Buckeyes Learn Their Rose Bowl Foe Tonight
This time last year, all of Buckeye Nation were Oregon Duck fans. We needed Oregon to beat Oregon State, on the road, in order to knock them out of the Rose Bowl and give the Big Ten (specifically Ohio State) a 2nd BCS bid. Had Oregon State won, they would have gone to the Rose Bowl for a rematch (and beating) by Penn State, and USC would have received the at-large bid we were hoping for. Things worked out for us and we went on to the Fiesta Bowl, where we were narrowly defeated by a Texas team that many thought would roll us and should have been in the National Title game.
So, we watch the 2009 version of the “Civil War” with a different type of interest as we already are locked into the Rose Bowl. The winner gets to meet us in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.
I don’t have a horse in this race. I really don’t care who wins. On one hand, I feel like I should root for Oregon since they helped us out last year. Also, we have much in common with them as the 2 schools then prep QB Tajh Boyd completely played (read: committed to privately) before announcing for Clemson. But, on the other hand, I don’t want to see a bunch of fugly unis in the Rose Bowl. And you know Phil Knight and co. would cook up something downright painful to watch for the Ducks to wear in their 1st Rose Bowl in 15 years.
So, may the best team win. I feel like it’ll be Oregon, but it doesn’t really matter. I am very confident in our constantly improving Buckeye squad. They’ll be ready to play and I’d put our defense up against anyone’s high-flying offense. Oregon’s style has been described as “basketball on turf” with very high scoring games. That isn’t going to happen if they meet us. Texas was averaging 52983750 points per game last season. We gave them 24. Ain’t gonna be no shoot-out in the Rose Bowl.
Also, there will be no home field advantage for this game. USC’s domination of the Pac-10 virtually gave them a home game for their bowl game. Same deal with a lot of OSU’s opponents in bowls. (e.g. 2008 National Championship in New Orleans vs. LSU). Either Oregon/Oregon State will be forced to make a little trek down to Pasadena, as will we. Oregon is tough, tough, tough to defeat at home, but they look beatable away from Autzen. Should they win, I expect a very competitive and entertaining Rose Bowl. Should Oregon State get the bid, I think it plays more into our advantage. I know they have a very talented RB, who is often the focal point of their offense, but you can’t run on this defense with much consistency. They’ll have to spread us out and switch things up.
I’m expecting a shootout tonight, like last year’s 65-38 finish that featured very little defense. I’m sure both defenses are better than that showing, but that was just a ridiculous display. Neither team will win if they bring that effort to Pasadena. But tonight should be fun. Rivalry games tend to be quite entertaining!
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