
Even after sleeping on this one, I still don't know what I saw. Matthew McConaughey might be dazed and confused after the Buckeyes took down his beloved Texas boys.
As for me? Animal's ecstatic and elated! I've screamed louder than I have in a long, long time! What. A. Game. Whew!
Ohio State just punched their ticket to play for the National Championship. On January 20th, they'll square off against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for all the marbles. And I absolutely cannot wait for it!
But to get a chance to lock horns against the Irish, the Buckeyes needed to take care of business in the Lone Star State first. How'd they do it? Let's take a look at some MASSIVE Keys to Victory!
Winning the battle of big plays
I usually hate thinking that a football game could come down to literally one or two plays that could mean the difference between victory and defeat. But in this case, I really do think two plays either put the Buckeyes in position to win this game, or put them over the top.
Late in the first half, Ohio State and Texas were tied at 7 with only seconds left. The Buckeye offense had also been struggling to get anything going at all. Ohio State was bitten by the penalty bug, and Texas's defense was either holding their own, or starting to figure the Buckeyes out.
The Longhorns drove down, and scored the game-tying touchdown, electrified the burnt orange crowd, and appeared poised to take the momentum in the second half.
I know the weather forecast in Arlington, Texas was cold and a little snowy. But the meteorologists messed up. They never said there'd be a chance of lightning strikes.
Henderson took a little dump-off checkdown pass from Howard on what looked like a screen, made a single cut, and before anybody knew it, #32 was off to the races and motoring 75 yards to the house!
As quickly as Texas fired up their fans, a scarlet lightning bolt in the form of TreVeyon Henderson took the wind right out of their sails. Things changed on a dime.
But if Henderson's touchdown took the wind out of Longhorn fans, the other big play made the Cotton Bowl as quiet as a funeral for those wearing burnt orange.
Jack Sawyer personally kicked Texas into a six-foot deep hole. The big fella brought his own shovel too, and went to work!
I don't know if what happened on that play was a mix of poor play calling by Texas, truly stout defense by the Buckeyes or both. I think it was both.
Texas had the ball first and goal at Ohio State's two-yard line. And they were threatening to tie the game at 21. A penalty by the Buckeyes moved it even closer to the one. Steve Sarkisian and his crew had four shots at it. And they couldn't get it done.
First down: Ohio State stops Texas with a classic stonewalling.
Second down: The Longhorns try to pitch it outside, and Ohio State gets a massive tackle for a loss back to the eight. Interesting.
Third down: Ewers throws it through the back of the end zone. Incomplete. Wait a minute. Ohio State's not really gonna seal it are they?
Fourth down: Ewers drops back, and never sees the biggest, baddest Buckeye on the field coming after him. BAM! Jack Sawyer knocks the ball loose, shoves Ewers to the ground, and motors 83 yards to paydirt!
In the words of Mark Calaway, famously known as the Undertaker, Rest. In. Peace!
Captain Jack buried Texas's National Championship hopes with one play, and sent the Longhorns home for the winter.
Even worse for Ewers was the fact that Sawyer used to be his roommate when he was a Buckeye before he left Columbus. Ouch. That one's gotta sting!
And it's also gotta sting for the Longhorns knowing they took Ohio State's most dangerous weapon away, and they still lost!
Winning without Jeremiah Smith
I was interested to see how Texas would handle Jeremiah Smith in this game. And they handled him exactly like a great defense would. He was limited to, wait for it... One catch. One catch for a grand total of three yards. That was it.
Texas covered Jeremiah exactly how a team should cover him. He was double teamed all night long by their best cornerback, with a safety consistently helping over the top. Jeremiah had nowhere to go.
Usually, when an offense loses their main weapon, a team's in trouble.
But Will Howard and the Buckeyes adjusted accordingly. Other than for a bad throw when Howard tried to force the ball to Smith that led to an interception, the Buckeyes figured out how to generate offense without their best weapon.
Checkdowns for yards after the catch. Running the football. Getting Carnell Tate more involved. It didn't matter what Texas did to take Jeremiah Smith away. Will Howard simply took what the defense gave him.
For those of you at home who may not understand what Ohio State did to counter Texas, let me dive into some "coach speak" for a second.
Texas was keyed in on Jeremiah Smith. They knew he was Ohio State's most dangerous player. And they weren't going to let him torch them like he did to Oregon. So they double covered him.
Jeremiah is too talented for a defense to leave one of their corners all alone with him. Leaving a cornerback on an island with this kid is just asking for trouble.
You can't play tight man to man coverage against him. Or he'll blow the lid off your defense on the first deep shot. He's too athletic and too fast for just one guy to stop him. So Texas wisely double covered him.
