There Is No Stopping a Renewed Ohio State

The Buckeyes dominated the No. 1 and previously unbeaten Ducks and look poised to roll to a national championship.

Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson rushes with the ball against Oregon at the Rose Bowl. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

There is no longer a shred of doubt about who is favored to win this 12-team College Football Playoff. Through two rounds, it’s the Ohio State Buckeyes vs. the field, and the field is in trouble. Ohio State is a runaway freight train looking for someone else to flatten.

The next team tied to the tracks in front of them: the Texas Longhorns. Look out in the Cotton Bowl semifinal next week, Horns. If it took double overtime to beat the Arizona State Sun Devils on Wednesday, an entire herd of Bevos aren’t going to save you against the Buckeyes.

Ohio State’s 41–21 demolition of the undefeated Oregon Ducks, the No. 1 team in the nation and No. 1 seed in the playoff, was a tour de force that built upon its previous tour de force, when the Buckeyes destroyed the Tennessee Volunteers, 42–17. They are touring and de forcing like few teams we’ve seen in recent memory, jumping on the Vols 21–0 out of the gate and the Ducks 34–0. Two highly anticipated showdowns have been rendered duds.

Those beatdowns reinforce the talent on this $20 million roster, and also reinforce the inexplicable nature of their 13–10 loss to the middling Michigan Wolverines on Nov. 30.

That shocking defeat, as a three-touchdown favorite, was deemed the ruination of the Ohio State season. As it turns out, it was the salvation. Given three weeks to regroup and a playoff bracket that lacks Michigan, everything flipped.

The Ohio State staff coached better. The Ohio State players performed better. The aura of uptight dread that suffused the Buckeyes in that rivalry debacle has been replaced by merciless aggression and towering confidence. The fan anger was deflected—or perhaps absorbed, and turned into energy.

“At the end of the day, we wanted to win a national championship, and the way that we got here wasn’t what we expected. It wasn’t what we planned for,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day. “But nonetheless, we had an opportunity to come back and play Oregon after we had already played them early in the season, and that’s the only thing that mattered. And the guys have been doing a great job staying focused. The staff have stuck together.”

Against both the Volunteers and the Ducks, Ohio State came out dealing in the passing game. Quarterback Will Howard let it rip downfield, and did so with accuracy and verve, throwing for 269 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone. Incandescent Jeremiah Smith showed why he’s the best wideout in college football—as a teenager—by producing an OSU freshman-record 187 receiving yards and two TDs. Super-reliable veteran Emeka Egbuka had a 42-yard TD. Tight end Gee Scott Jr. started the game with a 30-yard reception.

Smith looks back as he runs with the football against the Ducks. / Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

Imagine the advantage that can be gained by getting the ball outside to those elite talents instead of slamming it up the middle in a fit of quien es mas macho delusion. (The Michigan game plan that will live in infamy.) But, hey, Ohio State had success doing that, too, with running back TreVeyon Henderson peeling off a 66-yard touchdown run during that first-half onslaught.

Fact is, everything worked for the Buckeyes, offensively and defensively, turning the most anticipated game yet in this playoff into a suspense-less rout. Their 8.7 yards per play was the highest since averaging 9.9 on Sept. 7 against the Western Michigan Broncos. And their seven sacks of the beleaguered Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel increased the Ducks’ sacks allowed for the season by 50% in a single game.

For Oregon, this was a miserable performance when hopes were highest. The Ducks had beaten Ohio State in Eugene by a point in October, and the expectation was another tight contest. Being utterly routed—rushing for a minus-26 yards—might make this the most disappointing effort Oregon has had in a big situation. It certainly was much worse than the loss to the Buckeyes in the first College Football Playoff a decade ago, and worse than the BCS championship game defeat against the Auburn Tigers.

Is there an explanation? Maybe this: The playoff teams coming off a longer layoff have all been uniformly terrible in the opening quarter.

The Boise State Broncos fell behind the Penn State Nittany Lions 14–0 in the Fiesta Bowl. The Arizona State Sun Devils fell behind Texas 14–3 in the first quarter and 17–3 early in the second quarter at the Peach Bowl. And here at the Rose Bowl, it was 14–0 after the opening 15 minutes and 31–0 fewer than seven minutes later. (We’ll see whether the Georgia Bulldogs are faced with a similar opening malaise Thursday in the Sugar Bowl against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.)

Did a three-week layoff hurt those teams, all of which were facing opponents who played on Dec. 20 or 21? Is rust an excuse?

In the case of Arizona State and, to a lesser extent, Boise State, those teams coming off a layoff found their footing and made a game of it before losing. In the case of Oregon—the best team to be in that situation—this was never close.

That’s the galling thing for a 13–0 team. The Ducks never showed up.

“I think that’s an excuse. I thought our guys prepared well going in. Obviously, they had a better plan than us. But that’s an excuse,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. 

But that might also be an indication of the newfound knockout power of Ohio State. When a team this talented is this locked in, it might not matter what the opponent does.

When offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is dialing it up like this, who can outscheme the Buckeyes? When Howard is given a clean pocket and superstar wideouts capable of making contested catches, who is going to slow them down? When a previously inconsistent and injured offensive line is opening holes and controlling the line of scrimmage, who can bottle up Henderson and Quinshon Judkins?

Maybe nobody. Probably nobody.

Nov. 30 Ohio State appears to be long gone. Playoff Ohio State is scary. The Buckeyes are two games away from exorcizing the maize-and-blue demon, and fulfilling a yearlong national title quest in dominant fashion.

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