I had a feeling that the lack of Beanie Wells would be bad news for the Buckeyes, and I was right:
LOS ANGELES — As college football scripts go, this potential blockbuster never would have made it to the big screen.
When No. 1 Southern California met No. 5 Ohio State in the first marquee event of college football’s regular season, the much-hyped matchup turned into a big-time bust.
In U.S.C.’s 35-3 mauling of the Buckeyes before 93,607 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the characters were too familiar, the results too predictable and the lack of drama too obvious.
Coupled with Georgia’s hard-won victory over South Carolina on Saturday, the Trojans established themselves as the best team in the country and the favorites to win the national title. After losses to Stanford and Oregon kept them from the Bowl Championship Series title game last season, the stars have realigned in Troy.
“Tonight, it didn’t matter who we were playing,” U.S.C. Coach Pete Carroll said.
The underwhelming performance by Ohio State was the third consecutive time it imploded on college football’s biggest stage. Twice in the past two national title games, the Buckeyes self-destructed. This performance will probably give them the hook from the national title race, to the joy of college football fans outside the Big Ten who have built up a resentment toward the Buckeyes because of their big-game foibles.
There really isn’t much to say about last night’s game. The absence of Wells wasn’t even the biggest problem in some respects because the Buckeyes kept shooting themselves in the foot with penalties, including a holding call in the 1st half which ended up calling back what would have been a OSU touchdown that would have made the score 14-10.
This much is true, though, Ohio State’s BCS chances are pretty much dead at this point. They play one last non-conference game next week in against Troy University in Columbus which they should win (then again, the O.U. was supposed to be an easy victory too) and then the Big Ten season starts. If they can pull things together and Wells stays healthy, they might just make it to the Rose Bowl this year.
