No. 1 Ohio State won for the 16th straight game as it claimed a 44-0 victory over Minnesota in front of 105,455 fans Saturday at Ohio Stadium. Antonio Pittman ran 21 times for 116 yards and two scores and added two catches for 47 yards while the Buckeye defense had three interceptions and recorded a shutout for the first time since the 2003 season.
“I thought our defense did a heck of a job.” Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel said. “ Minnesota always has done a good job on offense. Quite honestly, they've been a little banged up losing their tight end and had some injuries up front. But I thought our defense did a great job of handling the tempo of the game, also coming up with the take-aways, which gave us great field position and I'm not sure we did offensively as great a job as we could have capitalizing on all the opportunities we had.
Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith finished the game 14-of-21 for 183 yards and one touchdown and added 43 yards on six rushing attempts and his first rushing touchdown of the season. The defense used interceptions by Antonio Smith, Jamario O'Neal and Malcolm Jenkins and turned back the Golden Gophers twice on fourth down, including a stop at the OSU 15-yard line midway through the fourth quarter that kept the shutout bid alive.
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Ohio State rolled up 484 yards of total offense, getting 266 yards rushing to go with 218 yards passing. Minnesota had 182 yards of total offense and was limited to just 47 yards on the ground.
Brian Hartline led Buckeye receivers with four catches for 69 yards. Eight different Ohio State receivers had a least one catch in the game. Wells finished with 15 carries for 90 yards to go with his TD run. James Laurinaitis led the Buckeyes with 11 tackles, including a 6-yard sack, one of two sacks in the game by Ohio State. Lawrence Wilson had the other. The unit had four stops behind the line of scrimmage.
Minnesota senior quarterback Brian Cupito was 13-of-25 for 120 yards, but the Buckeyes turned his three interceptions into 13 points. Amir Pinnix was held to 14 carries for 46 yards while Jack Simmons caught five passes for 48 yards. Minnesota slipped to 3-6 overall and 0-5 in league play.
The Buckeyes not only play like champions on the field but appear to be the champions of the betting board as well. Ohio State has covered eight of the nine games it has played in 2006. Ohio State was installed as a heavy –27.5-point home favorite and easily covered the line against the spread. The total of 47 points did not hold up although the Buckeyes came near to meeting the total scoring all the games 44 points.
