“Is this the same team that was No. 1?” she said. “I think everybody went to the game except the Ohio State team. It's sad. They were not impressive.”
Aeh was one of several city officials at Monday's Portsmouth City Council meeting who were anticipating the game. Some were decked out in their scarlet and gray OSU best.
While City Council conducted all of its business, there were some references to the game later that evening.
“Go Bucks,” some councilmen said when giving their reports.
Service Director Chris Murphy was one of those adorned in Buckeye colors.
“I wish I knew what happened,” he said. “I really think the 51-day layoff did affect them. Florida State had two games in that time span.”
Before Monday, OSU had not played since defeating Michigan on Nov. 18.
“I rushed home from a frustrating City Council meeting and the game got me even more frustrated,” Murphy said.
Murphy said the meeting and the game had him awake until 2:30 a.m. He even called his father in South Carolina at 11:30 p.m.
City Council passed a 3-percent garbage rate increase that Murphy had requested. But during the meeting, Vice President Marty Mohr suggested raising it to 5 percent, leading to Murphy's frustration. The game didn't help.
“Ohio State was just out of sync,” Murphy said.
Auditor Trent Williams didn't say if he lost any sleep over the game. But he said the result made him sick.
“It looks like they were overpowered on the offensive line to me,” Williams said. “I don't blame (quarterback) Troy Smith. Their defensive ends (Derrick Harvey and Jarvis Moss) were on him all night.”
Smith completed only four passes for 35 yards and was sacked five times.
A quarterback is sacked when he is tackled for a loss.
“I've been too busy to think a lot about it,” Williams said. “But there could have been a lot better feeling in Ohio today if they had won.”
Williams said he started getting worried about midway through the first half. Like Murphy, he said the long layoff played a part in the Buckeyes' defeat.
“That's a long time to go between games,” Williams said. “They should have all the bowl games completed by at least Jan. 1.”
Council Jerrold Albrecht, who was wearing an Ohio State shirt at the meeting, said the loss was hard to take.
“I was excited for the first 30 seconds,” he said.
Ted Ginn Jr. returned the opening kickoff to give the Buckeyes a short-lived 7-0 lead.
“It seemed to me the Ohio State players came to the game and left their memories and stuff back in Columbus,” Albrecht said.
He blamed penalties and poor pass defense for the disastrous loss.
“But I still love them,” Albrecht said.
JEFF BARRON can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.
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