WFNY’s 12 Days of Christmas, 2014 Edition: Day Five
December 12, 2014Sugar Bowl Tickets Up 213% Since Ohio State’s Last Appearance
December 12, 2014It is no exaggeration to say that last weekend will be forever remembered amongst the greatest in all of Ohio State lore. A third-string quarterback — who, it must be noted, I told you to believe in — making his first career start in the Big Ten Championship Game and playing a game so flawless that it seems impossible that his total quarterback rating measured just an 82 out of 100. A defense that had been consistently gashed on the ground battening down the hatches to hold a Heisman finalist and 2,000 yard rusher to just 76 yards on 26 carries and pitching a shutout in the process. A 59-0 victory over the 13th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers that proved to be enough to convince the College Football Playoff selection committee that the Buckeyes were one of the four best teams in the nation and that they should had earned a shot to prove that on the field.
Waiting in New Orleans on New Year’s Day are the dynastic Alabama Crimson Tide, owners of three of the final five BCS Championships and led by Heisman finalist Amari Cooper at receiver and suspected soul seller Nick Saban on the sideline. The Tide, ranked number one by the CFP committee for the last month, are a formidable opponent, but figuring out how to pull off the upset is best left to Urban Meyer and his staff who are paid handsomely to solve such problems. With almost three weeks until the Buckeyes contest the Sugar Bowl, let’s instead look back at a game Buckeyes fans will never forget.
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Ezekiel Elliott looked more like a Heisman candidate than the Badgers’ Melvin Gordon.
Florida State struggled to stop Paul Johnson’s flexbone option, but ultimately squeaked by the Ramblin’ Wreck, just as they have done repeatedly all season. Bryce Petty and the Bears took care of business in Waco, beating Bill Snyder’s Wildcats by 11 in a game that was not quite as close as the score indicated. Both of those games were played simultaneously to the Buckeyes matchup in Indianapolis. If an Ohio State fan had only been watching those two games and ignoring the Buckeyes score, they would have been rightfully worried that OSU’s playoff chances were going up in smoke.
Of course, as the Seminoles and Bears played, Cardale Jones was introducing himself to the world as the Buckeyes played the statement game to end all statement games. From the opening kickoff Ohio State dominated all phases of the game. It was surely the best performance of the Urban Meyer era and is right up there with Alabama’s 59-0 shellacking of Texas A&M and Oregon’s two best wins against Michigan State and Arizona as the most impressive performance by any team all season.
While Cardale Jones only threw 17 passes, that was much more a product of the blowout than of any hesitance on the part of Tom Herman to let Jones put the ball in the air. Herman gave his new starter plenty of opportunities to show off his big arm with deep shots, three of which resulted in long Devin Smith touchdowns. Ezekiel Elliott, who finally looks like the feature back everyone knew he could be after a slow start to the season, looked more like a Heisman candidate than the Badgers’ Melvin Gordon. His 220 yards (a Big Ten Championship Game record) came on just 20 carries, and his 81 yard touchdown scamper (one of his two on the day) also established a new record. When Herman and Meyer tried to show some mercy by taking Elliott out of the game, all redshirt freshman backup Curtis Samuel did was add two second half touchdowns of his own.
Compare those rushing numbers to Gordon’s pedestrian 76 yard showing (his second worst output of the season) and it’s clear that Ohio State’s defense came to play. Senior captain Michael Bennett, wearing Kosta Karageorge’s number 53 instead of his usual 63 to honor his fallen teammate, played perhaps his finest game of the season. While Joey Bosa usually gets top billing on the Buckeyes’ defensive line, Bennett has had a monster season of his own, and his two sacks, four total tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles (one of which Bosa turned into a scoop-and-score) were a spectacular showing on what was surely an emotional night for Bennett.
With their vaunted ground game sputtering, Wisconsin stood little chance. The Badgers have been anemic passing the ball all season, and this game was no exception as Joel Stave completed only 17 of his 43 passes for just 187 yards (4.3 yards per attempt) and was intercepted three times, two of those by cornerback Doran Grant.
Even punter Cameron Johnston got in on the act, placing two of his four punts inside the Badger 20, including a 73 yarder on the Buckeyes second possession that died on the Wisconsin two-yard line.1
Unlike a year earlier in this same stadium, this was a night for confetti and championship hats, not sad photos and cold pizza. The resounding victory over Wisconsin was a coronation of a conference champion. In spite of the quarterback turmoil of this season and Meyer’s own admission that he thought this team was still a year or two away, the result was convincing enough to make Buckeyes fans feel like this triumph came right on schedule in the coach’s third year in Columbus.
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But, as the nation went to sleep on Saturday night, one question still remained unanswered: was a 59-0 victory over the 13th-ranked team in the nation, in a conference championship game at a neutral site starting a third-string quarterback, enough to move the Buckeyes into the top four of the CFP committee’s rankings. Watching the dismantling of Wisconsin was the happiest I have been watching the Buckeyes since the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and I gleefully fell asleep in the Greg Oden jersey I wore during the game (my apartment was too hot for usual gameday attire – a well-worn Antonio Pittman jersey), but my confidence about the Buckeyes chances was still lacking.
I planned to wake up around 11:30 Sunday morning, just early enough to eat breakfast and get settled before the announcement show on ESPN began at 12:30. But everyone knows what they say about the best laid plans, so of course the fire alarm in my building woke me at 10:15. When we were finally allowed to reenter the building, the nerves had taken over and I knew that going back to sleep wasn’t an option.
The next two hours were long, but I remained calm. I still had my doubts, but was satisfied that there was at least a chance the Buckeyes would be selected. When the show finally came on, ESPN first released the top three teams – Alabama, Oregon, and Florida State in that order. No surprises there. Knowing that Ohio State was vying with two other deserving teams for the fourth and final playoff spot, I fully expected ESPN to reveal the committee’s sixth-ranked team to add to the suspense over who would be playing Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. So, when “Ohio State Buckeyes” appeared on screen next to the number four, I was taken by surprise. To be honest, I was barely looking at the television at that moment. Assuming I had a few more seconds, I was checking what team the Twitter universe thought would appear in that slot.
In spite of my surprise, euphoria soon took over, and everyone in a three-apartment radius who hadn’t woken up for the fire alarm was roused with my crazed hollers. The Ohio State Buckeyes are playing in the inaugural College Football Playoff, and no matter what you or anyone else not on the selection committee thinks about their worthiness relative to TCU and Baylor, no one can take that honor away.
- Johnston was somehow left off both the All-Big Ten first and second teams, which was downright criminal when it happened and looks even worse after the victory over the Badgers. [↩]
4 Comments
I’m really glad that we get a shot at Alabama in a game that matters, but it is really hard for me to be excited or euphoric over this whole CFP process. It feels, so . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA
Oh well. Go Bucks.
“I planned to wake up around 11:30 Sunday morning, just early enough to eat breakfast and get settled” As a father of a 1 year old I LOL’d so hard at this.
then, they get a little older and still do that on weekends. but, on schooldays it’s all…
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/webdr06/2013/9/19/17/anigif_enhanced-buzz-10658-1379624945-0.gif
In my life I have never woken up that late, regardless of when (or if) i went to bed. In the words of the immortal Warren Zevon: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”