Buckeyes battle Ducks in Rose Bowl

NCAA Football Betting Lines

01/01/2010 - Pasadena, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - "The Granddaddy of Them All" adds its 96th edition this New Year's Day, as the eighth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and seventh-ranked Oregon Ducks square off in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The Rose Bowl is the oldest bowl game, beginning in 1902 and played continuously since 1916. This year's combatants both come in with stellar 10-2 records.

Jim Tressel's Buckeyes captured the Big Ten title for the fifth straight season, distancing themselves down the stretch with five straight victories to close out the regular season.

OSU's bowl resume consists of an 18-22 postseason record. The team will be participating in its fifth straight BCS bowl game and is making its first trip to the Rose Bowl since 1997. The Buckeyes are 6-7 all-time in 13 previous Rose Bowl appearances.

Chip Kelly has pushed all the right buttons in his first season at the helm at Oregon. The Ducks opened the year with a deflating loss at Boise State, but regrouped to win seven straight after that to regain their swagger. A shootout loss at Stanford put the Pac-10 title in jeopardy, but Oregon responded with three straight wins and clinched the conference title with a 37-33 win over rival Oregon State in the regular-season finale.

Oregon is making its first appearance in the Rose Bowl since 1995 and will be making its fifth trip to the event all-time, with a 1-3 record thus far.

The series between these two teams has been dominated by Ohio State, which has won all seven prior matchups. However, these two schools have met just twice in the last 41 years (1983 and 1987). The first-ever meeting took place in the 1958 Rose Bowl.

The Buckeyes have relied heavily on the run this season and the results are a gaudy 198.9 yards per game, on 4.7 yards per carry. The formula for success may have to be tweaked a bit in this one, as it has been reported that talented QB Terrelle Pryor has suffered a partially torn PCL and has been playing with it. Just how much this will affect his performance and alter the gameplan remains to be seen. Pryor leads the team in rushing with 707 yards and seven scores, but is by no means the only productive player on the ground. Tailbacks Brandon Saine (694 yards, four TDs) and Dan Herron (558 yards, seven TDs) have also been effective.

The passing attack has taken a backseat in Columbus this season, although the team has shown glimpses of an effective vertical attack. Pryor has completed 55.8 percent of his passes this season, for 1,828 yards, with 16 TDs. Sophomore DeVier Posey has clearly been the top target down the field, leading the way with 52 receptions, for 727 yards and seven TDs.

Tressel knows his team needs to gain a bit more balance with the aerial attack.

"I think we've got to be more efficient and I think we've got to strike when there's opportunities to strike. We had a couple chances in the last game where we could have hit a homerun and we didn't. We have to be able to hit homeruns when people decide they're going to put X amount of people in the box to stop your run. That's the balance you like to have and we've got to get a little bit better at that."

Despite losses on the defensive side of the football coming into 2009, Ohio State once again flourished defensively. The Buckeyes ranked among the nation's best in total defense, ranking fifth in the country at a mere 262.5 ypg. The rush defense has been particularly stout, ranking fifth nationally at just 83.4 ypg.

The Buckeyes were paced by the linebacking tandem of juniors Ross Homan (team- high 96 tackles, 5.0 TFLs, 2.0 sacks, four INTs, two fumble recoveries) and Brian Rolle (91 tackles, 7.0 TFLs). Leading the way in the secondary is All- Big Ten First-Team selection Kurt Coleman. The senior strong safety amassed 64 tackles on the year, with five INTs, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. Rush ends Cameron Heyward (52 tackles, 9.0 TFLs, 5.5 sacks) and Thaddeus Gibson (41 tackles, 11.0 TFLs, 4.0 sacks) are the best of the bunch up front.

The Ducks uses one of the nation's most prolific ground games to wear the opposition down and it has worked to near perfection. Oregon ranks sixth nationally rushing the football, averaging 236.1 yards per game on an impressive 5.5 yards per carry.

The team lost talented tailback LaGarrette Blount for an extended period of time this season, but that allowed redshirt freshman LaMichael James to burst on the scene. His meteoric rise as one of the nation's top tailbacks is a big reason for Oregon's success. James rumbled for a whopping 1,476 yards and 14 TDs this year, on nearly seven yards per carry (6.9). The other devastating weapon on offense for Oregon is dual-threat QB Jeremiah Masoli. The junior signal-caller rushed for 659 yards and 12 TDs on the year, while completing nearly 60 percent of his passes, for 2,066 yards and another 15 scores. Wideout Jeff Maehl (52 receptions, for 686 yards, six TDs) led the team in receiving, but tight end Ed Dixon (42 receptions, for 551 yards, six TDs) may be the bigger threat in the middle of the field.

The Oregon defense plays second-fiddle to the offense in Eugene, but the Ducks have showed extended spans of brilliance on this side of the football over the course of the season. Oregon is giving up just 329.4 yards of total offense per game, while limiting foes to a decent 23.6 ppg. With 32 sacks and 24 takeaways on the year, this is also a unit that lives and dies by the big play.

Freshman safety John Boyett has made an immediate impression on this team, pacing the Ducks in tackles (78) with two INTs. He is joined in a talented secondary by fellow safety Javes Lewis (77 tackles, two INTs) and cover corner Talmadge Jackson (46 tackles, four INTs). LBs Casey Matthews (72 tackles, 4.0 TFLs, 2.5 sacks), Spencer Paysinger (72 tackles, 6.5 TFLs, two fumble recoveries) and Eddie Pleasant (50 tackles, 7.0 TFLs, 4.5 sacks) get the job done in the middle of the field, while rush end Kenny Rowe (36 tackles, 11.0 TFLs, 8.5 sacks) has been a force up front.

The play of the linebackers will be key in this one, as stopping OSU's ground game has to be first and foremost on the minds of the Ducks.

Matthews says the team is definitely ready for the challenge.

"Any team would think they can run the ball on us after watching the Stanford film. We should be ready for it though. After that game we expected a lot of teams to do the same thing and run at us but we went against that every day in practice to get ready for that and we were ready for that in the rest of our games. "As linebackers we look forward to a straight downhill running game because we'll be in on a lot plays."