And for as bad as Ohio State’s offense looked in the first half, it was worse in the second. The Buckeyes running back ripped into Urban Meyer and the play-calling in the game.
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“We had to be high alert”, senior linebacker Joshua Perry said about the play.
Lots of emotions, lots of passion, lots of heart.
It was flawless MSU as we have come to know the program under Dantonio.
The Spartans defense, with five senior starters including the DE tandem of Shilique Calhoun and Lawrence Thomas, needs no reminder that it allowed 49 points against Ohio State in a late-season loss.
The Heisman Trophy candidate said the afternoon felt like a “bad, bad dream”, including his limited use.
Even getting back to the Big Ten championship game would require OSU beating MI next Saturday and MI State losing to Penn State. The biggest key in all of this will be the Iowa game at Nebraska.
They will spend their Thanksgiving week preparing for their big annual rivalry game against Ohio State. Arguably the greatest quarterback in school annals, Cook dressed and tried to play … but couldn’t. There was no panic from the Spartans. Tyler O’Connor started and played Damion Terry, too.
The fallout of Ohio State’s first loss in 30 regular season league games quickly overshadowed MI State’s victory. All 13 plays on the drive were runs. A junior, Elliott spent the beginning of the week in the hospital after a cut to his leg became infected, but he complained that he had healed and wasn’t given enough playing time Saturday.
After running for 1,878 yards in 2014, Elliott had continued his dominance this season, gaining over 100 yards in every game this season.
Quarterback Cardale Jones also said on Twitter that last night’s game was his last at the Shoe.
No one beyond the walls of MI State’s locker room saw this coming.
“I didn’t want to pull a Jalen Watts-Jackson”, Geiger said, referring to his teammate who ended up with a broken hip after returning a botched punt for a touchdown to beat MI in October. “That was a very poor performance”, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. So, what exactly was the issue for Ohio State’s offense?
“I’m talking about the play-calling”.
“I was 100 percent today”, he said.
Meyer called the loss “disheartening”. The Sooners can clinch the Big 12 title with a victory, but will they have to play without quarterback Baker Mayfield?
“I don’t think it was the weather so much as they just beat us”, Barrett said.
“I deserve more than 11 carries”. I don’t know what was going on or what they were seeing.
But also like in Ann Arbor, MSU was the better team in more phases of the game. The passing game was just not there.
O’Connor committed the first turnover that led to Ohio State taking a 7-0 lead with l2:15 left in the second quarter. Buckeye defensive end Sam Hubbard busts through the offensive line and sacks O’Connor while forcing a fumble.
The Crimson (9-1, 6-1 Ivy) split the title with Dartmouth and Penn, who were victorious earlier in the day. Wonderful. Take a bow, Dantonio.
A native of Toledo, Geiger had played out the same scenario in his head thousands of times growing up, kicking the ball over the swing set in his yard.
As long as MI State QB Connor Cook is good to go for this game, we should be in store for quite the showdown. MI State hung around and hung around and hung around.
Treon Harris threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jake McGee in overtime to lift Florida past Florida Atlantic. Terry was 1-of-4 for two yards. Compare that to Barrett, who was 9-of-16 for 46 yards with a touchdown. “That’s how you judge when things are going well”. He never really got in a groove-just like the entire Ohio State team.
Ohio State now must hope for a few craziness to get back in the playoff chase.
“You’ve got the rivalry coming up”, Meyer said.
“We can’t have any other response because if we don’t then we’re just a phony team”, Perry said.
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Of course, the season is far from over.
