There might be tougher places from which to escape with your life. But this is the Big Ten’s version.
UPDATED: 11:56 p.m.
Devon Torrence was far from the only Buckeye left bowed after Saturday night's loss at Camp Randall.MADISON, Wis. -- Ohio State came into Camp Randall Stadium Saturday night, the joint that's always jumping, and put bounce in the Wisconsin Badgers' step quicker than you could say "Gone, Wisconsin!"
The Buckeyes' special teams have been awful all season. Twelve seconds into the biggest test since Miami game, they achieved awfulness again.
Wisconsin's David Gilreath ran 97 yards for a touchdown with the opening kickoff, threatend only by OSU's Aaron Gant, who fell like a buckeye leaf, barely nicking Gilreath's heels.
After the kickoff return, the crowd in the House of Pain, as the natives like to call the place, began to put the thumbscrews to the Buckeyes' eardrums. "Loud" went to another magnitude of noise.
This is one of those places that is supposed to be hotter for the other team than Hell is for a snowball. There might be tougher places from which to escape with your life: Daniel in the lion's den comes to mind. Jonah in the whale's belly. Colt McCoy maybe at Heinz Field. But this is the Big Ten's version.
"On the road, you have to at least match their special teams [to have a chance to win]," said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.
However, that is not why the dream of a fourth national championship game appearance in Tressel's 10 years as Ohio State coach died in a 31-18 upset days after the Buckeyes ascended to the No. 1 ranking in the polls.
Wisconsin's offensive line dominated Ohio State's defensive line as the Buckeyes have seldom been dominated.
The Badgers have the best offensive line in the Big Ten. The hope for the Buckeyes had been that a smaller, quicker defensive tackle like John Simon or a defensive end who could make speed a factor like Nate Williams, could hit 'em where they ain't, the way Florida's speed rushers had done with OSU's beleaguered tackles in the 2006 national championship game.
Didn't happen.
Florida won that game because the Gators' defensive ends bivouacked in the Buckeyes' backfield. Wisconsin won this game because their offensive line keyed a running game that had the savagery of a stampede on a cattle drive.
John Clay, the Badgers' power back, who gained all of 59 yards in last season's game, had 71 in the first quarter alone. For the game, Clay rushed for 104 yards and two touchdowns, the first time OSU allowed a 100-yard rusher since the Southern California game in 2008. Speed back James White got 75 yards.
The Badgers roared to a three-touchdown lead in the first half.
Dan Herron absorbed the full impact of this emphatic tackle by Wisconsin's Kevin Claxton (37) and Louis Nzegwu (93) during the second half Saturday.Getting burned on a big play like the kickoff return is one thing. More serious was the second Badgers touchdown, but that came on a short field after a Gilreath punt return to near midfield. The third drive was a message that no smoke or mirrors or Terrelle Pryor hocus-pocus was going to take back what was rightfully Wisconsin's this time.
To their credit, the Buckeyes made a game of it, scoring the next 18 points. Tressel praised the comeback, overlooking the lack of initiative in the early going.
"A lesser bunch would have folded their tent," he said. "We could say we have to throw on every down and catch up on the first play. [But we said] that we had to methodically catch up."
The credit for this goes to Pryor. He slithered to the outside, and he cut back, and he stayed just ahead of the storm that was usually gathering at his back from the pass rush. He might not be the next Vince Young, as advertised, but he doesn't have the supporting cast of the Texas quarterback of five years ago, either.
Only Boom Herron and Dave Sanzenbacher really delivered for him. Herron ran for 91 yards and scored two touchdowns.
In the second half, Pryor completed a series of desperate passes to Sanzenbacher, who flew through the air for spectacular catches and was cart-wheeled down on his facemask on ferocious tackles.
Ahead by only three points, the Badgers sent the Buckeyes reeling off the line over and over again on a clinching fourth-quarter drive.
"I could just see that our offense wasn't going to be denied. We all had heard that Ohio State had not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 29 games, so I threw that in the kids' faces and challenged them," said Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema.
The Buckeyes capitulated with 6:29 left when Tressel ordered a punt on fourth-and-10 at his own 29, trailing, 28-18. Statistics probably show that this was the sensible thing to do. Maybe the hope was that the punt would be fumbled. Or that Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien, last year's goat, who was 13-for-16 in this game, would throw a second interception. Or that a meteorite might hit Clay or White and stop them in their tracks.
Obviously, nothing else did.