Gene Ross
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ohio State’s 42-17 win vs. Tennessee
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
The Buckeyes played their best game of the season on Saturday night.
It was tough to predict which Ohio State team would show up against Tennessee in the first round of the College Football Playoff after its loss to Michigan to close out the regular season. It became instantly clear that the Buckeyes completely flushed their loss to the Wolverines and found the best version of themselves on Saturday night, dismantling the Volunteers 42-17 in Columbus to advance to the Rose Bowl.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Tennessee.
Jeremiah Smith/Will Howard
Jeremiah Smith is the best wide receiver in college football, and he put his arsenal on full display on Saturday. The freshman, playing in his first ever College Football Playoff game, was the star of the show for the Ohio State offense. Smith caught six passes (on six targets) for 103 yards and two touchdowns, all while being matched up against All-SEC first team corner Jermod McCoy. With his performance, Smith surpassed 1,000 yards on the season, becoming only the 10th Buckeye to achieve such a feat — and the first freshman.
It was an incredibly impressive game for the 19-year-old, but it was not to be overshadowed too heavily by the play of Will Howard, who was tremendous in his own right against the Vols. After some criticisms of his play against Michigan, Howard came out and completed 24-of-29 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing five times for 37 yards. It was one of Howard’s best games of the year when his team needed it most, and only the second time this season the senior has thrown for more than 300 yards.
The wide receiver-quarterback duo had it all working on a cold night in the Shoe.
Game Plan
After one of the worst game plans anyone could possibly conceive against Michigan, Ryan Day and Chip Kelly put together a nearly perfect game plan against Tennessee. Ohio State fully leaned into its strengths, getting the ball to its five-star receivers on the outside and using the passing game to set up the rushing attack. As a result, the Buckeyes put up 473 yards and 42 points against a team that hadn’t allowed more than 347 yards or 31 points all season. Ohio State also averaged an insane 7.8 yards per play.
This is Day’s offense at its best, and its something we haven’t seen from the Buckeyes in quite some time. With the injuries plaguing the offensive line, Ohio State was able to use tempo and quick passes to mitigate some of those concerns. Once Tennessee was on its heels trying to defend the pass, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins were then able to find some space on the ground. Ohio State as a team ran for 156 yards on 4.7 yards per carry, compared to 77 yards on 3.0 yards per carry against the Wolverines.
It does make the loss to Michigan all that more frustrating knowing that this game plan likely would have resulted in a 40-point win in The Game, but if Ohio State sticks to this ideology moving forward, they instantly become one of the most dangerous teams remaining in the College Football Playoff.
Defense
So much of the discussion on Saturday night was about the dominance of Ohio State’s offense, but the defense deserves a ton of credit as well. The Silver Bullets held a Tennessee team that averaged 35.7 points and nearly 450 yards per game to just 17 points — seven of which came in garbage time against backups — and 256 total yards, 73 of which came on the Vols’ final drive of the game.
The Buckeyes’ defense made life miserable for Nico Iamaleava, who completed only 14 of his 31 pass attempts for 104 yards and zero scores. The pass rush consistently forced Iamaleava to scramble out of the pocket and look to pick up yards with his legs, but the young QB only managed 47 yards on 20 carries while scoring both of Tennessee’s touchdowns on the ground. The Volunteers offense looked disjointed right from the get-go, and Ohio State never let them get into any sort of groove.
Overall, the Buckeyes racked up six tackles for loss and four sacks, led by J.T. Tuimoloau’s 2.5 TFLs and two sacks. Tuimoloau also forced a fumble, but it was recovered by Tennessee. On the other end, Jack Sawyer had a big game as well, tallying 1.5 sacks and 1.5 TFLs while batting down a pair of passes at the line. Cody Simon led the way in the tackles department with 12, while Ohio State’s corners did a fantastic job in coverage from start to finish with no Vols receiver eclipsing 40 yards.
