Whew!

Greetings from Cbus,
It's a bright, sunny fall day in C-bus. Were it not for bare trees, one might think of the spring as lawn mower sounds abound as the lazy use their mowers to take down the last of the leaves. It's November and that's not a month when the Tressel-led Buckeyes surrender the Big Ten championship easily.

I was experiencing another torturous weekend of ACC football in BB&T stadium when the Bucks kicked off at 3:30. Thanks to technology (Slingbox), I was watching the Buckeye game and my daughter at the same time. And yes, being the superstitious type, I had my Buckeye gear on ... in part because my daughter's team wears Iowa colors. I stood out enough that the team mascot was agasp ... but mostly out of jealousy because my team stands to play another game after next weekend, while the mascot (and his two other costume inhabitants) only has basketball after Nov. 27. In fact, many in the stands were pretty well-educated when it came to Big Ten football ... and they had plenty of opinions (mostly positive) about the football played up north of the Mason-Dixon line.

I have to say that going into yesterday's game, I had taken something that Chris Spielman had said earlier to heart ... he apparently had in his TV broadcast a week ago cited Adrian Clayborn for taking plays off, stating that Clayborn had his head in the NFL already. This might explain Iowa's 4th (counting yesterday) loss this season after having led or been tied going into the fourth quarter. I was pretty confident that we might be able to win a dogfight. I think Tressel puts it best when he talks about a team that "never stops fighting". Apparently Ferentz needs to drill the same into his team's heads.

At the same time, DeVier Posey's drop made me think that he had his head in the NFL already ... too.

The game was a defensive battle for the most part. However, the team that led the NCAA in net turnovers (the Bucks) posted a -2 for the game. In most games against a strong contender, the team that wins the turnover battle wins the game. Not so yesterday ... luckily ... or perhaps it was just a matter of talent and (unexpected) play calling that won out.

Who'd a thought that the Bucks would leave behind their recent modus operandi coming into the game of Boom first, pass second to Posey and Dane. The Bucks game in with a completely unexpected game plan ... and the sputtering offense appeared to show how uncomfortable the team was with spreading the field, throwing to the TE's, the swing passes, and some bombs down field. What did seem to make the team relax was putting the ball in Terrelle Pryor's hands 15 times from where he gained 78 yards ... and a critical 14 when it counted. The steady Dane Sanzenbacher, however, was not going to be silenced. Terrelle Pryor apparently called the 24 yard pass play that led to the critical final drive completion. It was the same play called as the one at the end of the first half when, looking for Taurian Washington, TP threw his first of 2 INTs. On that play, Sanzenbacher had been covered by a linebacker and TP knew that the same play would likely draw the same coverage. All on the sideline liked their chances of Dane vs an Iowa LB and the acrobatic Sanzenbacher did not disappoint. Sanzenbacher finished the game with 6 catches for 102 yards.

And Sanzenbacher was quick not to point a finger at Posey. He too owned up to a missed catch during the game. In fact, the second INT came on a pass attempt to Dane.

While ABC coverage did not allow me to see the Tressel-to-Pryor flying chest-bump, my favorite TV coverage came when we saw sophomore Zach Boren, clearly a firey combatant, in the grille of senior captain Cam Heyward who almost immediately proceeded to make the critical sack of the game that all but ended Iowa's hopes of a comeback. Heyward is often criticized locally for not making the showy plays - the big sacks, the bone-jarring hits so much so that letters to the editor have often called his year "disappointing". Any informed viewer of football can see that Cam draws double- and triple-teams from opponents on nearly every play and that he is disruptive even if he doesn't get credit for the tackle. That being said, I was calling for a key stop at the time and no one better than Cam to deliver the blow.

Any observer could also see that Brian Rolle was a key element of the Buckeye D yesterday. It was not clear if that was by Buckeye design or based on what Iowa was dishing and, yes, there were some mistakes, but he seems to have the ability to turn right around and make amends with his next play. Rolle finished with 10 tackles including 3 TFLs for a total loss of 12 yards. The emotional Rolle is a contrast to the steady, quiet Homan who had a good though not great game. Homan had 7 tackles.

And yup, not one pick or fumble recovery. Clearly Iowa was intent on not giving the Bucks anything easy. The difference might have been in the matchup between Iowa's receivers and the Buckeye secondary, particularly in the second half when the Bucks dialed up some tigher coverage and dropped away from the all-out blitz of the first half that allowed Stanzi to dump the ball into the gap formed by the blitzing LB or DB. To me it seemed that the Bucks were over-running the plays and watching the RB run past or seeing the ball fly over their heads. In the waning minutes of the game when forced to pass Stanzi could not find an open receiver when we dropped 7 and 8 and forced the less-mobile Stanzi to flee the pocket. He's no TP on the ground.

The difference might too have been in the play of the Buckeye O-line which did a better-than-average job of handling the beefy Iowa D-line and stars like Clayborn. Iowa seemed more content to try to match up with the speedy Buckeye receivers and, in so doing, the LB-match ups were inevitable and in the favor of the Bucks. The TE match-ups favored the likes of Stoneburner and Fragel in size. And, I like the odds of any Buckeye receiver covered by any LB.

A little postgame ... not one of the 105 teammates are talking about Tress's half time pep talk from the Penn State game. No, Tress has not cracked or become the reincarnation of Woody Hayes, even though there was a bit of testiness in the Buckeye postgame presser yesterday and more arguments with the referees than I've seen in a long time from Tress in the Iowa game (I think a flag on the coach when he's about 20 yards on field was a definite possibility). Rather, Tress has shown that he's not 100% buttoned up. He's about 95% tight with about 5% of the rest of us in there. He's such a disciplined person, however, that it takes 211 degrees for the steam to start to show before he goes into full boil. The rest of us show a bit of simmer before we bubble and boil ... only to boil over rather predictably. The only leaks from last week have stated that there was a bit of "salty" language but also that Tressel was never out of control. Almost as though it was just as calculated as one would expect from the Senator. As someone mentioned, you really get a team's attention when the boil-overs are few and far between. I don't put it past Tressel to have completely planned and engineered last week's half time explosion for just the purpose of getting the team's attention. They were sleepwalking.

But, not yesterday. That team fully understood the urgency. One only need see the faces of the team in that final quarter and following the game. It was on the line.

And speaking of "on the line", the annual tussle with "the team up north" looms large. Plenty is riding on this game ... for the Bucks, an unprecedented 6th straight Big Ten title share and a likely BCS bowl bid (with an outside shot at the Rose Bowl). For Meeechigan, RichRod's time as coach likely hangs in the balance. Sure, I'd like to see RichRod stay at Meeechigan for the foreseeable future, but there's a certain coach in Stanford, Cali that appears to be the next savior of the program. I'm pretty sure that he was darn hard on the myth of the "student" part of "student-athlete" during his years at UM, but I'm also pretty sure that his resume is ripe for an "all is forgiven if you win" outreach should UM fail to come out of Cbus with a victory. The "he's our coach" mantra appears to be wearing thin in Ann Arbor and with the toried alumni. How's that Big East offense looking now (RichRod? ND's Coach Kelly?). I give props to LSU for their comeback and am rooting for Alabama vs Auburn this Friday ... their teams look a whole like they could play with the big boys of the Big Ten any day. And did Coach Pelini go all Woody on his QB last night? Nebraska will fit right in next year.

So it's Beat Meeechigan Week again! The annual showcase of all that is good with college football kicks at noon this Saturday!

GO BUCKS from JennyBucks!