Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Another DaONE Title

Coach Bironm, shown here in his Ohio State visor and "Bad Motherf*cker" logo on his left chest, vows to hit the links hard this offseason after his 3rd DaONE title
Third Time's a Charm
Now 3-time champ glad, Cavaliers sad

"I've had games this year that have left me feeling unstoppable, games that have left me feeling like I didn't belong on the same online connection with my opponents, and games that have flat out driven me to a point of near-insanity," Coach Bironm said in a hoarse voice after the game. "But never did I experience all of those feelings in a game of '06 until now."

Chalk up another DaONE season following a championship game that wouldn't have disappointed a sold out online crowd, as The Ohio State University defeated the University of Virginia 20-17 in a game that came down to the last second - or last tackle.

The game began a defensive struggle, as Bironm & Liquidrob went headset-less for the first time in the '06 campaign, and subsequently educated our television sets to some new, interesting combinations of popular swear words. Neither team could move the ball effectively, with Virginia's vaunted passing attack sputtering against the tough Buckeye defense, and Ohio State's marquee rushing attack stumbled against the Cavaliers as well. However, near the beginning of the second quarter, Ohio State LB A.J. Hawk drilled HB Michael Johnson in the flats that forced him to cough the ball up, and Buckeye DE Jay Richardson recovered to give Ohio State a shortened field in Cavalier territory.

After a quick first down the Bucks were forced to attempt a 46 yard field goal, and for the first time all year K Josh Huston misaligned his sites and veered just wide left to leave the game knotted at 0-0. Hagans would waste no time, and whether on the ground or through the air he took what was given to him by the stingy defense in route to a 7-yard touchdown pass to FB Chris Snelling to put Virginia on top 7-0. After an entire half of offensive futility, the Buckeyes finally managed to the move ball following a courageous pass from the pocket by QB Troy Smith to WR Santonio Holmes for 29 yards, and then immediately following with a 32-yard play-action pass to WR Ted Ginn put the Buckeyes in the red zone after he was somehow caught from behind. With just 0:52 remaining in the half on 3rd down, Smith rolled to his right to avoid the massive Cavalier linebacker rush and found WR Roy Hall with a step on his man in the end zone for a 14-yard connection to send the game into the half tied at 7-7.

The third quarter turned out to be similar to the entire first half, as both defenses dictated the flow the game. Virginia LB Ahmad Brooks made a leaping grab in Buckeye territory as Smith dared him over the middle that led to a 23 yard field goal by K Connor Hughes, but the Buckeyes would answer as they did in the second quarter with a 30 yard field goal of their own.

Tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter, Ohio State struck gold as Smith play-actioned on 2nd and 4 to hit Ginn who made an remarkable reception under DB Patrick Duffy that set him free to go 74 yards down the field to give the Buckeyes a 17-10 lead. As Virginia drove back up the field, Hagans went to the bank one too many times as LB Bobby Carpenter stepped back and intercepted a route at the Cavalier 28 yard line that worked 3 times before on the standout linebacker. However, after a 7-yard return, Carpenter showed why he's a linebacker versus say, a fullback, as he fumbled the ball back to the Cavalier offense giving them a first down after holding them the previous 2 plays. With renewed life, Hagans moved to another first down on two plays, and then went downfield to WR Ron Morton 63 yards into Buckeye territory. On the next play, Hagans recognized a zone defense and went to standout WR Deyon Williams for a 27 yard touchdown to tie the game up at 17-17 with 2:27 remaining.

With an inconsistent offense all day, Ohio State mixed up rushing and passing out of the shotgun to buy Smith more time against the magnificent front 7 of Virginia, and after a key 3rd down conversion to WR Anthony Gonzalez 26 yards downfield, the Buckeyes managed to run into the line 3 times to use up Virginia's timeouts and kick the 40 yard field goal to give them the lead 20-17.

After a quick first down completion to TE Johnathan Stupar following the kickoff return and 0:13 remaining on the clock, Virginia QB Marques Hagans sent his receivers deep from his own 29 yard line down 3 points, but the Buckeye defense absorbed their assignments forcing Hagans to run. With no one in site, Hagans raced untouched 32 yards to the Ohio State 39 yard line with :01 remaining...but he failed to get out of bounds - gunshot, game.

"The announcers f'n said I was out of bounds!" screamed Coach Liquidrob according to Bironm's estimates of how hard he was hitting his keyboard to type that to him. "That's f'd up! No f'n way!"

"The tackle made by SS Donte Whitner left Hagans lying in bounds pointed towards the middle of the field," Coach Bironm stated. "However if he stepped out briefly before the tackle was made I missed it, but I certainly never ruled that possibility out."

Another epic game, between Season #2 and Season #5 I don't know which one I'd give the best game to but it was incredible (referring to the swat as time expired vs Davon in NCAA 2004). Great playcalling on offense and defense, two outstanding manual football players batting down long passes and using intelligence instead of gimmicks to move the ball - you really couldn't ask for a better game. #1 played #2 despite the scheduling turmoil that marred the left side of the tournament bracket, and an incredible game took place to decide what may be the last DaONE champion. Great game Rob, and as always, gotta give love to my man MadSci for hosting and running another successful season of NCAA Football.

When asked if he was going to Disney World after the championship, Bironm replied, "sure, hell they got golf courses there too."

Box Score & Summary
UVA - 00-07-03-07 - 17
OSU - 00-07-03-10 - 20

1st Quarter
no scoring

2nd Quarter
UVA 7 yard pass from Hagans to Snelling (Hughes kick) - 2:43
Bucks 14 yard pass from Smith to Hall (Huston kick) - 0:45

3rd Quarter
UVA 23 yard field goal by Hughes - 4:08
Bucks 30 yard field goal by Huston - 0:50

4th Quarter
Bucks 74 yard pass from Smith to Ginn (Huston kick) - 5:19
UVA 27 yard pass from Hagans to Williams (Hughes kick) - 2:27
Bucks 40 yard field goal by Huston - 0:21

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