In the early going, it was clear that Ohio State was much better prepared this year than it was a year ago. There's a phrase that's used a lot by coaches -- sort of a code word -- "ready to play." Ohio State was ready to play. LSU was not ready to play. Jim Tressel focused on two things: the long layoff, which his staff said was a big factor in last year's BCS game, and the disparity between OSU and the SEC in bowl games. Ohio State is now 0-9 in bowl games against the SEC -- not a reasonable stat when you consider the two leagues, the prestige and quality of athletes and coaches at Ohio State. The Buckeyes came out and out-hit LSU and knocked the Tigers off the ball. Todd Boeckman showed poise handling the ball, Chris Wells looked all-world every time he touched the ball and the offensive line took control with excellent pass protection. The defense for LSU was being manhandled.

But then there was a blocked field goal. Besides the obvious fact of losing three points, that kind of play can seem inconsequential at times. But after that, it was like the teams changed jerseys. Matt Flynn, once tentative, suddenly was confident. Boeckman made a very poor throw against man coverage that resulted in an interception. Then he got rattled and started holding the ball, taking sacks at times when he should have been getting rid of the ball.

There were two drives that ended up in LSU scores that were helped by personal fouls on Ohio State -- a total of 60 yards in penalties. Those foolish penalties were un-Tressel like.

Sloppy tackling is not what you expect out of the No. 1 defense in the country. Where was LB James Laurinaitis? He made a lot of tackles but they did not come at or behind the line of scrimmage.

From the middle of the third quarter on, Ohio State looked like an ordinary football team. It looked as if the score could have been much worse if LSU had decided to put the hammer down. When the Tigers wanted or needed to score, that's exactly what they did.