The No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Northern Kentucky Norse 70-43 Saturday night, improving to 5-1 on the year after their close loss to Duke last Wednesday.

The 27-point victory seemed to be just what the doctor ordered, but Thad Matta was singing a different tune after the game.

"The number one thing I wanted to see is if we would get up off the mat and have a little fight to us," Matta said. "I don't think we were as effective that way as I wanted to be."

A number of issues came up in Ohio State’s loss to Duke, including some poor shooting from the team and a lack of trust in the bench from the coaching staff.

The Buckeyes’ shooting woes continued. After hitting on just 34 percent of its shots in Cameron Indoor Stadium, Ohio State only shot 38 percent from the field against Northern Kentucky. Sam Thompson was the only starter to shot over 50 percent (three of five from the field for 10 points) against the Norse. None of the other four starters shot over 33 percent from the field.

Ohio State’s leading scorer, Deshaun Thomas, only scored 14 points despite taking 14 shots. He talked about the Buckeyes’ shooting struggles, "We didn't come out putting it in the hole. But, you know, it's us staying together and preparing in practice and shooting the ball well."

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They’re perfect, but obviously not without flaws.   It really ends up being a the best case scenario for Urban Meyer in his first season at Ohio State, but people are going to argue the merits of it and whether it should be over already.  He’s the third head coach the program has had in three years, and he’s done one of the things (defeat Michigan) that the Buckeye faithful needed him to do in one try.  That used to be a big problem (for an Ohio State Head Coach), but it’s becoming a distant memory; that’s something that is becoming a little under-appreciated, perhaps.  But, there is, of course, the pink elephant in the room.

There’s Golden Pants for sale, fried chicken, marijuana, tattoos, a supplemental draft pick, and a web of lies that cannot be easily untangled.  There are lawyers that should be disbarred, Memorial Day resignations, a University President that no one respects, an Athletic Director that’s still employed, interstate test drives, and an interim head coach.  There are two-game suspensions that become five-game suspensions, and five-game suspensions that become ten-game suspensions, and blue chip recruits that disgracefully sever ties with the school of their choice.  And thousands of miles away, there’s me, wondering if I can, should, or will be a fan of this team ever again.

However, this isn’t a tale of me, a sweater vest, or a man from Ashtabula.  No one man is bigger than a program, let alone an entire state university, but some have bigger roles in the story than others.  This particular story begins one year ago, or ten years ago, or 310 days before we were sure there was a story at all.

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Ohio State’s 26-21 victory over Michigan Saturday afternoon played out much like the entire 2012 season. The Buckeyes were uneven, sloppy and at times exasperating against a Wolverine team they badly outplayed for most of the day. But, just as they’ve been in every single game this season, they were ultimately successful.

It wasn’t easy, though- not as easy as it could have been, at any rate. In the first half Ohio State’s season-long defensive bugaboos of poor pursuit angles and lousy tackling led to big plays by the Michigan offense. In the second half, while the defense clamped down on the Wolverines, the offense went into the tank with clock-management problems and blown opportunities in opposing territory. Penalties and turnovers were issues all day for Urban Meyer’s team.

Yet at the end of it all, everything worked out. The coaching staff made the right adjustments defensively. The offensive line and Carlos Hyde stepped up and controlled the trenches in crunch time. Even the enemy Wolverines chipped in with some questionable play-calling and use of personnel in the second half. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is winning- and the Ohio State Buckeyes, as imperfect as they’ve looked at times, are a perfect 12-0.

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The Big Ten Championship Game will be played this Saturday night in Indianapolis with Nebraska and Wisconsin competing for the Stagg Trophy (formerly known as the Stagg-Paterno Trophy). It’s a rematch of the teams’ meeting in late September, won by the Cornhuskers 30-27 in Lincoln, in one of their numerous 4th quarter comebacks of 2012.

Back in August, the Leaders Division preview predicted that Ohio State would win the division and force the conference to field something less than their best two teams in the second annual title game, and that’s how it turned out. (The Legends preview wasn’t nearly as prescient...I liked the Spartans)  

Small wonder then, that the championship game of an unusually weak conference is eliciting a large national yawn by featuring the Badgers, with their 4-4 Big Ten mark, and a 7-5 overall record, against a Nebraska team that has already beaten them once, but that also gave up 63 points in a loss to the undefeated Buckeyes.

But so be it. This is what Ohio State and their fans signed up for in 2012. A low-stress bowl season. Enjoy...and let the rest of Big Ten country savor a postseason without Ohio State. It’s the future of OSU under Urban Meyer that they have to worry about.

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