Buckeyes defeat Badgers 38-17
By Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired
Photos by Tom Theodore, Columbus Wired

The No. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes faced their second serious challenge in as many weeks on their drive to the championship taking on a No. 21 Wisconsin team that had defeated the Bucks the last three times in the ‘Shoe in a come-from-behind fashion.   

But this time the Buckeye defense had a record 10 sacks, Chris ‘Beanie’ Wells rushed for 169 yards and scored three TD’s and Todd Boeckman threw to TD passes to Brian Robiskie as the Buckeyes (10-0, 6-0) rallied to defeat Wisconsin 38-17 and remain undefeated this season. 

In previous games in Columbus, the Badgers were down 17-0, 17-0 and 10-0 before rallying for victories. 

QB Todd Boeckman engineered a 7 play, 75-yard drive on the first series culminating with his 22^nd TD of the season to Brian Robiskie, who caught his 9^th TD of the campaign.

The Buckeye defense looked to stop the Badgers first drive but things fell apart when Wisconsin called a fake punt.  Ken DeBauche received the snap and instead of punting, lobbed a pass to Paul Standring over Marcus Freeman for a 31-yard gain and another set of downs.  Wisconsin would settle for a 21-yard field goal by Taylor Mehlhaff after Anderson Russell’s stop on third and goal.   

There is definitely a reason why they are No. 1.” said Wisconsin QB Tyler Donovan.  “They have speed, strength – everything. They are a very good football team.” 

With 1:46 left in the first half, the Buckeyes drove to the Wisconsin 4-yard line, but had to settle for a 27-yard field goal from Ryan Pretorius to put Ohio State up 10-3 at halftime. With a first-and-goal, the Buckeyes called two passes (threw away and over throw) and Boeckman was sacked on a third-and-goal.   

History looked to repeat itself in the third quarter when the Badgers (7-3, 3-3) first scored on a 28-yard TD from Tyler Donovan to Travis Beckum to tie the game 10-10 and put themselves up 17-10 when Donovan threw for his second TD of the game to Chris Pressley, driving 62-yards in 8 plays.  Donovan ended the day 18-30-0 and 269 yards. 

“Our team played well overall but it was not enough. It was a tough game and Ohio State persevered,” said Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema. 

The Buckeyes decided to employ more of the run game after seeing the passing game suspect at the end of the first half.  Wells scored his first TD of the game as he found an open hole on an off-tackle play, cut against the grain and scooted 31 yards for the score. 

The Buckeye defense once again played the run very tight, allowing only 12 yards rushing on 36 attempts.  They recorded 10 sacks with DL Vernon Gholston making a record-tying 4 sacks.  Laurinaitis had 19 tackles and a fumble recovery. 

“We knew going into the game they were going to go as good as their quarterback went and I think D line did a great job of getting pressure on him and it's good to come out with a victory,” said junior defensive back Marcus Freeman.

They did give up 269 yards in the air as Wisconsin was forced to play the passing game more as they were without one of their main threats, running back P.J. Hill, who was injured and not dressed.

“Something we can take out of this game is the fact that there was a lot of adversity,” Laurinaitis said.  “There was a big momentum shift in the third quarter.”

In the 4^th quarter, Wells took a second down handoff and rushed 30-yards for his second score of the game, which put Ohio State up 24-17.  The play was identical to his first score.

On the next Wisconsin drive, the Badgers attempted a fake punt which was stuffed by James Laurinaitis. 

The Wisconsin coaching staff later said that the fake punt was changed but DeBauche did not see the signal from the sidelines. 

"I didn't get a signal that it was on or off,'' he said. "So I thought it was still on.''

“It had a big effect on us,” Bielema said.  “I wish we would have done that on the play before. It wasn’t the game ender for us but it did place a big damper on our team.”

On 3^rd-and-6 at the Badger 8-yard line, Boeckman found Robiskie again to begin to put the game out of reach, 31-17.  Robiskie corralled the ball with one hand. 

“Robie had to reach back with one hand to catch it and it was a spectacular catch, and that's what these guys do, they catch the football,” Tressel said. 

Wells would add his third TD of the game with a 23-yard TD rush to end the scoring 38-17.  He ended the day with 169 yards on 21 attempts.   

The win marked a Big Ten record for Ohio State with 20-consecutive wins dating to the 17-10 loss at Penn State Oct. 8, 2005 and Jim Tressel improved his record to 25-8 against ranked teams. 

“We knew it would be a battle and it was just that,” Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel said. “Anything that came our way in terms of adversity our guys handled. We are awfully proud of the way we got after it. I don’t know if it was our greatest performance, but we ended up winning and we have a chance to fight another round.”

Ohio State next plays Illinois at home next week before traveling to Michigan for the annual showdown.

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