Buckeyes “D” Stifles The “U”

If the 2010 Ohio State Buckeye football team has any aspirations of winning a National Championship, they had to win Saturday’s game against the No. 12th ranked Miami Hurricanes.

Behind four interceptions and another solid performance from quarterback Terrelle Pryor, the Buckeyes did just that, upending the Hurricanes 36-24 in The Horseshoe.

The 12-point victory could have very easily been a blowout. Although OSU converted on 6-of-7 attempts in the red zone, they had to settle for five Devin Barclay field goals and had an early touchdown called back because of a holding penalty.

Similar to their first win against Marshall, Ohio State’s offense and defense looked sharp; however, their special teams had several miscues. Miami scored twice of special teams on punt and kick returns for touchdowns. Luckily for Buckeyes, their poor special teams play didn’t cost them, and the difference in the game was turnovers and the play of Pryor.

Pryor had a Heisman-like performance throwing for 233 yards while tallying another 113 on the ground and scoring two touchdowns (one passing and one running). Perhaps the best thing about Pryor’s performance wasn’t his stats, but rather how the junior calmly controlled the game throughout.

The Buckeye defense allowed Pryor to have a big game, picking off Miami quarterback, Jacory Harris, four times. All interceptions gave the Ohio State offense the ball in Hurricane territory, and the Buckeyes took advantage.

Barclay connected on three field-goals of 24 yards and two more from 41 and 21 yards while the backfield of Pryor, Brandon Saine and Boom Harron scored one touchdown apiece.

But, the story of the game was the Buckeye defense.

It wasn’t until the first play of the fourth quarter that the stout squad gave up their first touchdown of the young season.

Not only were they stout, but the opportunistic defense made play after play.

The first interception was tipped by Ohio State's C.J. Barnett, into the hands of Nathan Williams, setting up a Barclay field goal.

The second pick was the result of Hurricane receiver Travis Benjamin not even looking for the ball. Fortunately for the Bucks, cornerback Chimdi Chekwa was looking and grabbed the throw to set up Herron's TD run.

Then Harris, looking for Benjamin again on a medium-length pass along the right sideline, connected but Benjamin bobbled the ball into Chekwa's hands again. This turnover also led to another Barclay field goal.

It was the last interception which proved to be the most costly for the Canes.

Trailing 26-17 at the half, Miami took the second-half kickoff and drove to a first down at the Ohio State six yard-line. But on third-and-goal, Harris' pass over the middle was wide of the mark and intercepted by beastly Buckeyes defensive end Cameron Heyward, who rumbled 80 yards.

That set up Pryor's touchdown run and the Buckeyes coasted to victory from there.

The 2-0 Buckeyes host the Ohio Bobcats next weekend in Columbus looking to remain unbeaten.

> Find more Big Ten football news online at Big Ten Fans!