The Indiana Hoosiers brought their fantastic passing game into Columbus but were unable to move the ball effectively against the better Buckeyes defense. Ohio State won the game 38-10, giving up all 10 points in the second half and the only Indiana touchdown came against the second team defense. The win marked Tressel’s 100th of his career at Ohio State putting him at 100-21 overall. Pryor’s passing was the story of the game as he threw with an 80% completion percentage for 334 yards – a new career best for him – as the Buckeye offense found their usual success again.
The game started in what was perhaps what every fan wanted to see. The Buckeye offense rolled out of the gate with a couple quick passes to the left side to Saine and Posey. With three quick completions in a row, the Buckeyes managed to move down to the Indiana 39. The Buckeyes suddenly switched looks and gave the ball to Boom Herron up the middle to the left side. Herron blasted through the open gap and streaked to the endzone for the first score of the game.
Indiana found some success in the passing game early on, but most of their success came on short quick passes trying to gain as much yardage as the Buckeyes were willing to give up. After gaining a single first down, the Buckeye defense tightened up and stopped the Hoosiers short just after crossing the 50.
After a 3 and out for the Buckeye offense, Indiana Quarterback Chappell tossed his second interception on the year in a beautiful pass to a wide open Devon Torrence. Torrence managed to move the ball down to the 34 yard line and gave Pryor the chance to find Sanzenbacher on a couple quick passes over the middle, including a prototypical slant into the endzone for a touchdown.
It is clear that opposing offenses are choosing to stick with quick passing games to try to negate the Buckeye defensive line. The Buckeye ends continually popped Ben Chappell in the pocket, but always moments after he tossed the pass away. The lack of sacks were annoying, but understandable given the offensive strategy.
As AndrewGK pointed out, the only thing stopping the Buckeye offense in this one was the Buckeye offense. Pryor missed a couple passes high, including one to Taurian Washington after he had already caught one earlier in the drive. The Drive stalled inside Indiana territory, but the 53 yard field goal attempt was blocked, keeping the Buckeyes from putting more points on the board. The postive side of that drive was the early appearance of Jordan Hall in the game, getting a reception for a few yards out of the backfield early in the drive.
The play of the line was particularly impressive overall. The offensive tackles gave Pryor plentiful time to throw the ball and opened up some nice holes in the running game. The Boren brothers were generally disruptive – other than one play where Zach Boren got blown up on the line by a linebacker. Bryant Browning was solid but found himself in hot water once or twice and was nailed for holding on a particularly brutal play that saw Pryor have to escape the pocket for a loss of six. Admittedly, though, the holding was fairly weak. The Line did give up a couple sacks during the game, but were coverage sacks for the most part.
The Buckeyes continued to get the young guns into the game early on. On the first drive of the second half, Corey “Philly” Brown got a first down reception down the left side of the field. On the following play, Pryor tossed the ball 60 yards to Brandon Saine who got held up by the defender but still managed to make a play on the ball and run it into the endzone for the Touchdown. Pryor also had a stat padding play on the drive when he tossed a pass that got batted down at the line and ricocheted off the back of one of his players back into Pryor’s hands. Pryor caught the pass but lost a yard on the play.
The Buckeye defense was dominant through the beginning of the second quarter. Over 9 plays the Buckeyes took back a yard from the Hoosiers. On the second play of their drive, Chappell threw yet another interception, though this was less his fault and more fantastic play from the Buckeye linebackers. Homan skied to get the ball and tipped it to himself but was only able to bat the ball again. The ball started to fall and tipped off Homan’s foot just in time for Brian Rolle to grab the ball moments before it hit the ground. The Buckeye offense tried to run the ball a few times with Dan Herron but found limited success. A Pryor pass to Posey in the corner of the endzone from 20 yards out capitalized on the Hoosier turnover.
I’m a little worried about the play of Devon Torrence. He’s a very good defensive back, but he plays a little too close to the border of Pass Interference for my liking. There were several plays today that looked like they should have been called pass interference but the refs chose to keep the flag in their pockets. These kinds of plays might hurt us sometime in the future.
