With a dash of Tresselball and a pinch of risky business, the Buckeyes finally found their recipe for bowl game success.

All it took was a strong defense that has been around all season and a timely fourth-and-one conversion for the Buckeyes to step out ahead of the Oregon Ducks 26-17 in the 2010 Rose Bowl.

Ohio State owns third down

The Buckeye defense held the Ducks to only two third down conversions in 11 attempts. They allowed Oregon just 12 first downs throughout the game.

Junior Cameron Heyward said that all it took for the OSU defense to hold up Oregon was “Discipline. They are a great, high-powered offense but we knew we could hang with them,” he said.

On the other side of the ball, quarterback Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeye offense dominated on third down conversions. They were successful for 11 of 21 attempts, and totaled 26 first downs, more than double that of Oregon.

“It was pretty tough because every time we’d get late in the game, they’d get a third down [conversion]. It was frustrating,” said Kenny Rowe, Oregon linebacker and Defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl. “We’ve just got to get them off the field on third downs.”

Ohio State ran 89 plays throughout the course of the game, the third-most in Rose Bowl Game history. Oregon ran 53 plays, the eighth-fewest number of plays in Rose Bowl Game history. The difference, 36 plays, is the second-most in the history of the game.

Time of possession weighs on Ohio State’s side

All year long, the Ohio State defense has spent most of the time on the field.

“The offense did a great job to help out the defense. [The defense] has been carrying a lot this year,” Pryor said. “We’re just glad that we got out there and tried to help them out as much as we could.”

And help they did, by holding the ball for more than 41 minutes, while asking the defense to cover quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and his squad for only 18 minutes, allowing them to rest in between bouts with the quick and up-tempo Oregon offense.

When asked how they were able to stand up to that offense, coach Jim Tressel simply said, “We have an up-tempo defense.”

Buckeyes slow down Oregon’s playmakers

All talk leading up to Friday’s game centered around the speed and unpredictable nature of Masoli and Oregon’s running backs. However, the Buckeyes were able to limit Masoli to only six carries for nine total yards, his lowest total all season.

“I thought our [defensive] guys prepared extremely well,” Tressel said. “And we were going to make sure that [Masoli] wasn’t running scot-free.”

Redshirt freshman LaMichael James led the Ducks in rushing with 70 yards on 15 carries, but fell far short of his average of 123 yards per game. Similarly, LeGarrette Blount, the highly touted back who was suspended for most of the season, was held to 36 yards on five attempts.

Blount also fumbled at the 18-yard line late in the third quarter, which ended Oregon’s last drive deep into the red zone.

Buckeyes succeed on fourth down attempt

With two minutes left on the clock in the first half, Ohio State was stuck on fourth-down with one yard to go and the score tied 10-10. Knowing that Oregon would receive the ball to start the second half, Tressel knew he had to try and score before halftime, he said.

 “[Oregon coach] Chip [Kelly] was calling timeouts before the half while we had the ball because he wanted it with a minute to go to try to get points for them,” Tressel said. “It was that kind of game that you knew every possession, every opportunity was going to be key.”

The Buckeyes took the opportunity to convert on fourth-and-one and Brandon Saine succeeded in pushing the ball four yards to the Oregon 10-yard line to set up OSU for a field goal to give OSU the lead heading into the half.