Buckeyes Improve to 5-0 With 23-7 Win Over Wisconsin – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/7/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 7, 2000
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%^$By ARNIE STAPLETON
%^$AP Sports Writer%^$
MADISON, Wis.- Derek Combs gave the free-falling Wisconsin Badgers yet%^$another footwear nightmare.%^$
Combs ran for two touchdowns, including an 80-yarder without his right shoe,%^$as eighth-ranked Ohio State beat the Badgers 23-7 on Saturday.%^$
“I had no clue how it happened,” linebacker Nick Greisen said. “He got%^$out of there. I looked up and I had the shoe and he was gone.”%^$
The No. 24 Badgers (3-3), whose season of national championship aspirations%^$began to unravel last month when the NCAA suspended 26 players for receiving%^$unadvertised shoe discounts, fell to 0-3 in the Big Ten for the first time%^$since 1996.%^$
The Buckeyes (5-0, 2-0) had 14 tackles for loss, including nine sacks, in%^$avenging last year’s 42-17 loss at Columbus that sent them spiraling toward%^$their worst season in 12 years.%^$
About 20 Buckeyes danced on the Badgers’ “W” at midfield when it was over.%^$
“We put a whooping on them,” said Nate Clements, Ohio State’s star%^$cornerback and trash-talker.%^$
Receiver Ken-Yon Rambo suggested the beating could have been worse, too.%^$
“We didn’t pound them like we should have,” insisted Rambo, who caught%^$five passes for 97 yards. “The coaches wanted us to back off and get%^$conservative and just get the win. But we could have made it worse.”%^$
The Badgers have hit rock bottom as it is.%^$
The two-time defending Rose Bowl champions started off the year ranked%^$fourth and needed fourth-quarter comebacks in all three of their non-league%^$games before losing to Northwestern, Michigan and Ohio State.%^$
Combs, who played sparingly in the second half after he turned his right%^$ankle, got things going with an 80-yard dash for the end zone when he slipped%^$two tackles at the line in the first quarter.%^$
His right shoe was ripped away as he emerged from the pile and he darted the%^$last 78 yards without it.%^$
“I just stepped out and it was gone,” Combs said.%^$
So was he.%^$
And nobody even got a hand on him on his second TD run, when he followed a%^$block by fullback Jamar Martin for a 21-yard score that made it 13-0.%^$
The Buckeyes were driving again in Badgers’ territory on their third%^$possession when Jamar Fletcher tied a school record with his 18th career%^$interception, stopping Ohio State at the Wisconsin 33.%^$
But the Badgers, behind struggling sophomore quarterback Brooks Bollinger,%^$punted on their first five possessions. On their sixth, Clements picked off%^$Bollinger at the Buckeyes’ 12.%^$
“His interception was questionable,” Clements said of Fletcher’s pickoff.%^$”Mine was a hell of a play.”%^$
Late in the first half, Ohio State’s Tim Cheatwood blocked Vitaly Pisetsky’s%^$52-yard field-goal attempt and the Badgers inexplicably began walking off the%^$field. Clements picked up the live ball and darted 25 yards before being%^$brought down at his own 39.%^$
Quarterback Steve Bellisari then reeled off a 30-yard run on first down in%^$which Combs sprained his ankle. That set up his 20-yard TD pass to Darnell%^$Sanders on a great fake handoff that made it 20-0 at halftime.%^$
“I didn’t think we would start slow. I have to take fault for that,”%^$Badgers coach Barry Alvarez said. “That’s my job to get the kids ready to%^$play. Obviously, we started very slow and put ourselves in a hole. Why, I don’t%^$know.”%^$
Michael Bennett bounced off the pile and darted 35 yards for a touchdown on%^$fourth-and-1 to pull Wisconsin to 20-7 in the third quarter.%^$
Bennett, the nation’s leading rusher, carried 20 times for 106 yards, 102%^$yards shy of his average. He needed 60 more yards to become the ninth rusher in%^$NCAA history to reach 1,000 by his fifth game.%^$
Dan Stultz, who missed an extra point in the first half and had trouble%^$punting in the swirling winds at Camp Randall Stadium, made it 23-7 with a%^$24-yard field goal with 2:32 left in the third quarter.%^$
Bollinger drove the Badgers into Ohio State territory again, but Matt%^$Wilhelm recovered one of Bollinger’s three fumbles at the Buckeyes’ 25.%^$
The Badgers lost two starters to sprained right knees, star defensive end%^$John Favret and center Al Johnson, and their leading tackler, safety Jason%^$Doering, got a concussion.%^$
“We’ve got to regroup with the guys that are healthy,” Alvarez said.%^$”We’ve got to patch things up and continue to get better. We’ve got to try to%^$salvage things and see if we can get ourselves in a bowl game some place.”
