiton (4), Hyde (3), Miller (2), Shazier


Big Ten
Michigan St solidified their spot opposite Ohio St in Indianapolis on December 7th with their 30-7 thrashing of Northwestern. Iowa rallied for a 17-0 second half to beat michigan, while it took overtime for Nebraska to top Penn St. Wisconsin ended Minnesota’s win streak to retain Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the tenth straight year, and Illinois and Purdue played a game of what can only loosely be called “football.”

BCS Outlook
Alabama and Florida St, not surprisingly, came across no hiccups with Chattanooga and Idaho, respectively, and remain comfortably in the top two spots. Alabama has a HUGE contest this weekend in the Iron Bowl against 4th-ranked Auburn. FSU will travel to The Swamp to face a Florida team who was just embarrassed last week with a loss to FCS Georgia Southern. Ga. Southern won that game without completing a pass. Seriously, their quarterback was 0-3. Simply stunning.

Baylor was smoked by Oklahoma St and Oregon was upset in Arizona, so we don’t have to worry about all that talk of one of those team’s jumping us. Clearly the best hope for Ohio St to slide into one of the top two slots would be Auburn beating Alabama, but that also could put Auburn in position to leapfrog the Buckeyes and play the Seminoles in the title game. Stanford and Arizona St are each one win away from meeting in the Pac 12 title game, with the winner being Ohio St’s Rose Bowl opponent, assuming the Bucks take care of business but are left out of the BCS Championship.


Up Next: The Game, 12:00, ABC
Happy michigan Week! The gay house will host the 110th meeting between these storied rivals this Saturday at high noon. Ohio St has won eight of the last nine battles with that team up north, including last year’s thrilling 26-21 victory in Urban Meyer’s debut to the rivalry. The wolverines’ struggles this season have been well-documented, especially here at FCF where I won’t let an opportunity to criticize bitchigan slip by. Their defense can’t stop anybody, and brady hoke’s job could be in jeopardy if he doesn’t pull a miracle out of his over-sized ass this weekend. jeremy gallon is an All-Conference caliber receiver, and will be the focal point of the Buckeye defense. Bradley Roby will get the opportunity to showcase his talents to NFL scouts going against the senior wideout. devin gardner has had a very ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ type season, rewriting the scum record books against Indiana but only averaging 189 total yards per game in the four contests since.

Ohio governor John Kasich kicked the rivalry up a notch this week by declaring Nove*ber 30 “Scarlet Letter Saturday,” urging Ohioans to avoid using the letter ‘m.’ This is aweso*e. God I love watching us beat those assholes.
Prediction: Ohio St 110 that tea* up north 0


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