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Colt McCoy and Quan Cosby hooked up for the winning touchdown with 16 second left to lift the Longhorns to a 24-21 Fiesta Bowl victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes Monday evening. Cosby had 174 receiving yards and two touchdowns, both thrown by McCoy who rushed for Texas' other score.
The game was much more competitive than Ohio State's last two bowl appearances; this time the Buckeyes took the lead before the final drive and the game was hard-fought throughout. A staunch defense and Beanie Wells' rushing in the first half, then Terrelle Pryor's play in the second—with occasional worthy assists from the former starter, senior Todd Boeckman—kept the game within reach for Ohio State.
In fact the Buckeyes led 6-3 at the break, as the defense never let McCoy quite get on track. When he finally started to, near the end of the half, a goal-line interception by Anderson Russell killed what looked like a sure scoring drive.
Ohio State took the lead at 3-0 in the first quarter on a 50-yard Aaron Pettrey field goal; he later missed one of a similar length on a bad hold. Both attempts were set up by 20+ yard rambles by Wells, who had nearly all of his 105 yards in the first half.
Texas was able to tie it 3-3, but Wells again put Ohio State into Longhorn territory, bursting for a 23 yard gain and catching a screen pass for 21 more on a drive that ended with a Ryan Pretorius field goal.
Texas made some adjustments for the second half, and for the entire third quarter basically shut Wells down (he didn't play in the fourth quarter, apparently due to a minor head injury). They sped up the game on offense considerably, catching the Buckeyes offguard—and sometimes offsides—as they drove for two touchdowns in the quarter. The first ended in McCoy's 14 yard rushing TD, the second in a McCoy to Cosby 7 yard touchdown, putting Texas in control 17-6.
But the Buckeyes did not fold like they had in their last several games against top competition. Pryor, mainly through running the ball, kept Ohio State drives alive, and Boeckman came in when needed on passing downs. On the first play of the fourth quarter Boeckman connected with Brian Robiskie for a 48-yard gain that led to another Pettrey field goal. Robiskie had 115 receiving yards and some simply great catches.
Then Pryor ran and passed the Buckeyes into the Texas red zone again, and in a remarkably symbolic play Boeckman came in to throw a touchdown pass into the corner—with Pryor at receiver. Jim Tressel went for two and failed, making it 17-15.
After a rare Texas 3-and-out, Pryor and Boeckman went to work again and it was Daniel Herron rushing for the touchdown from 15 yards out. Another 2 point attempt failed, leaving the Buckeyes up 21-17 with just over 2 minutes left. But like Texas did against Texas Tech, Ohio State had left too much time on the clock when they took the lead.
Starting on his own 21 yard line, McCoy calmly completed 4 of 5 passes to get into Buckeye territory, but incompletions left Texas at fourth and a long two. McCoy hit James Kirkendoll, who spun as he was tackled to just get the first down. He was tackled behind the mark, making Tressel and the rest of the Buckeye sidelines so sure they'd stopped him that they called for a review, but replays showed the spot was correct.
Two plays later, Cosby caught McCoy's short dump over the top, shook a defender and strode 26 yards to the end zone with 16 seconds left, making it 24-21. A celebration penalty gave the Buckeyes a small hope of reaching Pettrey's range as they started on their 45 yard line, but Boeckman was sacked once and his subsequent Hail Mary was batted down.
For the day Texas' passing defense did a good job against the Buckeyes, with Pryor and Boeckman a combined 10 of 25 for well under 200 yards. Though Jimmy Johnson stated the Longhorn pass defense ranked 110th nationally, that's in raw yardage, which doesn't take into account the fact that Texas faced five of the top ten passing teams in the country this season. Adjusted for schedule, the Longhorns were a much-more-respectable 46th heading into the game.
Texas finishes an incredible year 12-1, with wins over Rice, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Ohio State, and most significantly, Oklahoma, all teams with 4 or fewer losses, and one loss to Texas Tech on a last-second play. They didn't beat the Buckeyes as badly as USC by any means but I expected as much due to letdown (I pegged the final at 24-17), but viewing the season as a whole their overall résumé is arguably superior to any other team's, and they have a strong argument for finishing #1 in the final AP poll.
Ohio State ends 10-3, losing only to three top ten teams, and they will finish close to the top ten themselves. The team came a long way after the embarrassing loss to USC, playing Penn State close and Texas even closer, while beating Michigan State and Northwestern in blowouts. While not approaching their pre-season potential, eventually the defense regained its dominance and the offense—shook up by Wells' early-season injury and the change at quarterback—started to click. They won't have as many starters back next year, with James Laurinaitis and (likely) Wells departing in particular, but Pryor will just keep getting better and better.
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