Second Quarter Ref Show
For a stretch of about four minutes during the second quarter, it looked as though the officials were doing just about everything possible to try and keep Tennessee in the game.
It began when Howard fired a pass over the middle to Smith in the end zone, which was tipped into the air and “intercepted” by Tennessee’s Will Brooks. Two problems with that: Smith was being fully tackled by the defensive back while the ball was in the air but no pass interference was called, and also it was not entirely clear whether or not Brooks had a foot in bounds before controlling the football. After a super quick replay, officials determined it was in fact Tennessee ball.
On the ensuing drive, the Volunteers managed to work the ball past midfield, but Iamaleava was intercepted by Davison Igbinosun at the Ohio State 20-yard line — until he wasn’t. Kenyatta Jackson was called for roughing the passer, negating the turnover and eventually allowing Tennessee to get its first points of the game on a field goal. It was an awful call, as Jackson was only flagged because he tackled Iamaleava while the quarterback left his feet to make a pass, making the hit look much harder than it actually was.
Two bad calls changed what could have been a 28-0 Ohio State lead to a 21-3 game, and gave Tennessee a little bit of momentum before halftime. Luckily, they wouldn’t be able to maintain it into the second half.
Kirk Herbstreit
It was an awful night in the booth for the failed Ohio State quarterback, as Kirk Herbstreit spent much of the second half attacking Buckeyes fans who had an issue with their head coach losing a game to the worst Michigan team of the last several decades, calling folks with rightfully high standards for their football team the ‘lunatic fringe’ of the fanbase. It was an incredibly weird stance to take, and it was clear that it was a personal attack from a guy who had his feelings hurt by the program.
It has been a tough week for Herbstreit, who is still reeling after Ohio State’s coaching staff failed to call and congratulate his 0-star son — who did not have an offer from the Buckeyes — for committing to the program’s biggest rival. How dare Ryan Day and his staff, who were busy both preparing for a College Football Playoff game and attempting to navigate the transfer portal for next season, not take time out of their days to recognize the child of a program legend who threw five touchdowns and 11 picks in his career and went winless against Michigan.
Ohio State fans should not be attacked for wanting more from their program, and Buckeye Nation has a right to be upset after four-straight losses in The Game, especially this most recent loss to a bad Wolverines squad without its two best players. Herbstreit taking several minutes during an OSU blowout in a CFP game to attack the fanbase is a bad look for both himself and ESPN.
Narratives
It was a rough night for Tennessee fans, but maybe an even worse night for SEC fans.
All weekend long we had to listen to fans of teams like Alabama and Ole Miss — and Lane Kiffin himself — and even a large swath of national media folks whining and moaning on social media that Indiana and SMU did not deserve their spots in the playoff, only for the Volunteers to suffer an even worse loss than the Hoosiers. Tennessee, by the way, beat the Crimson Tide this season, and the Rebels lost to a 4-8 Kentucky team AND and five-loss Florida.
Strangely enough, while the talking heads spent the aftermath of the Indiana and SMU losses discussing how those teams ‘didn’t belong’ in the College Football Playoff, it doesn’t seem like that same energy exists for a Tennessee team that was a garbage-time score away from losing by 32 points in Columbus. The prevailing ideology that the SEC is this dominant conference whose 9-3 teams are just as good as 11-1 teams in other conferences comes crashing down when you watch a 10-2 SEC team gets pants’ed on national television by a Big Ten team that did not even win the B1G.
The reality of the situation is that blowouts happen, and it doesn’t take away from the impressive seasons by Indiana or SMU. Both of those programs were more than deserving of their spot in the 12-team field, and those on the outside looking in should have simply won their games if they wanted to earn the right to compete for a title. All four first-round games resulted in blowouts, but so were the majority of games in the four-team CFP, so what are we even talking about?
Maybe it was less about being ‘undeserving’ for Indiana, SMU and Tennessee and more about dominant performances for Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State.
