Spartans Play “Tressel Ball” To Defeat Buckeyes

There is supposed to be nothing bigger than The Game for Ohio State.

Don Speck | The Lima News Ohio State’s Darron Lee, left, and Gareon Conley wrap up MI State’s L.J. Scott during Saturday’s game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Penn State (7-4) wants to play the role of mega-spoiler and ruin what could be a dream season.

The junior kicker booted through a 41-yard field goal as time expired and then sprinted away from a swarm of celebrating Spartans after No. 9 MI State upset No. 2 Ohio State 17-14 on Saturday to snap the Buckeyes’ 23-game winning streak.

The defense thought it had shored up the dam against the run, but leaks popped up increasingly as the Spartans did what Elliott wanted the OSU offense to do: probe the middle again and again and again.

The Buckeyes were handed a 17-14 home loss by the Spartans over the weekend, dropping them to 10-1 straight up and 4-7 against the spread on the season and putting a huge dent in their chances of making the College Football Playoff.

Saturday wasn’t a total loss for the state of OH, despite MI State’s last-second 17-14 victory over No. 2 Ohio State. And Ohio State never did much to challenge the Spartans. MI State gave no hints as to whether he would play, but when he warmed up cautiously t was obvious something was up. He was sacked by defensive end Sam Hubbard and defensive tackle Adolphus Washington recovered the fumble at the MI State 32. They hadn’t lost in a heck of a long time. “Passing game was not there”. The result was particularly impressive considering starting quarterback Connor Cook didn’t play.

He only carried the ball 12 times for 33 yards, but Ohio State also ran just 45 plays from scrimmage.

No. 19 Navy 44, Tulsa 21: TULSA, Okla. – Quarterback Keenan Reynolds ran for 81 yards and a touchdown while directing an offense that rolled up 512 yards for Navy (9-1). Down the line, Urban Meyer went through the motions of singing the fight song with the blank look of a shocked coach who had seemed to be immune to this type of defeat. “And we couldn’t stop them previous year”.

The Buckeyes had to turn to Cardale Jones in the Big Ten title game and the College Football Playoff, but still had playmakers like Ezekiel Elliott in the backfield and Devin Smith on the outside.

“It’s very disappointing”, Elliott told ESPN of his team’s first loss in 2015. The defense played lights out, by far their best game.

Cook said the three have unusually strong chemistry: “The laughter that goes on in our meetings, how often we hang out outside of football … we think we have the best (meeting) room out of all the positions on our team”.

“The one thing that made a difference… this game we got to be the chaser”, Spartans coach Mike Dantonio said. “We weren’t put in the right situations to win this game”, Elliott also said.

Elliot, who finished with only 12 carries for 33 yards and a touchdown, ripped into the coach staff for the play-calling.

Coker completed 11 of 13 passes for 155 yards, leading Alabama to a 49-0 halftime lead.

“I’m disappointed in the play calling”, he said.

MI State answered with a 13-play, 75-yard drive to tie the game 14-14 and began its final scoring drive with 4:07 left to play after two more series of offensive futility by Ohio State. “It is kind of something we’ve seen all season, honestly. Our seven guys up front were dominating, pushing people around the whole game”.

Michael Geiger nailed imaginary game-winning kicks like that as a kid in Toledo, and the unfortunate team on the other end was always Ohio State.