Valiant effort comes up just short in Columbus
COLUMBUS, Ohio (MCT) — It was there. So close the Iowa football team could smell the roses. Could just about grasp that Big Ten crown.
Just as quickly, it was snatched away.
In the 10-yard sack.
The desperation heave that fell into the wrong hands.
The 39-yard field goal that sailed through the uprights.
The Hawkeyes were not expected to do anything Saturday against Ohio State in the Horseshoe with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first collegiate start.
Yet it was right there. And then it was gone.
Iowa fought the whole game, taking the Buckeyes to overtime. But Ohio State stepped up at the end, sending the Hawkeyes backwards in the extra period before just holding on for Devin Barclay’s field goal, a 27-24 victory, at least a share of the conference title, and a spot in the Rose Bowl.
“This one hurts bad. It hurts all of us right now,” said Keokuk native James Vandenberg, the freshman making the start in place of the injured Ricky Stanzi. “It will hurt tomorrow. But we have to bounce back. We still have another game, still got Senior Day. I think it hurts the most because all these seniors worked so hard. ... It hurts but we’re going to bounce back.”
Iowa still has a chance to claim a share of the title with a win next week against Minnesota and loss by Ohio State at Michigan. But Saturday the Buckeyes were the ones lifting the roses high in the air. It is Ohio State’s fifth straight Big Ten title, but first Rose Bowl berth in the Jim Tressel era.
“None of our kids have gone to the Rose Bowl,” Tressel said. “I haven’t been there for 25 years. It’s been a long time and there’s nothing like it. It’s a great feeling.”
The Hawkeyes were oh, so close, to having that feeling.
Not expected to do anything — they were 16 1/2-point underdogs going in — the Hawkeyes gave the Buckeyes all they could handle.
Iowa rallied to tie the game in the fourth quarter, sending the game into an overtime that would end any Hawkeye hopes.
The Buckeyes’ defense stepped it up on Iowa’s possession to start the extra period, smelling the roses that were right there under its nose.
Vandenberg was forced to throw the ball away on first down. Running back Adam Robinson was dropped for a loss on second down.
Third-and-16, Vandenberg was sacked for the first time, a loss of 10 yards that knocked Iowa out of field goal range.
“It was a brain cramp by me. They went to a coverage we didn’t see all night,” said Vandenberg said. “We didn’t have anybody open. I was just thinking, ‘Get it off.’ That guy appeared out of nowhere. That’s on me. Got to give our kicker a shot.”
Fourth down. The Hawkeyes’ final chance.
Vandenberg heaved the ball to the end zone, where Anderson Russell pulled it down for an interception.
This was the game no one expected, given that Vandenberg was making his first start.
Vandenberg completed his first seven passes of the game before throwing an incompletion to Trey Stross in the end zone on Iowa’s second drive.
The Hawkeyes hung in against the Buckeyes until the beginning of the fourth quarter when Ohio State scored two touchdowns quickly in succession — an 11-yard run by Herron and a 50-yard run from Saine after a Vandenberg interception.
Count Iowa out. How could there be any magic left? The Hawkeyes lost their perfect season the previous week against Northwestern. They lost their starting quarterback, the guy who engineered all that magic.
Derrell Johnson-Koulianos picked up that baton.
Johnson-Koulianos ran back a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown — the first time an Iowa player has done that since C.J. Jones took the opening kickoff the 2003 Orange Bowl 100 yards.
“We never quit. That’s instilled in this program. That’s what we pride ourselves on,” Vandenberg said. “I was sitting on the bench thinking two scores to go and all of a sudden he’s in the end zone and we’re right back in the game.”
The Buckeyes missed a 47-yard field goal that likely would have sealed Iowa’s fate. The Hawkeyes took advantage, moving 70 yards and scoring on a Vandenberg pass to Marvin McNutt.
The Hawkeyes got the ball back for one last shot in regulation. But a good punt — Iowa started from its own 33 — and a failed first-down run and Ferentz decided to take a knee and take his chances in overtime.
“I’ve done enough stupid things this year. Why do something stupid at that point?” Ferentz said. “Had we gotten a return, had there been a shank punt and we had better field position, or had we popped that first play, then we probably would have pressed forward. Percentages weren’t with us at that point.”
In the end, it was not who was smarter. It was who executed more plays.
And in the end, that was Ohio State.
Barely.