Continue reading...
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
The Buckeyes played their best game of the season on Saturday night.
It was tough to predict which Ohio State team would show up against Tennessee in the first round of the College Football Playoff after its loss to Michigan to close out the regular season. It became instantly clear that the Buckeyes completely flushed their loss to the Wolverines and found the best version of themselves on Saturday night, dismantling the Volunteers 42-17 in Columbus to advance to the Rose Bowl.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Tennessee.
The Good
Jeremiah Smith/Will Howard
Jeremiah Smith is the best wide receiver in college football, and he put his arsenal on full display on Saturday. The freshman, playing in his first ever College Football Playoff game, was the star of the show for the Ohio State offense. Smith caught six passes (on six targets) for 103 yards and two touchdowns, all while being matched up against All-SEC first team corner Jermod McCoy. With his performance, Smith surpassed 1,000 yards on the season, becoming only the 10th Buckeye to achieve such a feat — and the first freshman.
It was an incredibly impressive game for the 19-year-old, but it was not to be overshadowed too heavily by the play of Will Howard, who was tremendous in his own right against the Vols. After some criticisms of his play against Michigan, Howard came out and completed 24-of-29 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns, while also rushing five times for 37 yards. It was one of Howard’s best games of the year when his team needed it most, and only the second time this season the senior has thrown for more than 300 yards.
The wide receiver-quarterback duo had it all working on a cold night in the Shoe.
Game Plan
After one of the worst game plans anyone could possibly conceive against Michigan, Ryan Day and Chip Kelly put together a nearly perfect game plan against Tennessee. Ohio State fully leaned into its strengths, getting the ball to its five-star receivers on the outside and using the passing game to set up the rushing attack. As a result, the Buckeyes put up 473 yards and 42 points against a team that hadn’t allowed more than 347 yards or 31 points all season. Ohio State also averaged an insane 7.8 yards per play.
This is Day’s offense at its best, and its something we haven’t seen from the Buckeyes in quite some time. With the injuries plaguing the offensive line, Ohio State was able to use tempo and quick passes to mitigate some of those concerns. Once Tennessee was on its heels trying to defend the pass, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins were then able to find some space on the ground. Ohio State as a team ran for 156 yards on 4.7 yards per carry, compared to 77 yards on 3.0 yards per carry against the Wolverines.
It does make the loss to Michigan all that more frustrating knowing that this game plan likely would have resulted in a 40-point win in The Game, but if Ohio State sticks to this ideology moving forward, they instantly become one of the most dangerous teams remaining in the College Football Playoff.
Defense
So much of the discussion on Saturday night was about the dominance of Ohio State’s offense, but the defense deserves a ton of credit as well. The Silver Bullets held a Tennessee team that averaged 35.7 points and nearly 450 yards per game to just 17 points — seven of which came in garbage time against backups — and 256 total yards, 73 of which came on the Vols’ final drive of the game.
The Buckeyes’ defense made life miserable for Nico Iamaleava, who completed only 14 of his 31 pass attempts for 104 yards and zero scores. The pass rush consistently forced Iamaleava to scramble out of the pocket and look to pick up yards with his legs, but the young QB only managed 47 yards on 20 carries while scoring both of Tennessee’s touchdowns on the ground. The Volunteers offense looked disjointed right from the get-go, and Ohio State never let them get into any sort of groove.
Overall, the Buckeyes racked up six tackles for loss and four sacks, led by J.T. Tuimoloau’s 2.5 TFLs and two sacks. Tuimoloau also forced a fumble, but it was recovered by Tennessee. On the other end, Jack Sawyer had a big game as well, tallying 1.5 sacks and 1.5 TFLs while batting down a pair of passes at the line. Cody Simon led the way in the tackles department with 12, while Ohio State’s corners did a fantastic job in coverage from start to finish with no Vols receiver eclipsing 40 yards.
