36 Phenomenal Hours

Texas Sized Beat Down
Here we are nearly 24 hours after Number One Ohio State beat Texas 24-7, and I'm still trying to digest the colossal win.
To start- I will say that the Laurinaitis-caused/Washington fumble recovery and return to mid-field will be one of the bigger plays of the season. When you look back at an entire season for that year's National Champion, you can pick about a half dozen plays that make or break that year. With the '02 Buckeyes, you think about Krenzel to Jenkins at Purdue on 4th and 1, the Chris Gamble interception return for a touchdown vs. Penn State, and Number 13 stripping the ball from the Miami defender during the Fiesta Bowl. The teams that make these big plays are the ones that will have the chance to play for the National Championship. If Thanksgiving comes along and Ohio State is to play in the National Championship game, we will look back at this play as one of the turning points to the game and season.
Now that I have that off of my chest, I'll dive right into my thoughts on Saturday's giant win at Texas and discuss the season to date. As I said, THE FUMBLE was the turning point in this game, but the game was decided in a 5 minute (of actual game time) span. The Buckeye D gave up the game tying touchdown late in the first half, as a Colt McCoy touchdown pass to Billy Pittman tied the contest at 7. The Buckeyes take the ensuing kickoff and return the ball to their own 34. With a pass to Anthony Gonzalez covering 22 yards and a quick (and beautiful) 29 yard strike to Teddy Ginn in the end zone gave the Buckeyes their 7 point cushion right back with 15 seconds left in the half. Texas receives the kick and their first 2 plays from scrimmage are successful running plays that net them over 20 yards. On 1st and 10, the freshman McCoy drops back and throws a beauty right to James Laurinaitis. Ohio State gets the ball on the Texas 20 after the Laurinaitis return and gets 3 from a Aaron Pettrey field goal. 10 points in 4 and half minutes of game time, which also deflated the raucous crowd. Boom. Ballgame. Thanks for being such gracious hosts and we enjoyed your barbeque.

LIGHTNING AND.........LIGHTNING!!!!
Anthony Gonzalez had the statline of the night, as he had 8 grabs for 142 yards and seemingly caught everything that was thrown his way. Ginn ended up with 97 yards on 5 receptions, including the 29 yard breathtaking bomb from Troy Smith just before the end of the first half. Through two games in the '06 campaign, Ginn and Gonzalez have combined for 415 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns on 21 receptions. For those of you who went to Michigan and aren't too numerically savvy, that's nearly 20 yards per catch (19.76).

BEND BUT DON'T BREAK
Ohio State's first two opponents have been Northern Illinois and Texas. They have arguably 2 of the top 10 rushing attacks in college football and the OSU defense has given up how many rushing touchdowns? ZERO. The OSU defense has given up an average of 5.0 yards per carry and have yielded 23 first downs on the ground, but let's keep in mind the opponents. Ohio State hasn't had the luxury of playing North Texas or Central Michigan yet.

Plenty of O at tOSU
Through 2 games, Ohio State has averaged nearly 30 points per contest. The offense has generated 39 first downs and is averaging 7.1 yards per play. If there is one concern about the offense, it would have to be Red Zone efficiency. Ohio State has ventured inside their opponent's twenty 10 times already but has only scored on 7 of those ten attempts. The Buckeye D has held their opponents to only 6 Red Zone visits and have allowed only 2 touchdowns.

Stats are Fun!!!
A few more fun stats for your enjoyment:
Ohio State is holding their opponents to 17% on Third Down conversions (4/23).
James Laurinaitis' Saturday Statline: 13 tackles, INT, 2 Forced Fumbles. He's got all the physical attributes of a dominant LB and now seems to have the mental part down as well. He seems to always be in the right position and has a motor that doesn't stop.

Let it Fly......
This morning I hopped on CBS Sportsline to check my fantasy baseball progress for the week. On the front page for Sportsline had a big picture of Troy Smith and said something to the theme of "A Perfect 10." Conversely, at ESPN, they only had an article about the fires that were set on campus and headlined in a side story as "Fires, Injuries on campus mar big win for OSU." Leave it up to the douchebags at ESPN to put a negative spin on what was a dominant performance by number one The Ohio State University in the toughest of settings against the number 2 team in the country. While checking things out I also found this as part of the Gameday Final website:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/gamedayFinal?page=gamedayFinal2
Notice Ivan Maisel's rating of Selvin Young's performance, then only to read what king d-bag Mark May said about Colt McCoy's supporting cast. I hope college football karma goes Trev Alberts on you Mark May.
Anybody else see Colt McCoy's mom last night? She is definitely MILF Material.
Bob Davie has been added to my list of world's worst sports announcers. Add him to the Pam Ward and Chris Spielman booth and you've got an instant recipe for suicide. Bob Davie is the Randy Cross of college football.
Aaron Pettrey scares me. At this point I have no confidence in him, as he is 1 of 3 in FGs this year. He barely connected on a 31 yarder vs. Texas on Saturday and has missed from 28 and 44.
So ABC is going with round two of the Dancing with The Stars? They should've laid that one to rest after they kicked Kenny Mayne off last spring. Godspeed, Emmitt.
How about Matthew McConaghey jumping around like a 5 year old with ADHD last night? Hope you enjoyed the beating, hippie.
And what business does Lance Armstrong have shaking hands with Mack Brown 15 seconds before kickoff? Maybe Mack should've been focusing a little more on the game (and what happened to his lip at halftime?).
Selvin Young and Lamar Charles looked great last night. I don't even know why Mack put it in the air at all last night?

What are you doing, Willie?
Other thoughts from Saturday's College Football Action:
My boy Willie Tuitama, QB for Arizona, didn't have a great game. No. 8 LSU pounded Arizona at home on Saturday, 45-3. I really thought the supposedly tough Wildcat D would contain LSU and give Arizona a shot at the upset. Superstar in the making Tuitama had a rough go of it as Arizona only had 54 total yards through 3 quarters in Baton Rouge. Alright, I believe in LSU now.
Speaking of SEC love, Auburn crushed the Fighting Crooms. No. 4. Auburn dominated Miss. St. 34-0 and I think Auburn is THE BEST TEAM IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL OUTSIDE OF OHIO STATE. I'm not sold on Notre Dame yet. I think that they were just the better of two mediocre teams on Saturday. I expected PSU to really give the Irish a game but it didn't happen. I wasn't impressed by Brady Quinn or the PSU defense. I think that ND is a good football team, but it is not a top 5 team at this time. Anthony Morelli was junk yesterday and made some atrocious football decisions during their 41-17 drubbing at the hands of the Golden Domers. And welcome back, California. Nothing like playing a Minnesota (or generally Indiana or Illinois) to get your program back to winning football ways. Cal beat Minnesota 42-17.
Break up the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. They've got 2 running backs that can feed it to a defense, and have a solid O-Line to pave the way. They've got Louisville at home on Thursday, November 9th and I'm telling you right now that they'll win that game.

I'll come up with an NFL update after MNF tomorrow, as well as another college football preview on Thursday or Friday.