The Ohio State Buckeyes who barely made it into the first college football playoff, ended up as the national champion, with a resounding 42-20 thumping of the Oregon Ducks. Ezekiel Elliott of Ohio State rushed for a career-high 246 yards on 36 carries, and 4 touchdowns, and was named the offensive MVP of the national championship game.
While a 22-point win is very impressive, the margin of victory could have been much more if not for the 4 Ohio State turnovers. Oregon’s only turnover was their last offensive play, when Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Marcus Mariota threw a desperation pass into triple coverage and it was intercepted. I doubt a team with a -3 turnover margin ever won a major college bowl game by 22 points, and was also the underdog.
The Ducks scored on their first possession, going 75 yards to take an early 7-0 lead on a 7-yard pass from Mariota to Keanon Lowe. After that, their remaining 13 points were as a result of the 4 Buckeye turnovers. That’s how dominating the Ohio State defense was against the #2 scoring offense in the nation.
Mariota did pass for 333 yards on 24 of 27 passing and 2 touchdowns, but the inability of the Oregon offense to score touchdowns in the red zone, and even convert 3rd downs was their downfall. When they settled for a field goal to cut the lead to 21-20 in the 3rd quarter, that was the last points the Ducks scored in the game.
Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, who was the 3rd quarterback the Buckeyes used during the year, due to injuries to Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett, threw for 242 yards on 16 of 23 passing, with one touchdown and an interception, that wasn’t his fault. The ball bounced from his receiver’s hands into the hands of an Oregon linebacker.
In an amazing coaching job by Urban Meyer, the Buckeyes went from highly ranked in the preseason polls, to an injury to their front runner for the Heisman Trophy, Miller that would put him out for the year. They then turned to Barrett, who guided them to an 11-1 record, and he was injured in his last start. In comes Jones, with no previous starts, for the Big 10 Championship game against Wisconsin, which was a 59-0 beatdown by Ohio State.
That win propelled the Buckeyes into the #4 ranking, and a match-up with the top-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide, in one of the inaugural college football playoff games. Ohio State shocked the world with a 42-35 upset of Alabama, to put them in the national championship game on Monday night.
Ohio State has now won 6 national titles in the poll era, tying them with Alabama, Notre Dame, USC and Oklahoma for the most among all schools. Meyer has now won 3 titles as head coach, his first with the Buckeyes, to go along with 2 at Florida. Only he and Alabama coach Nick Saban have won titles at 2 different schools.
The quarterback competition at Ohio State should be very interesting next year, if Jones, Miller and Barrett all return. With a roster filled with freshmen and sophomores, the Buckeyes should be a powerhouse for years to come, especially with Meyer as their head coach.
This ends the first college football season with a playoff. It was a huge success although the national championship game wasn’t as good as it could have been. Hopefully soon it will be expanded to 8 teams, but not any more than that. We can’t have these college football players playing into the spring.
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