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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > January > 08
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
OSU’s Meltdown:: “Guys were fighting with other guys”
NEW ORLEANS — It was nearly an hour after the national championship game — a game in which Louisiana State embarrassed Ohio State, 38-24 — and as Alex Boone tromped across the Superdome field from the OSU dressing room to the team bus, he still wasn’t over the meltdown he had witnessed among some of his teammates.
A meltdown he — and some other Buckeyes — said happened on the field, on the sidelines and even in the dressing room.
“I couldn’t believe that guys were fighting with other guys, this isn’t a barroom.” the massive junior tackle said. “You don’t need to be fighting with your own teammates. We were here to play football, Some guys didn’t get that though. But that’s not Ohio State football.
“Everyone was fighting with each other and I’m like, ‘Calm down. It’s okay. It’s half time.’ But everyone’s like, ‘This is your fault,’ and then ‘No, this is your fault.’ I was like ‘Calm down, we got a half to go.’ But some guys panicked like the game was over.”
In truth, it was.
The Bucks trailed by 14 at the half and lost by the same margin, though they were down by more than that through much of the second half and only a late score made things look far more respectable than they were.
Ohio State lost its second national title game in a row — and its ninth straight bowl game to an SEC team — for a lot of reasons:
Stupid penalties — including a numbing five personal fouls — costly turnovers and certainly, LSU’s superior play. The Tigers were a better team.
The most surprising thing, though, was the Bucks’ mental collapse that everybody from Boone to linebackers Larry Grant and James Laurinaitis talked about afterward.
“You’ve got to be able to control your emotions in a big game like this,” said Laurinaitis, who, along with a BCS-record 18 tackles against the Tigers, had a costly face mask penalty. “We didn’t do that at all tonight. We did a lot of things we shouldn’t have.”
Grant agreed: “Our mind got where it shouldn’t have been and It cost us the game.”
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