In response, Ohio State did three things:
Run the football.
Get other wideouts involved.
Attack the weak spots in Texas's zone coverage.
Texas has one of the best defenses in the country. But Chip Kelly showed why he's a fantastic offensive coordinator when he's coaching at his absolute best.
First, running the football forces a defense to do one thing: Creep up to stop the run. This opens up passing opportunities in the second level of the defense in the middle of the field, or it exposes the back end of the defense to deep shots if they're that far out of position. If a team is running the football well enough, this opens up a lot of opportunities in the passing game.
Next, even without Jeremiah being a factor, Ohio State is still loaded offensively with weapons like Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, TreVeyon Henderson, Quinshon Judkins and Gee Scott.
The Buckeyes have an embarrassment of riches on the offensive side of the ball. And Will Howard was wise to spread the ball around to every single one of those guys.
Finally, once the offense was in rhythm, Will Howard was able to attack the weak spots in Texas's zone coverage. For a quarterback, beating the zone takes two things: Accuracy, and trusting one's receivers.
Man to man covers individual players. Zone covers parts of the field. And in this case, Will Howard needed to trust that his receivers would be where they're supposed to be, at exactly the right time. A good offense that solves zone coverage has to have great chemistry. And the Buckeyes showed that last night!
They also showed one more thing that proved they're ready to play for the National Championship...
They can handle adversity.
Think back to November 30th, 2024, at about 3:30 that afternoon. The Buckeyes had just lost to Michigan for the fourth straight time. The Wolverines tried planting the flag. Guys were angry and started pushing and shoving. Fans were calling for Ryan Day's head.
And over the days and weeks after that leading up to the Playoff, everyone laughed at Ohio State. Why wouldn't they? Ohio State looked flat out bad. And there was no indication that the Buckeyes would do what they've done over the last three games.
Plus the Buckeyes are easy to hate for many. Most haters won't admit it, but they're happy to see Ohio State lose, just for the simple reason that the Buckeyes win too much for their liking. That's understandable. I did the same thing when Nick Saban coached Alabama. Incredible success breeds jealousy.
But incredible success also sets a standard. It sets such a high bar that soon becomes the expectation. Many teams would kill to do all the things that Ohio State does on a consistent basis, like going to a bowl game, winning 10+ games a year at least, and being in the conversation for their conference championship every year.
But the Buckeyes have had such a high degree of success over the years, that fans expect to be competing for, and winning the National Championship every year. Since The Ohio State University fielded its first football team in 1890, the Buckeyes have won eight National Championships.
1942 was their first under the legendary Paul Brown. Then they won National Championships in 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968 and 1970 under Woody Hayes. Next, Jim Tressel and the 2002 team added to the trophy case. And a decade ago, Urban Meyer's best group of Buckeyes completed one of the most improbable College Football Playoff runs in history to bring home the hardware in 2014.
But every single one of those teams faced adversity somewhere.
In 2002, Jim Tressel's team won so many close games that year, that people started jokingly calling them the "Luckeyes." Fans were waiting for invincible Miami to expose Ohio State as a fraud. After all, Larry Coker, Sean Taylor, Kellen Winslow Jr., and the rest of that powerful team was riding a 34-game winning streak. What chance did Jim Tressel and the boys from Ohio have?
But the Buckeyes won the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. One of the greatest games in college football history, while Miami hasn't been the same since.
In 2014, Ohio State lost an ugly game to Virginia Tech early in the season. And they had to work their butts off just to prove they deserved that fourth and final CFP spot. To add insult to injury, JT Barrett went down in the final game of the season against Michigan.
The Buckeyes would go into the Big Ten Championship without their unquestioned leader under center, and turned to some kid named Cardale Jones. 12 Gauge. Ohio State had no chance against Wisconsin, Alabama or Oregon, right? Wrong. The Buckeyes won it all that year too.
And now the 2024 team stands at the door of college football immortality, ready to kick it down. This team has gone through Tennessee, Oregon and Texas, when many expected them to lose to the Volunteers four days before Christmas.
The 2024 Buckeyes are a resilient team that is one step away from etching their names in college football lore forever. And a bunch of Golden Domers led by a former Buckeye linebacker is standing squarely in their way. I love Marcus Freeman. But something tells me he's in a bad position. He just doesn't know it yet.
Nine days. That's all that's left of the run. And folks, it's been one hell of a ride. Don't jump off the CLE-BUS with me just yet. Last stop: Atlanta, Georgia. Let's end this the right way.
Go Bucks.
Statistical Leaders
Will Howard: 24-33, 289 yards, TD, INT
TreVeyon Henderson: six carries, 42 yards
Carnell Tate: seven receptions, 87 yards
Sources
ESPN
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