It’ll be hard to take much away from this game, but that didn’t make it any less fun to watch.
New Mexico State was completely outclassed today in all facets of the game (despite Glen Mason’s attempts to convince us otherwise). Ohio State succeeded at covering the spread with a final score of 45-0 over the Aggies.
The Buckeyes looked like they were going to jump out to a massive lead on NMSU when the first play of the game was a 43-yard pass from Pryor to Posey. However, the offense stalled on that drive and Pettrey was called out to kick a field goal, which he promptly missed – though it looked like it had been blocked. OSU’s second drive also stalled a bit forcing Pettrey to try a 52 yarder which he missed wide left.
Buckeye fans were getting a little antsy until Pryor punched the ball into the endzone on a nice 8 yard option up the middle for a Touchdown to take the lead at 7-0 on the 1st play of the 2nd quarter. After that, the flood gates were opened and NMSU was swamped. Ohio State scored 28 points in the 2nd quarter, including a sweet DeVier Posey to Sanzenbacher pass for a 39 yard touchdown where Posey looked off the safeties, and threw to his second option.
Pryor looked ok throwing the ball on the day, going 11/23 for 135 yards and a TD pass to Sanzenbacher in the 2nd quarter, and 9 carries for 83 yards and a TD. Pryor did not even dress for the 2nd half as Bauserman filled in for him. The broadcast claimed that there had been no injury to Pryor and that the Coaches had simply decided to rest the starting Quarterback. This news comes as an immense relief going into next weeks big game against Penn State.
Bauserman was unspectacular in the game, throwing for 2/9 for 75 yards, with both completions to Duron Carter who looked to be growing into his role on the team. The second throw required Carter to get his knee down before falling out of bounds. Carter ended up leading the team in receptions with 4 for 83 yards, with Posey a close second at 4 for 78. Also putting up receiving stats were Dane Sanzenbacher (4 for 72 and 2 TDs) who scored his first touchdown since the Illinois game, a span of 5 games without a score. Jake Ballard and Ray Small each had 1 catch for 10 and 6 yards respectively.
Ohio State dug deep into it’s depthchart especially at running back calling the number of no less than 10 players. Jordan Hall led the team with 11 carries for 93 yards with a long run of 39. Jordan Hall continues to impress in his Freshman season, often channeling the spirit of Antonio Pittman in his slick moves and speedy burst. Also worth noting was Dan Herron’s return to the lineup, carrying 6 times for 66 yards including a 53 yard touchdown burst where he was completely untouched. Brandon Saine also scored, but only carried 7 times for 13 yards, looking as if he was still suffering a little from his injury from last week.
The Defense was spectacular this week against the worst offense in Division 1A football (I refuse to use FBS and FCS). NMSU was only able to gain 62 yards on 45 plays and succeeded in making only 2 first downs – the second of which was on a 13 yard carry by quarterback Jeff Fleming in the second quarter. NMSU’s offense was even unable to get the ball into Ohio State territory and never even looked like a threat with their deepest drive going to their own 42 yard line – their first drive of the game.
While it seems like a lot to claim that the defense looked great against such a pathetic offense, the defense did spend the entire game attacking NMSU, and rarely allowed the Offense any sort of success. NMSU’s best player was their quarterback who went 6/13 for 22 yards and an INT, and ran the ball 7 times for 31 yards. The next most successful player was their running back Clay who carried the ball 10 times for 16 yards.
The defense did recover two turnovers. The first was an interception which looked not unlike one of those Playstation type tipped interceptions that tends to drive you insane. The play was created by Anderson Russell, who started at FS for the first time since the Navy game, and was completed by Ross Homan who came down with the football. NMSU also fumbled the ball into the endzone in the 3rd quarter, where Brian Rolle was able to fall on it and score his second touchdown of the year.
The Defensive line was simply nasty all game, giving NMSU no room to run, and no time to throw. The Aggie’s quarterback did show a lot of poise in the pocket, taking some vicious hits while still getting the ball off, but nothing came of it. The most brutal hit came from a cornerback blitz where Chimdi Chekwa came in entirely unblocked and completely destroyed Fleming, but not before he could get the ball off. The inabilities of New Mexico State’s offensive line to get any sort of protection allowed the Buckeye defense to control the game and dictate the terms of surrender.
Also worthy of note were the hot and cold special teams. At the very beginning of the 2nd quarter, Aaron Pettrey kicked the ball extremely short on purpose. New Mexico State’s coverage team was entirely unprepared as the ball slowly bounced past the 40 yard line, where Pettrey recovered it for a successful onsides kick. The play was entirely unexpected especially from ultra-conservative Tressel. Also notable about that play was Mark May’s complaints about it, claiming that it was an unnecessary call. Our view is that Mark May can shove it, as the play was called with the score at 7-0.
Pettrey, unfortunately, left 6 points on the field as he missed 2 of our 5 field goal attempts (only 1 was successful, for a total of 12 additional points that should have been scored). Even more unfortunate was a cheap shot by one of the New Mexico State player, taking Pettrey out at the knee well away from the kickoff return. The hit was not called, and Pettrey was forced to leave the game with an undisclosed injury, though it was rumored to be a knee sprain to his kicking leg. The kicking duties for the rest of the game were handled by Devin Barclay, a Junior out of Annapolis, Maryland as Ben Buchanan did not dress due to illness.
The final yardage stats were 560-62 in favor of the Buckeyes, just shy of a +500 yardage game for the Bucks.
Ohio State (7-2) faces Penn State (7-1) next week in Happy Valley. Penn State faces Northwestern in Evanston later today.
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