The Bad
Second Quarter Ref Show
For a stretch of about four minutes during the second quarter, it looked as though the officials were doing just about everything possible to try and keep Tennessee in the game.
It began when Howard fired a pass over the middle to Smith in the end zone, which was tipped into the air and “intercepted” by Tennessee’s Will Brooks. Two problems with that: Smith was being fully tackled by the defensive back while the ball was in the air but no pass interference was called, and also it was not entirely clear whether or not Brooks had a foot in bounds before controlling the football. After a super quick replay, officials determined it was in fact Tennessee ball.
On the ensuing drive, the Volunteers managed to work the ball past midfield, but Iamaleava was intercepted by Davison Igbinosun at the Ohio State 20-yard line — until he wasn’t. Kenyatta Jackson was called for roughing the passer, negating the turnover and eventually allowing Tennessee to get its first points of the game on a field goal. It was an awful call, as Jackson was only flagged because he tackled Iamaleava while the quarterback left his feet to make a pass, making the hit look much harder than it actually was.
Two bad calls changed what could have been a 28-0 Ohio State lead to a 21-3 game, and gave Tennessee a little bit of momentum before halftime. Luckily, they wouldn’t be able to maintain it into the second half.
The Ugly
Kirk Herbstreit
It was an awful night in the booth for the failed Ohio State quarterback, as Kirk Herbstreit spent much of the second half attacking Buckeyes fans who had an issue with their head coach losing a game to the worst Michigan team of the last several decades, calling folks with rightfully high standards for their football team the ‘lunatic fringe’ of the fanbase. It was an incredibly weird stance to take, and it was clear that it was a personal attack from a guy who had his feelings hurt by the program.
It has been a tough week for Herbstreit, who is still reeling after Ohio State’s coaching staff failed to call and congratulate his 0-star son — who did not have an offer from the Buckeyes — for committing to the program’s biggest rival. How dare Ryan Day and his staff, who were busy both preparing for a College Football Playoff game and attempting to navigate the transfer portal for next season, not take time out of their days to recognize the child of a program legend who threw five touchdowns and 11 picks in his career and went winless against Michigan.
Ohio State fans should not be attacked for wanting more from their program, and Buckeye Nation has a right to be upset after four-straight losses in The Game, especially this most recent loss to a bad Wolverines squad without its two best players. Herbstreit taking several minutes during an OSU blowout in a CFP game to attack the fanbase is a bad look for both himself and ESPN.
Narratives
It was a rough night for Tennessee fans, but maybe an even worse night for SEC fans.
All weekend long we had to listen to fans of teams like Alabama and Ole Miss — and Lane Kiffin himself — and even a large swath of national media folks whining and moaning on social media that Indiana and SMU did not deserve their spots in the playoff, only for the Volunteers to suffer an even worse loss than the Hoosiers. Tennessee, by the way, beat the Crimson Tide this season, and the Rebels lost to a 4-8 Kentucky team AND and five-loss Florida.
Strangely enough, while the talking heads spent the aftermath of the Indiana and SMU losses discussing how those teams ‘didn’t belong’ in the College Football Playoff, it doesn’t seem like that same energy exists for a Tennessee team that was a garbage-time score away from losing by 32 points in Columbus. The prevailing ideology that the SEC is this dominant conference whose 9-3 teams are just as good as 11-1 teams in other conferences comes crashing down when you watch a 10-2 SEC team gets pants’ed on national television by a Big Ten team that did not even win the B1G.
The reality of the situation is that blowouts happen, and it doesn’t take away from the impressive seasons by Indiana or SMU. Both of those programs were more than deserving of their spot in the 12-team field, and those on the outside looking in should have simply won their games if they wanted to earn the right to compete for a title. All four first-round games resulted in blowouts, but so were the majority of games in the four-team CFP, so what are we even talking about?
Maybe it was less about being ‘undeserving’ for Indiana, SMU and Tennessee and more about dominant performances for Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State.
Continue reading...