It happened as a romp, with Beanie Wells running rampant and Terrelle Pryor passing the ball around with precision. The defense, after a tuning up period where Northwestern scored a touchdown, clamped down. In short, it transpired as it should have on paper. You always wonder with this year’s team…

A good win. Go Bucks!

Northwestern has two reasons to think it can win this game: it’s playing at home and the Buckeye’s abysmal post-bye week record under coach Tressel of 1-4. That being said, without QB Bacher and star RB Sutton, it’s going to be a mighty difficult climb to that summit.

Vegas has installed the Bucks as 11 point favorites and if things go to plan (no wacky turnovers, stupid and sense penalties,) I’d look for them to cover enroute to a 31-10 type victory. But, this year things have been a little strange, we’re still breaking in a Freshman QB, the O line seems to play like Jeckyl and Hyde, and mental mistakes are the norm, not the exception. So….who knows?

We should expect the Buckeyes to take care of business in Evanston, even an ugly win by a point, is a win.

Go Bucks!

Both defenses came to play, neither team gave up. The difference was mistakes. Two turnovers, one leading to the games only touchdown and the other ending any chance of comeback were the story. In the fourth quarter, both the PSU offensive and defensive lines took over and that was the game.

A tough home loss, nothing to be ashamed of in the effort department. Is there room for improvement? You bet. But we saw a much better team tonight than the one that got blown out in LA a few weeks ago. What happens from here? Penn State has a favorable schedule to win out and stands in a good position to play for all the marbles if that comes to pass.

Ohio State still has Illinois and Michigan (don’t laugh, all bets are off in rivalry games) - if the Bucks can get by those two teams, then they could wind up as an alternate selection in the BCS still. Otherwise, hello Capital One Bowl.

Any loss is tough to take and you hate to see it, but when the team plays hard and never gives up, then the complaining needs to be kept to a minimum. We’ll get ‘em next time, Go Bucks!

Next up, the Nittany Lions at home tomorrow. Unlike many opponents, we have close comparison of Penn State and Ohio State, both having played on the road in Madison a week apart. The Buckeyes ground out a tough win by 3 points. PSU blew them away by 41.

This is a little different, PSU hasn’t had good luck in the Horseshoe so we can hope the trend continues tomorrow. Penn St has an explosive offense and a stingy defense. If there’s a blowout in the Shoe, PSU is likely to be on the giving rather than receiving end.

Over the past couple of weeks, our Buckeyes are playing better football with a great showing in East Lansing last week over a solid MSU squad. The D Line has perked up and the whole defense looks better as a result. The offense showed some signs of life too.

Penn St will force Pryor to beat him with his arm, not his or Beanie Well’s legs. Clark, PSU’s dynamic QB will cause some grief for the Buckeye defenders. I don’t think this has a good outcome (hey, it worked last week, so I’ll try it this week too.) PSU 27 OSU 17.

And, I didn’t wear my lucky Buckeye shirt today, the last time that happened the Bucks lost by 32 in LA…not a good omen. Hope I’m wrong! Go Bucks!

Now, this was the team we expected to see at the beginning of the season, at least for the first 1.5 quarters. They sprinted to a 28 point lead and then the offense stalled again. I’m ever so happy to have been WRONG, WRONG, WRONG on the preview of this game. I was really pessimistic that the team would shoot out of the gate like that.

Special teams were generally good (excepting an early fumble leading to bad field position.) The defense was awesome and really pitched a shutout, the passing game of the Spartans perked up once they started holding blatantly. Pressure leading to a fumble and return for a touchdown took the wind out of their sails and sealed the deal. A late fumble recovery and return for a touchdown turned insult to injury. Overall the D forced five turnovers and contributed 14 points.

The rushing offense was very strong, we still saw the requisite false starts and motion penalties killed drives. Passing was generally efficient until the second quarter, what a great effort from Brian Hartline to haul in that long pass in the second quarter that took the Bucks down to the Spartan 1. Robiskie still doesn’t look like himself.

In all, a very good win for the Bucks on the road, over a very good Michigan State squad. Now, people will say MSU sucks because they were blown out at home by OSU. Oh well…final score? 45-7.

Great win, Go Bucks!