2009 Fiesta Bowl Recap

Ohio State and Texas thrilled Fiesta Bowl viewers last night with an exciting football game. All indicators leading up to the game led us to believe the Buckeyes were in over their heads and had no business being in the same stadium as the Texas Longhorns. I, too, wrote how the Longhorns would cruise to an easy 37-6 type of game. But to my delight that did not happen. The Buckeyes went blow for blow with Texas demonstrating that they belonged on the same field with the Big 12 powerhouse.

They hung in there through the first half. They were able to go in the locker room with a 6-3 lead. Nobody expected the powerful Longhorn offense to be held to a field goal for 30 minutes. Ohio State then weathered a Texas storm in the third quarter and answered with a 15 point run of their own to take a 21-17 lead with 2 minutes left in the game. That alone impressed me. I thought the Buckeyes were dead to rights after the two third quarter TDs, but when it was gut check time, they responded.

But as my brother said and I thought...."TOO MUCH TIME!!!!!!" The Buckeye offense scored too fast. They left Colt McCoy 2 minutes to score. That is just way too much time for the potent offense from Texas. Despite being inches from a 4th down stand, the defense of Ohio State could not hold McCoy. An aggressive play call to blitz McCoy left the slant open over the middle and Anderson Russell couldn't make the stop allowing Texas to score and clinch the nail biting victory.

I wrote six things that needed to happen for Ohio State to win and they came up just short delivering on 5 of them. That perfectly translated to the game in which Ohio State came up just short of winning.

I wrote Wells had to have a big game. He did until he suffered a concussion in the second half. He needs to go pro because he can't go more than 2 games without getting hurt. He needs to get his paycheck while he still can. Back to the game, Wells rushed for 106 yards averaging 6.6 and breaking several big, important runs. his success kept the ball out of the Longhorns' hands. It allowed for the Bucks to control the clock and the game in the first half and was a big reason they had a lead.

I also said the defense HAD to show up and they did. Again, they held the explosive Longhorns to a field goal in the first half and earned a critical three and out in the 4th quarter as well. Unfortunately, in the third quarter the offense sputtered which resulted in little time to rest for the defense. The Longhorns capitalized with a hurry up offense and were able to get two big touchdowns.

I wrote the coaches needed to avoid the same old stagnant game plan. They came through to a certain degree. The Boeckman/Pryor alternating was different and done well from my point of view. It would have been nice to see Boeckman throw underneath a bit more instead of going deep almost every time he was in there, but it was a departure from the same old play calling. They definitely went away from the classic Tressel ball school of conservative power I over and over. But there were two drives in the third quarter where they relapsed. That hurt.

Defensively they were much more aggressive and I think that was good. The zone blitz crap they used against Florida and others was annoying and unsuccessful. This time around they were able to get pressure on McCoy and they were able to stuff the run for the most part. The one problem, and it killed us, was sticking to the blitz on the game winning play and leaving the middle of the field wide open for the slant. McCoy saw it and abused it. Many people will call into AM radio and complain, but hindsight is 20/20. We all begged for more aggression from the defense and we got it. you can't have it both ways. Maybe that one time though????

They did play with heart and they did play physical. Even though Gibson was called for costly penalties for hits to the QB (one of which was a bad call), I liked idea behind it. I liked the effort to hit the QB hard and make him think.

I said the Buckeyes couldn't make more mistakes and had to win field position. They had no turnovers and forced one. Their penalties were more costly though. Field position was a wash.

Finally, I said Terrelle Pryor had to have his best game. Not only did he NOT have his best game, I feel he had his worst game. This is not to say I blame him for the loss, but he made a number of freshmen mistakes running out of bounds before th first down marker despite having a clear path beyond it. He also made some bad throws and still isn't throwing it away and taking big sacks. The big thing was that it was glaringly obvious the offense had no passing game whatsoever when he was in there. They relied solely on his legs. Granted they are pretty darn good legs and are able to gain plenty of yards but as the game proved, you can't score consistently with it.

Overall, I feel better than I did after the last two BCS Title games. They were over matched in those two games and it was embarrassing. This time, the Buckeyes hung in there well and after going down, they manned up and fought back. Really, they were inches away from winning this game despite the loss of their star running back and lack of a passing game. They played with passion and showed great effort. Programs like Ohio state don't have moral victories. The bar is set too high for those. We expect National Titles here. There is a lot of work to be done. Next year could be ugly. But as for this particular game.....I am proud of my guys even if the loss hurts.