Stats, the game winner, and whatnot

Let’s face it, that’s the way championships are won.  We thought it was over with 10 minutes to play, but this game wouldn’t die.  A battle to the final play, and a nail-biter through and through.

We earned this one, and it tastes so sweet.

Five Big Ten Championships in a row belong to us.

No matter how badly Matt Millen wanted to see Ohio State lose (seriously, he actually said that IOWA runs the best program in the country), nothing was going to stop the defense from snatching victory away from James Vandenberg and his MILF in the stands.

Vandenberg was outstanding, cool and collected all day long.  He threw 3 INTs in the end, but Ricky Stanzi would have thrown five.

So for those who doubted our defense, let’s take a look back at the game winning sequence….

First and 10 from the 25 yard line – Under light pressure, the coverage was solid and Vandenberg is forced to roll out to the right and throw the ball out of bounds.  Fast thinking prevented a sack, but fast defense prevented anything positive for the Hawkeyes.

Second and 10 from the 25 yard line – The Iowa offensive line gets blown up with a strong push and RB Adam Robinson panics in the face of the heat, and loses himself extra yardage as a result.  The 6-yard loss puts a potential FG attempt in peril and Iowa has no option but to throw it on third down.

Third and 16 from the 31 yard line – The Hawkeyes OL is blown up again and Doug Worthington gives chase to a scrambling Vandenberg.  The inevitable happens, and Worthington buries Vandenberg for a 10-yard loss.  A 58-yard FG attempt is out of the question, and Kirk Ferentz keeps the offense on the field.

Fourth and 26 from the 41 yard line – Vandenberg chucks one up in desperation and it’s picked off by Anderson Russell in the end zone.  Iowa’s hopes are dashed by the defense and it’s just a matter of time before Ohio State scores the points they need to win.

It was at that moment that the Iowa blogs changed their motto from “Fuck you, we’re Iowa” to the more appropriate “Fuck….we’re Iowa”.

Ohio State had four plays where they broke down and it cost them a lot.  A 99-yard kick return, a 55-yard pass play, a 33-yard pass play, and a 24-yard run all kept Iowa around longer than they should have been, but Ohio State responded to those four plays with four tremendous defensive plays in the one drive that counted the most.

And that was the game winner.

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Interesting stats, anyone?

Ohio State has gone 10 straight quarters without turning the ball over.  Against supposedly stout defenses like Penn State and Iowa, their ball control has been outstanding, and it has led to the Buckeyes winning back-to-back big games.

Ohio State has now won 36 of their last 40 Big Ten games.  You win 90 percent of your games for five straight years, you’re the elite.  No question about it.

Iowa had only allowed one 100-yard rusher all season.  Ohio State was 8 yards away from having two 100-yard rushers Saturday afternoon.

Ohio State will now have the 4th best rush defense in the NCAA.  TTUN’s running attack is their strength, but they look like they’re running on fumes after putting only 71 yards on Wisconsin.  Meanwhile, their passing attack is ranked #89 in the NCAA.  Wisconsin also put nearly 500 yards of offense up.  This game, on paper, is ugly.  But The Game isn’t played on paper.

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It looks like our Rose Bowl opponent is going to be the winner of next week’s Arizona-Oregon matchup.  If Oregon wins, they clinch the Pac 10 and the Rose.  if Arizona wins, they’ll need to beat Oregon State the following weekend to punch their ticket.