CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Style points came and went on Saturday afternoon in Champaign. Ohio State roared out to a 28-0 second-quarter lead before upset-minded Illinois rallied, pulling within 12 points in the fourth quarter, before falling 60-35.
It made for mixed emotions after the game, even though the Buckeyes tied a school record with their 22nd consecutive win. Illinois is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Since Tim Beckman took over, the Fighting Illini have won five total games and zero Big Ten games.
Once again, it’s wait and see for Ohio State. It will remain at No. 3 in the BCS standings for at least another week after Alabama and Florida State won. But head coach Urban Meyer said postgame that the time has come for the Buckeyes to steer clear of all the hoopla regarding the national championship hunt.
“We have to make sure that our focus is on getting better each week instead of all of the national stuff,” he said. “I think I'm learning a lesson to just shut my mouth and quit worrying about this and that. Let’s get a little better.”
It wasn’t just Meyer who preached that message. Players were also cognizant of the national chatter, which was starting to become a distraction, Meyer’s ultimate no-no.
“The last few weeks, especially with the bye week, everybody was in our head about the situation with the top three teams and the bowl situation,” junior linebacker Ryan Shazier said. “Before, we were just playing game by game, just trying to win. I think we were too focused on other things rather than the main thing, which was playing Illinois.”
Beckman is a former Ohio State assistant and coached under Meyer at Bowling Green. Things might not be going well for him, but he can recognize good football.
“[Ohio State] is a good football team. No question about it,” Beckman said. “They’ve got some skilled athletes, very well-coached. I thought our players battled to the dang end. They never came up short, they continued to fight.”
The biggest issue Ohio State faced all day was Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase. He was talked up all week by players and coaches and didn’t fail to live up to the hype. Scheelhaase singlehandedly kept the Illini in the game.
“I’m a big fan of No. 2, the quarterback,” Meyer said. “I just love guys like that. I told him after the game that I think he’s a great player. I thought he was hard to defend today. We were playing a quarterback that created plays.”
Cameron Johnston has been a bright spot all season. Meyer said despite all that Johnston still wasn’t at the place he wanted. In eternally breezy Champaign, Johnston had a field day. But good came with the bad. In the second quarter, Illinois returned a punt for a touchdown.
“Our special teams are a little bit of a mess right now,” Meyer said. “Some of the guys playing right now, quite frankly, haven’t played at all; and as a result, we just have to coach better. I can't wait to get back to work tomorrow.”
Jack Mewhort suffered an injury in practice this week. Meyer decided that he’d pull Mewhort Saturday after a few series, a decision he came to regret after production dropped.
“He twinged his knee on Wednesday. Then (he was) off practice Thursday and a little bit on Friday,” Meyer said. “It was during pass rush. He hyperextended it. It’s devastating. He’s the man. He’s a rally point. He’s a leader.”
A frustrated Meyer left his press conference with a simple statement.
“Let's just coach and get better,” he said. “We’re down to week 11. Let’s get our 11th win.”
Braxton Miller only completed 13 passes, but it was a far cry from two years ago when he connected on just one attempt. As usual, the wind reeked havoc with the passing game.
“The wind is so tricky at times,” he said. “I think it was around 25 miles per hour. I throw a pretty decent deep ball and the last one I threw was five or 10 yards in front, so we tried to focus on short passes.”
The wind and game situations called for Ohio State using its bread and butter from the 2012 season – running Miller and Carlos Hyde.
“We went back to basics because the passing game wasn’t really working,” Miller said. “We just handed the ball to Carlos or me and we’ve got the best offensive line in the country. Carlos loves running against any type of defense and he just wants to improve himself and play like he has a chip on his shoulder.”
Hyde had one of the great rushing days in Ohio State history. It didn’t change the closer-than-expected margin of victory, though. And that’s what had him in a gloomy mood after the game.
“It was a long day and we definitely have to improve because we kind of hit a wall,” he said. “We came out scoring points, but we hit a wall later with a few three-and-outs. Like Coach Meyer told us before the game, ‘We’ve got to play very, very good.’ Late in the game we started clicking, but we can’t hit that wall.
“A win is a win, but I’m not pleased with the way we performed today. If we get to where we want to go this year, we have to get better. We can’t focus too much on our opponent's records. We just need to focus on what’s good for us and that’s getting better in practice. We need to play our game no matter who our opponent is.”
