white noise

Last weekend I traveled up to Ann Arbor to watch the Ohio State football team line up against Michigan for their 106th meeting. A lot had been written about how little of note there was about this game. Ohio State had already clinched the Big Ten championship and a date for the Rose Bowl, and Michigan, stumbling through another season, was playing just to become bowl eligible. But regardless, every game against the UofM is a big one.

The weather was chilly. The crowd was large (110,900+). And the Wolverines were awful. Within the first four minutes they fumbled in their endzone and gave the Bucks a quick and easy 7-0 lead. A little later they missed a routine field goal. Their defense kept the Buckeyes from going on a scoring frenzy, but the UofM offense continued to meltdown. They finished with 4 interceptions (and nearly a fifth) in addition to the opening fumble.

The final score was 21-10. It was great to see the Bucks notch their historic sixth straight win against Michigan in person.

Last weekend D and I ran up to Columbus for the first football game of the season. The Buckeyes struggled much more against Navy than they should have, but it made for a great game.

Things went a little awry when, at 29-14, OSU missed an extra point early in the fourth quarter. A little later the Bucks failed to convert on a 4th and 2. On the very next play Navy jumped to within eight (29-21) after a huge completion for a score. On the next Ohio State drive, Pryor’s pass was intercepted and another Navy TD followed. With the score at 29-27, Navy elected to attempt the 2 point conversion. After a horrible forth quarter, the Buckeyes finally stepped up. Navy’s endzone pass was intercepted and ran all the way back to give OSU 2 points. With only a couple minutes remaining, OSU received the onside kick and ran out the clock, 31-27. Huge dissappointment averted!

Halftime was awesome, too, as TBDBITL was joined by the huge alumni band to perform the 4-way Script Ohio. At the end of the formation, John Glenn and his wife were led out as honorary i-dotters. From circling the Earth to dotting the “i”. Pretty sweet.

Slick lucked into a pair of free Indianapolis Colts tickets for last weekend and I lucked into one of them. It was a damn cold day outside, but pretty pleasant inside Lucas Oil Stadium with the roof closed. I’m impressed by the new stadium. Being closed in it feels more like a large basketball arena to me, but there’s barely a bad seat in the house.

It took Indy some time to get their offense moving, but eventually they did and Manning finished with 320 passing yards. Here are a few clips I took during the action:

Saturday we watched the Buckeyes cruise to a win in the season opener in Columbus. The score was 43 to nothin over Youngstown State. Games like this, where there is such a mismatch, are tough to watch, but I read Youngstown got $650k to get routed in the ‘shoe, so they definitely got something out of the trip. Athletically though it was an ugly matchup…495 total yards to 74…and worse yet, 251 rushing yards to -11.

Halftime was awesome as TBDBITL performed with the alumni band to create the rare 4-way Script Ohio. There were so many people on the field it was insane! I’ve marched a lot in my day and seen some big groups, but none compared to this. There must’ve been 500+ people out there.

And then the third quarter came along, and on a Buckeye drive that came all the way down to the 2 yard line, Heisman hopeful Beanie Wells collapsed on the field clutching his leg. Even two days later, reports are still vague as to his condition, but he was clearly in a lot of pain at the time. Every Buckeye fan is certainly hoping to see him back in action on the 13th as the Buckeyes head out to play USC in a HUGE game which largely will define the season for both teams.

That injury aside, it was a great day. We also got to watch Quarterback Terrell Pryor play well in his collegiate debut. Plus, as we slowly milled out of the stadium after the game, we saw several players, including Pryor and linebacker James Laurinaitis (and his Dad!) signing autographs. I didn’t push my way through to get anything signed, but I did snap a couple pics of them.