The most surprising thing about the first half was the complete imbalance in the offensive game calling. The Buckeyes ran the ball only 12 times, and 3 of those were passing plays that Pryor was either sacked or forced to scramble. Pryor threw 24 passes during the half to 10 different receivers (including himself) for 280 yards and 3 touchdowns. Pryor did not show off his scrambling ability at all, losing 19 yards on 3 carries for the half.
The Buckeyes leading receivers were DeVier Posey and Brandone Saine with 73 yards and a touchdown a piece on 6 and 3 receptions respectively. Dane Sanzenbacher also had 2 receptions for 53 yards and a touchdown to round out the Buckeyes scoring receivers. Comparitively, the top Indiana receiver was Max Dedmond with 2 receptions for only 13 yards. OSU’s top runner was Boom Herron with 8 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown.
Ben Chappell ended the half with 10/18 for 53 yards and 2 picks. The Indiana offense was completely stymied by the Buckeye defense gaining only 65 total yards compared to their 480 against Michigan last week. The Bucks picked up 320 yards in the first half, along with 31 total points.
The Buckeye defense continued their dominant play in the second half. The first Indiana drive ended on a great hit from Devon Torrence on the receiver of a screen pass. The Indiana offense simply had no answers for the Buckeye defensive line, but did find some success on a cutback run up the middle where the Buckeyes overpursued play and let the ball carrier squirt out behind them.
On the offensive side, things began to slow down a bit as the Buckeyes started to try to focus on the running game a little. Pryor did still throw a couple nice throws on the way down to the 8 yard line of Indiana. On the first down and goal play, the Buckeyes came out in a “Boomcat” formation with Dan Herron taking the snap and running up the left side for the touchdown. The play clearly surprised the Indiana defense, and it was obvious that the Buckeyes were running it to give future teams something more to have to prepare for.
Indiana’s offense finally started gaining some traction late in the 3rd quarter. After a questionable late hit penalty on the kick off return, the Hoosiers found some open passing and running lanes and managed to work their way down into the red zone. The Buckeye defense decided to stiffen at that point and stopped a 3rd and 6 with Chappell under heavy pressure. The drive gave Indiana a field goal – their first points in the game.
The Buckeyes began to run with the backups up 35 points. Bauserman came into the game with Carlos Hyde and Jaamal Berry splitting time in the backfield. The Buckeyes moved the ball down the field mostly on the ground with Bauserman only throwing the ball once. The strategy worked to move the ball into the redzone, but Carlos Hyde fumbled the ball inside the 5 to end the scoring threat and leave the ball with Indiana on the three yard line.
OSU’s defense managed to make the adjustments necessary to continue to dominate the game. The primary change was the switch to primarily backups along the line which allowed fresh legs to continue to harrass the Hoosier offense. Other backups that saw playing time for the Buckeyes included Kenny Guiton, Melvin Fellows “Safari Planet”, Travis Howard, Storm Klein,
Pryor left the game with 24/30 for 334 yards and 3 touchdowns through the air. His rushing stats were pathetic with 3 carries for -19 yards, though he never had a called run and never tried to scramble with the ball on a broken play. Pryor also managed to catch a pass (from himself) though he only gained a single yard.
Ben Chappell was also pulled before the end of the game but didn’t have nearly as good of a game. He finished 16/26 for 106 yards and 2 interceptions. Trea Burgess led the Hoosier’s on the ground with 9 carries for 30 yards and Terrance Turner finished with 3 receptions for 37 to lead their receivers.
DeVier Posey caught 8 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown to make up for last weeks showing. Brandon Saine and Dane Sanzenbacher followed close behind with 4 catches and a touchdown each with 84 and 60 yards a piece. Taurian Washington and Corey “Philly” Brown both picked up a pair of catches as well with 3 other receivers catching a pass a piece. On the ground, Boom Herron led all rushers with 12 carries for 68 yards and 2 touchdowns. Jaamal Berry was clearly the most efficient with 8.4 yards per carry on 5 carries.
The Buckeyes next play at Wisconsin next Saturday (October 16th) at 7:00 PM. You’ll be able to find that game on ESPN.
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