Lima Boy takes down his fellow Buckeyes

This week in the sports world, many watched as the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes took on the Michigan State Spartan in Ohio Stadium. With the cold mixed conditions falling down on Columbus, it was an unpredictable atmosphere. The Buckeyes offense was stalling and potential Heisman trophy-candidate Ezekiel Elliot only had 12 carries in the game.

All in all, everyone soon found out that the Buckeyes 23 game winning streak was snapped by the Spartans on a game winning field goal as time expired.

What most people didn't know, is that the quarterback who won that game for Sparty is a young man named Tyler O'Connor. Tyler hails from Lima, Ohio. The same town as yours truly. Tyler is an Irishman from Lima and was a standout dual-sport athlete in high-school at Lima Central Catholic. Also, this blogger got the chance to guard O'Connor in his high school basketball days, but the results were pretty one-sided.

Anyways, O'Connor had not played a game in "The Shoe" since the summer he graduated high school for the annual Ohio North-South All Star Game. O'Connor played for the South and led his team to victory that day 22-14.

Now O'Connor is 2-0 in the Shoe. Tyler, someone who grew up in Ohio and most of his close friends from high school attend Ohio State, must've felt some serious butterflies when he got into the game, whether he'll admit it or not. For someone like Ty, who is so competitive, they were probably the good butterflies. The ones that give you excitement and anticipation for battle. I can personally say that since I was in Lima on Saturday, almost everyone in Lima was in Columbus Saturday, so O'Connor had a home crowd, even on the road.

Ty's final stats were: 7/12 completions for 89 yards and 1 touchdown. The Ohio native delivered a handful of key third down conversions for the Spartans and helped keep the momentum on an even playing field. This is key because OSU lost on its senior day, in front on thousands of fans that might not always go to games, and to keep that stadium quiet is one heck of a mission.

O'Connor said in his post game interview,"They [Ohio State] recruited me to come punt for them, but I obviously made the right decision. Good team win." A little sprinkle on top for the team that fell to its own son, A Lima kid taking down the Goliath of the college football food chain on its own turf.

Steel Solid in Home Opener

Since this is an attempt at a sports blog, I am going to bring up how well my Steelers played this Sunday at home in their 2015 home opener at Heinz Field. The Steelers were the favorite with a 6.5 point spread and the Steelers won 43-18, so the spread was well covered. In the game, the Steelers were without 3 of their best players, 2 of them to suspension. Ben Roethlisberger looked good as ever completing 21/27 passes for a completion percentage of 77%. I won't go on the stats spiel as much as I will about how good the Steelers played against a team that was hot last Monday Night on ESPN in front of the whole nation. The Steelers opened up at New England against the defending super bowl champs and were without 3 of their star players and only lost 21-28. They come home against San Francisco, who beat up on Adrian Peterson last week and had a good running game in former Ohio State running back, Carlos Hyde. Apparently Pittsburgh likes a challenge because they rose to the occasion like no other. I was at baseball during the game so I had to constantly check my teammates for updates on the scores. I asked first and it was 8-3 Steelers. I came back to the dugout in 2 minutes and it was 16-3 Steelers. Then I went on a run for conditioning that took a little less than 5 minutes and my teammates yells, "Case, its 22-3 now!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My Steelers were beating up on those sorry 49ers. The Steelers have been my favorite team ever since I was a little kid, so when they win my day immediately improves. Antonio Brown, who is arguably the best receiver in the NFL, had 9 catches for 195 yards and 1 Touchdown. Antonio Brown has 34 consecutive games with 5+ catches for 50+ yards or more. The Steelers will be returning All-Pro running back, Le'Veon Bell this week when they take on a tough St. Louis Rams team on the road. Seeing my team succeed and execute, as a sports fan, is very exciting feeling. Why do we get so into the world of sports and invest so much of our time and emotions into it? Because it is a passion that either you have, or you do not have. I certainly have a passion for sports and any opportunity I have to watch sports, especially the Steelers or Notre Dame football, you will find me in front of the closest TV.