Here we go again.
It’s November and after two weeks on the road with the Buckeyes I feel
like I have been riding in a motorcycle side-car, driven by Ray Charles on
acid. We are careening, once more, toward another wild finish, both in the Big
10 and nationally. After following the
doctor’s orders and taking four quarters of the Indiana Hoosiers, the OSU
offense, if not totally well, is at least, after a 600 yard day, off the
critical list. Then we drove, for what
seemed like 12 hours, into the mountains of Pennsylvania only to be lulled into a near coma by the scenery and
hospitality of the Nittany natives. We wake to find
ourselves surrounded by 108,000 reality-impaired Penn State fans, who actually think their team has a chance
against the Buckeyes. The Lions proceed to
prove themselves to be possibly the best 2-7 team in the history of inflated
balls, as Zack Mills does his famous Joe Montana imitation. The Nits KO Krenzel
and take a 10 point lead into the locker room at half time. It may have taken three managers and an
injection from the trainers to get the clipboard out of and a football into
Scott McMullen’s hands, but the effort was well spent. Scotty Mac, “The Gunslinger”, previously know
as “hey, you” came in and took over the game.
Passing,…. hitting receivers,…. in stride no
less,…. running when needed, he led the Buckeyes comeback to a one point
win. While Penn State’s last gasp 60-yard field goal attempt fell just
short and wide, Buckeye fans shrugged and explained to Nittany
loyalists that we consider any win in regulation to be a blow out. If they can’t even take the game into OT,
how can we respect them? Despite the
weird, often rocky road the Buckeyes are right in the thick of everything. With an 8-1 record they are tied for the Big
10 lead with upcoming games against the other pretenders.
We
are now in a three-game gauntlet to the Big 10 title. First the Michigan State Spartans, led by the
aptly named Jeff Smoker come to town.
Smoker is having a great season.
Who says rehab is only for quitters?
Unfortunately for Smoker and his friends, the OSU defense will look at him as just another guy having a bad
day in the Shoe. In this two year run we
have seen and humbled Phillip Rivers, Cody Pickett, Jason Gesser,
Kliff Kingsbury, Ken Dorsey, and just for laughs,
let’s throw John Navarre in that group.
The Silver Bullets eat hot-shot quarterbacks and their Heisman hopes like Rosie O’Donnell gobbles jelly doughnuts.
The Spartans are always talented and always inconsistent. Their bubble burst last week in their home
loss to their in-state enemies with the ugly helmets. I don’t expect a great
effort on Spartans’ part this week, unless they have some unexpected early
success against the Buckeyes. The home
crowd and Buckeye defense should be more than the Spartans really want to deal
with. Will Smith and Darion Scott are going to lay enough licks on Smoker that
he’ll abandon his 12-step program for whatever substance the trainers may have
available. After conference wins against
Indiana, Illinois,
Minnesota (OK they beat a good Iowa team too), first year coach John L. Sullivan, or John
L. Lewis or John L. Smith or whatever his name may be, is just beginning to get
acquainted with the real Big 10.
After losing to UM last week, and the Buckeyes this week, he’ll take
what’s left of his season to Wisconsin before finishing up with Penn State. Not quite as
easy as it looked is it John L.? By
Saturday evening the Spartans will have another “L” by their name to match that
of their coaches’.
The Buckeyes, themselves, seem to have found some
semblance of a running game. Lydell Ross has put up two, one hundred yard outings in
row. Granted, it was against
defenses, which bore more resemblance to a shower curtain than
the Steel Curtain. Still, any
improvement is appreciated. Now we also
have two quarterbacks. That may be good
or that may be bad. Hopefully it is
bad….for the Spartans.
Turning our attention to the national scene, last
week Georgia and Miami both fell.
Yes, we are getting screwed by the BCS.
Try to follow this Boolean logic for the ranking of the one-loss
teams. Miami pounded FSU earlier in the season, they both have one
loss, and FSU is ahead of Miami in
the BCS. VT, with one loss, humiliates Miami and trails the Canes in the BCS. VT was totally trounced by a West Virginia team which still has only 4 wins. Still, VT tops the Buckeyes in both AP and
coaches poll. OSU’s
only loss in two seasons comes at Wisconsin, at night, in a monsoon, by 7 points. Still the Buckeyes can get no higher in the
BCS than 5th. In the polls the Bucks languish in 6th
and 7th place. Only the
ranking of the undefeated OU Sooners makes any
sense. Nationally the Buckeyes are
treated with the same respect given to a Jack Daniel’s distributor at a Baptist
tent revival. Our winning seems to
offend national media types. They just
cannot understand how we have won 22 out of 23 games because they really don’t
understand football. Public opinion has
become governed by highlights and film clips shown on Sports Center. It easy to
show OU’s Jason White passing Texas silly, or Kellen Winslow
making circus catches. The highlight of
many Buckeye games is the defense holding the opponent to less than 50 yards
rushing. Sort of hard
to capture that in a thirty second film clip. You don’t get to see a BJ Sander punt(remember class, ….what is the most important play in
football?) being downed on the 5 yard line on the network highlights. The
national media types wish we would just go away and make their job easier. Sorry, guys,…not gonna happen this week.
And finally….has anyone seen or heard from a Notre
Dame fan since August? Not that I’m complaining. Do the Domers miss
George O’Leary yet? Bob Davie? Lou
Holtz? Knute Rockne? Is it true
that Steve Spurrier has purchased a house in South Bend?
Don’t
be late Buckeye fans, Spartan spankin’
begins promptly at noon. See ya at the
Shoe.