Ohio St. continued its’ dominance over the Golden Gophers on Saturday night with a 52-10 drubbing in Minneapolis. The victory pushed the Buckeyes all time record to 43-7 against Minnesota with Ohio St. winning 24 out of the last 25 meetings in the series. Terelle Pryor made history by joining Art Schlichter and Bobby Hoying as the only Buckeye quarterbacks to have 7,000 yards of total offense in their career. Pryor also threw his 50th touchdowns pass to tie Schlichter for 4th in OSU history.
Ohio St. and Minnesota would trade touchdowns in the first quarter. The opening drive by the Buckeyes featured a lot of Boom Herron and some timely passes by Pryor. After reaching the 2 yard line with a first and goal, the Buckeyes would be stuffed on two run attempts bringing up a third down. The Buckeyes have had problems converting in the red zone this year and it looked as if they would walk away with another field goal. However, Tressel remembered that his quarterback is a 6’6” monster and the QB sneak put the Buckeyes in to the endzone and on the board first.
Minnesota would answer quickly. Adam Weber made some beautiful throws to his receivers on the ensuing drive and the Gopher marched right back down the field. MarQueis Gray burned Devon Torrence on a couple of occasions which allowed the Gophers to navigate to the 7 yard line. DeLeon Eskridge would run rumble for a seven yard touchdown on the next play and tie the score at 7-7. That would be the last time Minnesota would sniff the endzone the rest of the evening.
Ohio St. answered with a 13 play/92 yard drive that chewed up over 7 minutes capped off by a 3 yard touchdown pass to Brandon Saine. The rout was on from there. It was obvious that the Gophers defense could not handle the Ohio St. offensive weapons.
The second quarter belonged to the Buckeyes as they would score 17 unanswered points in the period. Barclay would open up the scoring with a 23 yard field goal. After a quick punt by the Gophers, Boom Herron broke off some big runs and finished the drive with a 10 yard touchdown run. With halftime approaching, Minnesota decided to try and run out the clock. Ohio St. called time out with about 45 seconds left in the half in hopes of getting another 3 points on the board. Minnesota only managed a 10 yard punt (thanks weird rugby punting style) which gave Ohio St. an opportunity to put the Gophers away. Pryor launched a bomb down the right sideline to Posey who made a brilliant adjustment to the ball and came down with the catch. Buckeyes 31-7 at the break.
Minnesota capped off their scoring for the night with a 33 yard field goal in the third quarter pushing the score to 31-10. A blocked punt and recovery by Zach Domicone later in the period gave the Buckeyes their first special teams touchdown of the year.
The starters wouldn’t see much action in the 4th quarter giving the younger guys a chance to see the field. Jordan Hall broke off a beautiful 16 yard run early in the final period. John Simon even hit pay dirt with 30 yard fumble recovery for a score following a vicious hit on Weber by Chimdi Chekwa giving the Buckeyes a 52-10 win.
Pryor finished going 18 of 22 for 222 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did have 1 interception in the second quarter but the Gophers did not have the fire power to make him pay. Posey showed up, as he seems to do against Minnesota, finishing with 6 catches for 115 yards and a score. Boom Herron was the leading rusher for OSU finishing with 114 yards on 17 carries. Most of that came in the first half as the Gophers didn’t have an answer for the punishing rushing attack of the Buckeyes.
Ohio St. will enjoy a rare November bye week and have a chance to rest their battered team. Games against Penn St., Iowa and Michigan will cap off the 2010 campaign. Winning out is a must if there is any chance for a MNC. If a trip to Glendale is out of reach, the loss by Michigan St. opens the door for another possible Big Ten championship and Trip to the Rose Bowl. It won’t be easy. "We know November is going to be turned up a notch," Tressel said. "If we'll go to work and get ready for November, you never know what can happen."
