Another rout Saturday showed dimensions in Ohio State that make it fully capable of being ranked the nation's best college team.
When your offense is threatening all-time records for a single game, the defense doesn't have to be great. But Ohio State defenders Ross Homan (51), John Simon (54) and Nathan Williams make sure Eastern Michigan's Javonti Greene feels their wrath on this second-quarter play.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Bad moon on the rise.
Night had fallen Saturday on another example of a collegiate football team winning fast cash in return for the loss of personal dignity. The final score was Ohio State 73, EMU 20. The Eagles' tote board registered an $850,000 payday.
It was the most OSU points in a game since they scored 83 in 1950, before Woody Hayes even. Over The Horseshoe, clouds wreathed a ghostly moon. Down below, the Buckeyes had met all the imperatives to score "style points" in the BCS pecking order.
Thus, there was a trick play, a pass to quarterback Terrelle Pryor from tailback Jordan Hall for a touchdown late in the third quarter with a 25-point lead. There was a three-touchdown flaying of the Eagles in the final quarter.
But give the Eagles some credit. By not going all LeBron when they got behind, 24-0 -- by fighting on to 38-14 halftime and 45-20 third-quarter deficits -- they ensured their prolonged exposure to Pryor.
This is not an encouraging development because Ohio State has athletic ability that is superior everywhere to EMU, and Pryor has it over almost everybody. He has become a Swiss Army buzzsaw, accounting for a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown, and four passing touchdowns against the beleaguered Eagles.
If former Michigan quarterback Ryan Mallet hadn't vaporized in a mist of hideously conceived interceptions, Arkansas, his current team, would have beaten Alabama in a roaring stadium in the Ozarks Saturday. Ohio State would have become the top-ranked team in the nation.
It did not happen because Alabama knows how to win in difficult circumstances, but nothing so far has provided a rebuttal to the notion that Ohio State is worthy of the top ranking.
This game was a point orgy, but it also was a display of the many dimensions that make up what might be remembered as Jim Tressel's most talented team. The Buckeyes have been so dominant thus far that the only quibbles seem to be complaints made in the service of combating complacency.
The defense gave up three touchdowns. No special-team escapades or coverage guys falling down a manhole were involved in any of the scores. It was a tribute to EMU quarterback Alex Gillett's touch and his receivers' grit, but it was also an indictment of the Buckeyes' motivation.
Last week was devoted to letdown avoidance after the big victory over Miami. The memory of a close call in 2008 against that week's payee, Ohio University, helped stifle any notions of not playing well.
The EMU game felt different. The Eagles are terrible, with 16 straight losses. OSU was favored by six touchdowns. It is human nature for the crispness evident against Ohio and the crazy energy of the Miami game before that to lag against such an unimposing opponent.
"We talked about guys were just flying around and really not thinking about tackling," said defensive end Cameron Heyward, who is the team's best player, including Pryor. "We had that little huddle [defensive players only, after EMU's third touchdown] and guys did their job and pulled together."
Defense is the rock upon which Tressel's teams are built. But the offense has come out week after week, shining like glory hallelujah.
The Buckeyes are averaging 49.3 points. They should have scored 50 against Miami with the field position the defense created. As it was, they scored 36. They laid 45 on Marshall, which took nationally ranked West Virginia to overtime in a come-from-ahead loss. Ohio took a 43-7 lump.
Yet critics wonder why Brandon Saine and Boom Herron aren't re-enacting the land rush of the post-Purdue regular season last year.
Pryor, coping with a knee that would require off-season surgery, turned into a game-manager after that stunning upset. But he was healthier in the Rose Bowl, when he delivered the progress in familiarity with the offense and in soundness in passing technique that had long been promised. This season, Pryor has simply had a much bigger role.
Also, since the starting tailbacks and the offensive linemen are the same and since the depth at running back is greater, when the Buckeyes finally have to run it in a traditional fashion, they will probably be able to run it.
Behind Saine and Herron are Hall, the two-way threat who was Pryor's high school teammate in Jeanette, Pa., and Jaamal Berry, who has the biggest quick strike ability as a kick returner since Ted Ginn Jr. On his late 67-yard touchdown run, Berry outran the angle a defender had on him.
Tressel couldn't order substitutes hungry for playing time not to try. He might as well try to banish the clouds that trailed over the moon, like smoke from a distant fire.