OK, I'll admit it. It was scary for a while there. Not seeing our beloved Buckeyes score for the first two quarters scared the hell out of me. At halftime, I thought "Damn, I wonder when the last time we went back-to-back quarters without scoring".
The answer to that question was the third and fourth quarters of last year's game against.....Penn State. I gulped a little harder when I thought about what that meant.
But then the Buckeyes turned it on. Both offensively and defensively. No, Smith didn't have Heisman-esque stats for the game. But he did have one play that will go on his Heisman reel, and that was enough to seal the deal for the Scarlet and Gray.
You can read all the game recaps and stat sheets you want, but here's the one stat that stands out in LARGE fashion to me....
Ohio State's defense has allowed three touchdowns this year.
Ohio State's defense has scored two touchdowns this year.
When you've got that going for you, you're on the road to greatness. Nobody can deny that this defense has outplayed EVERYONE expectations.
- Surrendering 8 points per game.
- Allowing only 167 yards passing per game
- Allowing only 115 yards rushing per game
Did ANYBODY expect this defense to be this strong so early??? I know I didn't.
One final thought. We can make all the references to the 2002 winning the close ones and keeping us on the edge of our seats, and they do translate well to 2006. But I swore I saw the ghost of Chris Gamble when Jenkins took that ball through traffic down the sideline.
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