Follow along with senior writer Jeff Rapp as he describes OSU's run for the roses.
We have mid-60s temps and just beautiful weather in the Horseshoe right now. This crowd is pumped and ready to see the beloved Buckeyes wrap up the Rose Bowl berth.
Here we go:
3:38 p.m. -- Ray Small somehow thought he could hurdle three people at the 20 and instead was tripped up on the kickoff return. Marcus Hall starts at right tackle and Jim Cordle, one of the many seniors honored before the game is at left tackle. Three-and-out .
0 first downs, 1 punt.
Jon Thoma pops a 48-yard punt.
Iowa's Vandnberg, just a redshirt freshman, hands off on the first play presumably to get the butterflies out and he still trips. He has veteran tailback Adam Robinson out there with him, though, which should help. His first pass was a 12-yard zip to Derrell Johnson-Koulianos. Nice play there to move the chains.
Iowa has the ball across midfield but is later faced with a third-and-long. Vandenberg gets good protection but his pass to Marvin McNutt is short of the marker. Ryan Donahue's punt is downed at the OSU 8.
2 first downs, 2 punts so far.
3:47 p.m -- Here are the finals from today involving Big Ten teams:
Northwestern 21, Illinois 16
Penn State 31, Indiana 20
Michigan State 40, Purdue 37 (Sparty now bowl-eligible)
Minnesota 16, South Dakota State 13 (Minny now bowl-eligible)
Wisconsin 45, Michigan 24 (Wolverines NOT bowl-eligible)
Terrelle Pryor threw on first down but couldn't connect with Dane Sanzenbacher. Brandon Saine, who earned another start at tailback got 4 yards on second down. Pryor takes off and picks up the first on a gutsy play.
Pryor throws out to DeVier Posey out of the I-formation and corner Shaun Prater makes a great open-field tackle. On second down, TP leads Posey too much and Brett Greenwood gets a hand on the pass. Pryor runs around and can't pick up the 8 yards needed and Thoma is back on the field. His punt is a very poor one -- just 26 yards.
2 first downs, 3 punts in the game.
3:55 p.m. -- Robinson takes a handoff on first down and picks up just 1. OSU's D-line looks up to the task again. Vandenberg hits Robinson in the middle of the field on second down and looks secently comfortable so far.
A sketchy pass interference call on Chimdi Chekwa gives Iowa a cheap first down. Chekwa didn't put his hand on Johnson-Koulianos (I'm going to call him DJK from now on) until the ball arrived. Bad call.
Two more plays and the Hawkeyes have another first down and are in the red zone on the OSU 14. Iowa is threatening to take the early lead.
On first down, Robinson is stuffed by Thaddeus Gibson and Austin Spitler, one of OSU's senior captains. Robinson gets out in the flat and gets 6 yards on a swing pass and we've got a third-and-5 from the OSU 9. Big play.
4:02 p.m. -- The Hawks suffer an illegal-procedure penalty and are saddled with third-and-10 yet Vandenberg shows off his reputedly strong right arm by rolling left and firing a strike near the pylon with wideout Trey Stross, a 6-4 senior from Avon Lake, Ohio. Unfortunately for Iowa and very fortunate for Ohio State, Stross let the ball hit him between the 8 and the 6 and could not hang on.
Daniel Murray's field goal with 53 seconds left in the first quarter gives Iowa first blood, 3-0. The scoring drive took eight plays, went for 42 yards and took 4:40 off the clock.
4 first downs, three punts.
4:08 p.m. -- The Buckeyes are backed up to their own 15 because of a penalty on the kickoff return. On first down, Boom Herron gets 4 yards thanks to a good sustained block by Cordle on Adrian Clayborn, a beast of a defensive end. On second down, Boom gets just 1 yard as Clayborn shed tight end Jake Ballard and made the play. How the Buckeyes handle No. 94 is going to be something to watch.
We are at the end of the first quarter with Iowa leading 3-0.
4:11 p.m. -- J.B. Shugarts does a good job in pass pro on third down and Pryor hits Sanzenbacher for 6 yards and a first down in the middle of the field. Pat Angerer takes up residence there and made the very sure tackle. He's one of the best MLBs around.
Now Herron is pounding the ball through the left side and carrying tacklers. Two more first downs behind the churning legs of No. 1.
Two more runs netted very little (lots of Clayborn and Angerer) but Pryor hits Posey near the OSU sideline for 15 yards. The defense had to respect Saine in the flat on that play and the spacing on the routes was effective.
An Iowa player tried to jump into the neutral zone and make someone flinch and it worked. Freshman fullback Zach Boren was the culprit. Pryor, though, hits Saine right on the hips on the next two plays and the chains move again. Pryor looks as fluid and accurate throwing the ball in a game since I can remember. The Buckeyes are going to beat a lot of teams if he can play like this.
4:23 p.m. -- OSU has to settle for a field goal after a 17-play drive as Devin Barclay is right down Broadway on a 30-yarder.
It's 3-3 with 7:01 left in the half.
The Buckeyes get five first downs and 73 yards but can't punch it in.
Vandenberg makes another great pass on the rollout and Stross drops it again. OSU grabs at Vandenberg on second down and he can't get a free release. It's third down.
