The Buckeyes win the Rose Bowl

PASADENA, Calif. — Finally, Ohio State learned that all that glitters is not green and gold.

Finally, Ohio State won the big one, beating Oregon 26-17 in the Rose Bowl on Friday, and watched the confetti and streamers fall down on them instead of watching someone else celebrate on the field.

Three straight years of walking off the field feeling cold and empty after bowl games was over. Six straight times of coming up empty in games against Top 5 opponents could be forgotten.

The bad memories of all those frustrating finishes were pushed aside when No. 8 Ohio State (11-2) beat No. 7 Oregon (10-3).

“It felt great, just to come out finally on top and be on the right side of the confetti,” defensive end Thaddeus Gibson said.

Wonder how much this meant to Ohio State? All it took to answer that was watching Gibson throw his helmet as high as he could into the night sky when the game ended.

Ohio State came out throwing, with Terrelle Pryor dropping back to pass on five of the first six offensive plays, and didn’t stop. The sophomore quarterback completed 22 of 37 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns and led Ohio State in rushing with 72 yards.

And the Buckeyes’ defense came out throwing themselves at Oregon’s offense, which entered the game averaging 37.7 points and 424 yards a game.

Ohio State outgained the Ducks 419 yards to 260. Oregon had only 12 first downs in the game. And its leader, quarterback Jeremiah Masoli — who said earlier in the week he thought he was better than Pryor — threw for only 81 yards and ran just six times for 9 yards.

“We just got everything off our backs,” senior offensive lineman Jim Cordle said.

Pryor said, “It was huge for us to get over that hump and win this game. We’ve just got to keep on winning.”

Ohio State knew that disarming the Ducks’ high-powered offense would have to start with putting pressure on Masoli, said linebacker Ross Homan, who led the Buckeyes with 12 tackles and intercepted a pass.

“He’s the leader of their offense and of their team. So we came into the game trying to attack him, trying to get him not in his comfort zone and keep the pressure on him,” Homan said.

Coach Jim Tressel said, “We were going to make sure (Masoli) wasn’t running scot free. He did break a couple, he did get into the end zone. But we played our defense.”

Oregon coach Chip Kelly said Ohio State’s defense was set up to force Masoli to hand off to a running back rather than running the ball himself.

“They had a guy assigned to the quarterback. They wanted us to hand off and that’s what we did,” he said.

Despite Oregon’s offensive struggles, Ohio State felt plenty of pressure until Pryor ended a 13-play, 81-yard drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass to DeVier Posey to make it 26-17 with seven minutes left in the game.

Two Oregon mistakes in the second half also helped lessen the pressure.

Ohio State had a 19-17 lead late in the third quarter with Oregon on the Ohio State 18-yard line. But, when running back LeGarrette Blount fumbled a handoff, then unintentionally kicked it through the end zone, the Buckeyes got the ball.

Then, after Posey’s touchdown catch, Oregon kicker Morgan Flint, who had only two misses all season, was wide right on a 44-yard field goal attempt with 5:10 to play.

Tressel called the Rose Bowl a “pivotal game” for Pryor.

“It marked the end of the first half of his career and we felt like he needed to progress a little bit more,” Tressel said. “We have some very definitive goals as to how good we would like him to be and how good he would like to be at his craft. I thought tonight was a good step.”

Posey, who had eight catches for 101 yards, was more even more enthusiastic about his quarterback.

“That kid, No. 2 (Pryor) came to play today. I’m not sure what he ate last night, but he came to play today,” Posey said.

Ohio State stepped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Pryor to Brandon Saine, then got a 19-yard field goal from Devin Barkley.

Oregon tied the game at 10 on a field goal followed by a 3-yard run by Blount, on which the replay official overruled the call on the field that he had been down short of the goal line.

After a 30-yard field goal by Barclay and a 45-yarder from Aaron Pettrey gave Ohio State a 16-10 halftime lead, Oregon took its only lead when Masoli ended a 53-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Barclay’s third kick of the day, a 38-yarder with 6:36 left in the third quarter put Ohio State up to stay at 19-17.

After 18 more minutes ticked off the clock, Ohio State’s seniors could finally celebrate a bowl win.

“I’ve been saying all along that we’re good enough and we can compete with anybody in the nation,” senior defensive back Kurt Coleman said. “Today we played our best ball throughout the whole year. Today we showed up and played our brand of ball.”
Source:http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com