As the Ohio State offense sputtered early againt No. 19 Minnesota today, the Buckeye defense shut down the Golden Gophers in a 34-3 romp at Ohio Stadium.
“Obviously, our defense dominated the game,” said OSU football coach Jim Tressel. “They only allowed 112 yards total yards and they were put in some adverse positions.”
Starting tailback Maurice Clarett did not play in the game because of a nerve injury in his shoulder.
“The wise thing medically was for him not to play,” Tressel said. “I don’t think there was a scenerio where he would have played today. We know Lydell Ross and Maurice Hall are good backs as well.”
Hall and Ross rushed for 94 and 91 yards, respectively. Minnesota’s Terry Jackson II, the Big Ten’s leading rusher going in to the game, was held for 55 yards.
“They really opened up the holes all day,” Ross said of the offensive line. “I wasn’t satisfied with myself at times, so I liked that I better myself.”
The pass defense did an effective job as well, holding Minnesota’s quarterback Asad Abdul-Khaliq to 59 yards in the air. OSU quarterback Craig Krenzel more than doubled his counterpart’s totals with 128 yards.
The Silver Bullet defense was tested early and often as the OSU offense failed to move the ball downfield at the start of the game.
After a 30-yard kick-off return by two-way star Chris Gamble on the game’s opening drive, the Buckeyes failed to move the ball for a first down and were forced to punt.The ensuing Andy Groom punt was blocked by wide receiver Jermaine Mays and the Golden Gophers got a favorable start deep in OSU territory.
“I was mad,” Groom said. “To have something like that happen on your first punt – the fourth play of the game – is disheartening.”
Although Minnesota got inside the Buckeye 10-yard line on a linebacker Matt Wilhelm penalty, the Silver Bullet defense held the Golden Gophers to a field goal as they went up 3-0.
The offensive futility continued for the Buckeyes on their next possesion as they went three and out for the second straight series. Minnesota got favorable field position again as they started on their own 45-yard line. At that point, OSU had negative two yards of offense. However, the Gophers failed to do anything with the positive field postion and punted.
The Buckeyes got a pair of first downs on the next possesion but gave Minnesota a solid starting point again as Ross fumbled and the Golden Gophers recovered on their own 45-yard line.
The OSU defense was helped by a pair of Minnesota penalties on the following Gopher possession as the Golden Gophers went three and out.
As the second quarter began it was more of the same for the OSU offense. On the first possesion of the quarter, the Buckeyes managed to get a first down but were still forced to punt after only six plays.
An illegal formation penalty negated a Groom punt that was downed on the Minnesota 1-yard line. Instead, the Golden Gophers started on their own 18-yard line following the rekick.
The lack of production on offense must have been contagious as the teams traded three-and-outs on each of their next possesions.
After the Gophers failed to move the ball on their second possession of the second quarter, the Buckeyes finally put together some offense as Ross was able to plunge in the end zone from five yards out.
“We wanted to get the points on the board,” Ross said. “I had to be patient on that play because I had to wait to see the hole open up.”
The scoring drive was aided by wide receiver Michael Jenkins’ 49-yard catch on second down that brought OSU to the Golden Gopher five.
“Mike Jenkins is a football player. He is very focus on what he needs to do,” Tressel said.
Mike Nugent’s extra point put the Buckeyes up 7-3 with 5:59 to go in the first half.
After shutting down the Gopher offense on the following possession, safety Donnie Nickey blocked Preston Gruening’s punt as the Buckeyes got the pigskin on Minnesota’s 14-yard line.
“I could have tackled him I came in there so fast,” Nickey said of the punt block.
The offensive futility came back to OSU as they actually lost yardage in the Gopher red zone. Nugent’s field goal gave the Buckeyes a 10-3 lead that held for the remainder of the half.
Minnesota’s first possesion of the second half turned into another three and out. A low snap on the punt forced Gruening to fall on the ball and started OSU’s first possession of the half inside the Golden Gopher 10-yard line.
Ross scored from nine yards out on the second play of the drive to put the home team up 17-3 early in the second half.
After stopping the Gophers again, the Buckeyes marched down inside the Minnesota red zone. The offense failed to get a touchdown so Nugent kicked his second field goal of the game and 20th of the year to extend OSU’s lead to 20-3.
The kick broke Dan Stultz’s record of 19 field goals in a season. It was also Nugent’s 21st straight field goal, a Buckeye record he is continually breaking.
“It feels really good to know that my name is down in the record book forever,” Nugent said.
The Buckeyes tacked on another seven points on their next possesion with Krenzel throwing a 30-yard pass to wide receiver Chris Vance in the end zone.
The score was especially sweet for Vance as he learned of his brother’s untimely death shortly early this morning. “On the sidelines I though about my brother every second, but I knew I had to do something, so I peformed for my brother in the game,” Vance said.
Vance also had learned of his father’s death in the week before last year’s game against Minnesota.
“There is no question about it. The touchdown he scored was a special thing for him,” Tressel said.
Mays returned the ensuing kick-off back to midfield to give Minnesota thefavorable field position it enjoyed early in the first half.
The Silver Bullet defense once again proved its worth forcing the Gophers to another three and out. The defensive stop was highlighted by a devasting sack on quarterback Abdul-Khaliq by defensive tackle David Thompson.
The start of the fourth quarter began to look like the start of the first quarter as Groom lost control of the snap and was tackled for a 16-yard loss by Mays. Minnesota began its next drive on the OSU 31-yard line.
Minnesota penalties and solid Silver Bullet defense kept the Golden Gophers from scoring. Defense end Darrion Scott floored Abdul-Khaliq on fourth down to get the Buckeye offense the ball back.
Following a 26-yard Hall run on fourth down, the Buckeyes scored a touchdown from four-yards out. The run by Hall and the kick by Nugent put OSU up 34-3.
After Minnesota went three and out for the final time of the day, the offensive back-ups for OSU ran out the clock as the Buckeyes went 10-0 on the season.
“Winning 10 games straight is a lot of games, but we are going to keeppracticing hard and playing hard,” Gamble said.
A crowd of 104,897 watch the Buckeyes defend its way to victory over the Golden Gophers. It was the second-largest crowd ever at the Horseshoe, falling a few hundred people short of the last week’s contest record-setting attendance.
