Football
Buckeyes Offense Finds Life in Second Half
By John Porentas

The talk all week heading into the Cincinnati game was that the Buckeyes were prone to a letdown following a big win over Texas last weekend. The Buckeye offense did it's best to prove the pundits right for a half, but came to life in the second half to put 24 points on the board as No. 1 OSU (3-0) cruised to a 37-7 win over in-state rival Cincinnati (1-2).

The Buckeyes struggled offensively for most of the first half and trailed the Bearcats 7-3 at the end of the first period. Cincinnati outgained Ohio State 74-38 in the first period.

The Buckeyes got on the board first on a 47 yard field goal by Aaron Pettry but the Bearcats were able to take the lead when Cincinnati quarterback Dustin Grutza found Jared Martin with a 22 yard touchdown pass to put OSU behind for the first time this season. The Bearcats went 80 yards in just five plays on the drive. Grutza began the drive with a 28 yard completion and also added a scramble that went for 23 yards to set the Bearcats up at the OSU 22-yard line.

The OSU offense continued to sputter as a slanting, stunting Cincinnati defense gave the OSU offense problems. The Buckeyes didn't help their own cause with five first-half penalties that kept prevented the OSU offense from getting it going.

"Those penalties really hurt us," said OSU running back Maurice Wells.

"We couldn't get into a rhythm of things and for an offense to play good it has to have a rhythm and we really couldn't find our rhythm too well in the first half," Wells said.

"I don't know that we were very sharp in the beginning," said OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel.

Cincinnati denied OSU the vertical passing game that had carried the offense in games one and two this season. The Buckeyes, however, then turned to the running game and short passing game. In the second quarter OSU put together a seven play, 42 yard drive, all on the ground, that stalled at the Cincinnati 26. Aaron Pettry came onto kick a 43 yard field goal to cut the Cincinnati lead to 7-6.

The Buckeye defense, meanwhile, was making life miserable for the Cincinnati offense. OSU completely took away the Cincinnati running game and allowed a net -4 yards rushing in the game. The Bearcats actually rushed for 56 yards, but eight Buckeye sacks resulted in sixty lost yards to put the Cincinnati rushing total below the water line. With the rushing game nonexistent, the Bearcats went to the passing game, and while Grutza 18-of-22 completions, he was intercepted twice. OSU also registered a third interception of Cincinnati backup Bill Poland. Linebacker James Laurinaitis and defensive backs Malcolm Jenkins and Anderson Russell each registered one INT. For the second straight week, the Buckeye offense had no turnovers.

The Buckeyes finally regained the lead when they put together a nine play, 80 yard drive to put a touchdown on the board with just three minutes remaining in the first half. The drive featured a 33 yard completion from Troy Smith to Anthony Gonzalez to set up OSU with a first and goal at the six. Smith carried the ball into the endzone on a quarterback keeper on the next play, but the play was nullified on a holding call. On third and goal from the 12-yard line Smith hit Ted Ginn slanting across the middle. Ginn raced into the south endzone just inside the flag on the west sideline to put the Buckeyes up to stay. The half ended with the Buckeyes up 13-7.

"It just didn't look to me like we had quite as much pep in our step as we came into this football game," Tressel said. "After the first half, you know, quite honestly, it looked a little bit like a let-down situation. And none of us, I don't think, cognitively thought we were doing that because we worked hard and prepared hard and so forth, but for whatever reason we didn't have that burst within."

OSU made a statement on their second possession of the third quarter. The Buckeyes went 60 yards in eight plays to take a 20-7 lead. Antonio Pittman carried on the first four plays on the drive for 13, six, eight and 11 yards to move the ball to the Cincinnati 22. Smith finished the drive with another touchdown pass to Ginn, this time on a slant.

Pittman provided the spark on that drive, but provided lighting in the fourth quarter when he took a handoff around left end and didn't stop until he got to the endzone 48 yards later to cap a five play, 85 yard drive an put OSU up 27-7 with 9:57 still remaining.

"I thought he had some great individual effort runs which kind of sparked us and got us picked up quite a bit," said OSU offensive coordinator Jim Bollman of Pittman's play.

OSU added a touchdown and a field goal to complete the scoring. Maurice Wells scored on a nine yard run, breaking two tackles near the goal line to score on a 72 yard drive engineered by backup quarterback Justin Zwick. Zwick completed passes for 36 yards and 27 yards to Ray Small and Brian Hartline respectively on the drive. OSU closed out the scoring with a late field goal by backup field goal kicker Ryan Pretorius from 52 yards out.

Game Notes:

* Wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez had five catches for a game-high 85 yards against Cincinnati. On the season, Gonzalez has had 17 catches, 16 of which have gone for first downs. Additionally, 16 of his 17 catches have been for 10 yards or more.

* Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith ended the game 21-for-30 for 203 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Smith has attempted 152-consecutive passes without an interception. He was last intercepted vs. Northwestern last season on his last attempt of the first half. Smith has a least one TD pass in nine of his last 10 games and two or more in six of the last eight.He has thrown for 200 or more yards in nine of the last 10 games. It was his 10th career game with 200-plus yards passing.
* Antonio Pittman ended the game with a season-high 155 yards rushing on just 16 carries for a gaudy 9.7 yards per carry. Pittman had one touchdown on the day.
* OSU was three-for-three on field goals. Aaron Pettry kicked field goals of 47 and 43 yards and Ryan Pretorius hit one of 52 yards.
* Six of OSU's eight kickoffs went for touchbacks.
* The Buckeyes' eight sacks were registered by six different players. Robert Rose, Larry Grant, Vernon Gholston and James Laurinaitis each registered one sack, while Quinn Pitcock dumped the Bearcat quarterback three times. One OSU sack was credited as a "team" sack as it was the result of a grounding penalty.
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