Ohio State Failed On It's Biggest Stage, Buckeyes Don't Deserve Shot At CFP

Ohio State might sneak into the College Football Playoff, but it's hard to feel like they've earned that shot after Michigan decimated them in the second half Saturday.

I can't believe I'm writing this, considering I've been staunchly on the other side of this argument all year.

I still believe that Ohio State is the most talented team in the country, but I no longer believe that they're the best team in college football and I don't think they should have a chance to play in the College Football Playoff next month.

I realize there may be an outside chance that they get in and that their resume still stacks up pretty well with good wins over Notre Dame and on the road at Penn State. But after watching what we saw on Saturday afternoon - a complete emasculation at home against your rival, without their best player and while you were favored by nine points - I'm not sure how you could justify putting them in the CFP.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be fun or that they couldn't win a national title. But I don't think they deserve the shot anymore.

Ryan Day and Jim Knowles were both humiliated Saturday. Day's go-for-the-jugular play-calling mentality is what made his offenses so much fun to watch the last couple years. Today, he was as conservative as I can ever remember seeing him be.

Knowles' defense put up substantially better statistics this season than the almost historically-bad units the last two years, which prompted his arrival last winter. On Saturday, in THE GAME that defines this program, Michigan gashed them with four touchdowns of 69 yards or longer (and another one from 45 yards).

That's not a typo, and yet that's so bad that it's hard to convince yourself it isn't.

It's not like they never showed up. In the first half, Michigan had 11 carries for 10 yards and couldn't move the ball between the tackles. They connected on three big pass plays, while the Buckeye offense failed to put the Wolverines away when they came out swinging.

But Ohio State quit playing like they had a lead at halftime.

In fact, with a few minutes to play, they seemed to give up entirely.

How you can allow your rival to have back-to-back, 1-play scoring drives with untouched rushing scores from 75 and 85 yards is incomprehensible to me. In fact, it was the second of those two scores that made me literally say out loud "I think that just cost them a spot in the playoff."

There were so many things that didn't make much sense to me, but the suddenly ultra-conservative play-calling in the most critical moments of the season baffled me most. The vaunted Buckeye offense, which has put up numbers during Day's tenure that essentially every other team in the country has failed to replicate, managed just a 27-yard field goal in the second half.

Michigan played well - very well in fact. I said all week how nervous I was for this game because I thought the Maize and Blue were very capable of winning again this year.

But after all the talk of competitive stamina the last 365 days, after all of the questions about why the team wasn't tough enough, after all the expectations that Ohio State placed on itself by saying last year's 11-2 season was a complete failure because they didn't accomplish any of their three goals (beat Michigan, make the CFP, win a national title), after the coaching changes and the vows that this year would be different ... how else are we supposed to interpret today's events?

Statistically and emotionally, this year's rivalry loss was even worse. 

If last year was a failure, then by their own standards, the Buckeyes flunked their 2022 test at least as badly. We'll find out Ohio State's postseason fate soon enough, whether that means another trip to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl or a different New Year's Six bowl game.

Perhaps things will shake out across the country that would allow them a chance to sneak in as the fourth team and play in a semifinal. Every team in the country has had flaws this year and the when the Buckeyes are at their best, they're awfully tough to beat.

But the second half of the season looked pretty different from the first six games and given the lasting impression for the selection committee as their absolute worst 30 minutes in a very long time, I'm not sure the Buckeyes deserve the chance to play in this year's CFP.

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