A stunned silence enveloped Ohio Stadium as the ball ripped through a swirling wind and the uprights. Ohio State will likely end up with five or six first-round National Football League draft picks but never flashed the dominance that should be inherent to that bushel of talent. Still, it’s a biggie and each squad controls its destiny in the East. The Buckeyes can wrap up the division with a win vs. MSU and a loss by MI at Penn State. “We lost the line of scrimmage”, Meyer said.
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First, we don’t know how the rest of Ohio State’s season plays out.
Lots of emotions, lots of passion, lots of heart.
“Huge win for our program”, Dantonio said.
For MI State’s sake, Geiger was doing plenty of thinking in the final minute of the game.
It was like the Spartans had been thrown back into 2013 and found that brand of magic again, and it was good enough to win the game – even without Cook. Anybody who has watched the Buckeyes knows his frustration didn’t boil over because of one game. The Hawkeyes, who clinched the Big Ten West, were ranked fifth last week.
Suddenly, it was MI State, which entered the game the underdog and the afterthought, leaving with one of the most improbable victories in college football this year. There was no panic from the Spartans. Tyler O’Connor started and Damion Terry played, too. Ohio State, on the other hand, is worst at the beginning of games, ranking 33rd in the first quarter in offensive S&P+.
Ohio State’s only touchdowns came after MI State turnovers gave it a short field.
Elliott carried eight times for 27 yards and provided the one-yard capper.
“This is my last game in The ‘Shoe”, he huffed afterward.
As much as you could be like a rah-rah, meathead guy, Oh, I hope they go 0-12 every year, no. I want them to be 11-0 going into that game.
Another Buckeyes star also said he was going pro but in a far different manner than Elliott. Mission accomplished. As for whether Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett could punish the Spartans’ previous pass vulnerability, it wasn’t even close.
“I’m talking about the play-calling, so whoever calls the plays”. In hindsight, the loss of offensive coordinator Tom Herman, who left to become Houston’s head coach, seems to be the biggest blow. I would say, ‘This is the kick to beat Ohio State.
“I told them, ‘We’re bigger than this loss”. It was to Dantonio and MSU in the aforementioned 2013 Big Ten title game.
No wonder Elliott said, “How we lost, I just feel like we weren’t put in the right opportunity to win this game, we weren’t put in the right situations to win this game”.
“I deserve more than [12] carries”. I asked for those plays to be called and they weren’t and … it hurts. “For a while I didn’t think I was going to play”.
Meanwhile, over on the MI State side, there was no post-game soul-searching and harsh critiques … there was just jubilation. And the best performance of the season from its offensive line.
The Spartans finish their regular season next Saturday when Penn State travels to East Lansing. The Spartans ran wild for 203 yards against a stout Buckeyes defense while only throwing for 91.
“I couldn’t walk”, he said. “We didn’t – it was very conservative”.
Mississippi State and Arkansas combined for 101 points and 1,110 total yards, as the Bulldogs nipped the Razorbacks 51-50.
O’Connor responded with a 75-yard scoring drive, hitting Trevon Pendleton for a 9-yard touchdown to tie the score. Terry was 1-of-4 for two yards. Compare that to Barrett, who was 9-of-16 for 46 yards with a touchdown.
Don’t you wonder if things may have gone differently had Barrett been the quarterback all season? Bo Scarbrough and Damien Harris also ran for scores for Alabama. “We’ve got to get a few first downs, figure out how to complete a pass and beat our rival”.
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“I still think we made a lot of people look foolish”.