Vandenberg hits fullback Brett Morse, Ross Homan hits Morse and Morse hits the ground. Ouch. We have a Jack Tatum hit of the week candidate. Donahue blasts a very nice punt that Ray Small has to fair-catch. Is anyone else frightened when No. 82 waves his arm and defenders are bearing down on him?
We are having all kinds of clock woes here at the Horseshoe. There is 5:58 to go -- I think.
4:35 p.m. -- Herron is making some more nice reads and powerful runs on this possession. He might be the hot hand that Jim Tressel would like to call on in the second half as OSU tries to grind this thing out. It won't be easy, though, as this Iowa defense is very impressive and makes you earn everything.
Angerer and A.J. Edds are very good linebackers and Clayborn and defensive tackle Karl Klug (great name for a DT) are making lots of plays and plugging up gaps.
However, Saine runs in from 22 yards out on one of the best runs of his career (a few colleagues recalled his TD at Washington). He stayed low, made nice cuts and powered in. Also, Posey did a good job not to block in the back on the play.
Barclay's extra point makes it 10-3 Ohio State with 2:04 left in the half. The drive consumes eight plays, 74 yards and 3:54 of clock time.
It will be interesting see how Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz decides to play this. Vandenberg actually has been very good but it's doubtful he wants to put him in a frantic two-minute drill here.
4:44 p.m. -- Vandenberg's first incompletion that is actually his fault comes as he can't hit tight end Tony Moeaki on the second set of downs. On the next play, he looks for Moeaki again and is a bit high. The deflection lands right in the arms of Anderson Russell, a senior who has been somewhat maligned during his career.
The Buckeyes, of course, don't try to do anything crazy and manage to run out the clock.
At the half it's Ohio State 10, Iowa 3. The Buckeyes are 30 minutes from the Rose Bowl, but they are going to be 30 hardcore minutes.
BTW, don't forget that our Dave Biddle and Bret Hoovler will be standing by waiting to hear from you right after the game on our Bucknuts Live call-in show. The program will kick off right after the game and include tons of game analysis and several guests as Bucknuts correspondents check in with their thoughts.
You can call in, too, by dialing 614-754-7549. Also, Biddle and Hoovler will read e-mails on the air. If you have a reaction to the game, first off a message to dave.biddle@bucknuts.com.
I'll check back in after a short break with some halftime stats.
(We lost quite a bit of writing here because of an error with the site)
Huge play time. Ross Homan makes his fourth interception of the season and a twisting return of about 35 yards with the OSU bench going nuts. Nathan Williams is called for a block in the back but the Buckeyes are set up at midfield.
On the very next play, Brandon Saine popped 49 yards for a touchdown and this place is bananas. That was shades of Jon Woolridge against No. 1 Iowa in 1985. The extra point makes it 24-10.
With 11:11 to go in the 11th game of the season, the Buckeyes look to be going to Pasadena.
6:03 p.m. -- OK, file that with the spoke-too-soon department.
The Hawkeyes get a 99-yard kickoff return for a TD from our man, Mr. DJK, and they are right back in the ballgame. It's 24-17 with 10:56 to go.
The play is the fourth-longest in Iowa football history and is going to be real memorable if the Hawkeyes pull this off. It's the first kickoff for a TD by the Hawkeyes since they went the distance with the opening kick in the Orange Bowl against USC in 2003. Ohio State won a national championship that week.
Apparently, Tress had it wrong -- the kickoff is the most important play in football. Iowa kicks the ball out of bounds and also is flagged for a personal foul. That sets up OSU on the Iowa 45.
6:10 p.m. -- Well, well, well. We have some interesting developments. Ohio State got to the 28 but Herron was knocked backward on third down and the Buckeyes got a favorable spot with the ball placed on the 30. The entire sideline, it seemed, looked to the guy in the sweater vest and he called for Barclay to come out and try to make a 47-yarder to put the game on ice.
Barclay yanked it left and now Iowa has 7:11 on the clock and the ball on its own 30.
Robinson, though, loses 2 yards on first down and the Buckeyes have solid coverage of a screen to the right to Moeaki. Chekwa, who has had an active day, makes the tackle.
On third-and-5, Gibson picks off Vandenberg and runs unfettered for a score only it doesn't count. Williams was guilt of being offside. The plays results in a first down. Iowa gets another on the next play after a missed tackle and the Hawkeyes are on the OSU 41.
On the very next play, the Hawkeyes get another huge break as Vandenberg throws into triple coverage and Rolle had it in his hands. The collision squirts the ball upward and Moeaki snares it for a first down at the OSU 30. This is starting to get an eerie feel to it.
6:20 p.m. -- On second-and-7 on the OSU 10, Vandenberg hits McNutt in the end zone with Chekwa right there.
The kick is good and we are tied at 24 with 2:42 to play. That was the most fortunate TD in a year of great fortune for Iowa. Vandenberg threw two awful passes on the drive. One was picked and the play was called back. The other should have been intercepted.
6:34 p.m. -- Going to overtime. OSU will be on defense first.
6:38 p.m. -- Doug Worthington sack back to the 41. On fourth-and-21, Vandenberg intercepted by Russell in end zone. OSU gets ball at 25.,
6:42 p.m. -- OSU facing third-and-10 at the 25. Set up the FG and get out of there?
6:43 p.m. -- Barclay's 39-yard field goal down the middle; OSU wins 27-24 and is Rose Bowl bound. What a game!
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