This Buckeyes team was too talented. Call it a win-win.
Advertisement
Doing it without your marquee running back raises eyebrows. There. That’s three players. On a Senior Game of brutal weather, high stakes and raw emotion, Ohio State team unity fractured, new MI State heroes emerged, a record win streak ended and national playoff standings were rocked harder than Ronda Rousey’s jaw.
Tyler O’Connor has had athletic success in Ohio State arenas before, but nothing quite like what happened Saturday. While they are not technically eliminated from the Big Ten Championship game, it would take not only a MI State loss against Penn State, but also an Ohio State win at MI to send them to Indianapolis.
For the first time in a few weeks, MI State football fans are finally excited to see where the Spartans will land in the third edition of the College Football Playoff poll. If it did, that would be something to talk about.
LSU has been outscored, 99-47, in three straight losses, leaving coach Les Miles’s future at the school in doubt. Losses like this are always easier to stomach when you’re able to put things in perspective. After trailing 30-13 in the fourth quarter, TCU (9-2) had a chance to tie the game after Kohlhausen’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Emanuel Porter with 51 seconds remaining. I think we maybe had a couple of opportunities, but it just was obviously tough conditions to throw the ball.
Then MSU gave it to Scott, the freshman out of Hubbard, Ohio, who shunned the Buckeyes for the Spartans. He and quarterback Cardale Jones, both juniors, rather emphatically announced they would not be back in Columbus next season.
Houston (10-1) lost for the first time this season, on the road at CT, but the Cougars and Navy (9-1) will still play next week for the AAC West title and a spot in the league title game. Unfortunately, three of those touchdowns were overturned upon review, including two in the final minute, and Northwestern topped the Badgers 13-7. As in, what if graduate transfer quarterback Vernon Adams had been healthy all season? Adams was 20 of 25 for 407 yards and six touchdowns in the 48-28 win over the Trojans. They had more quarterbacks then they knew what to do with, one of the best running backs in the country and a defense with potential All-Americans at every level. Marshall only needed one hand to pull it in, again showing off the kind of bright future he’ll have as he keeps developing his set of tools.
One potential problem for the AAC: If UConn upsets Temple, USF would win the East with a victory against winless UCF.
More to the point, the loss perhaps revealed fundamental cracks for this particular team. And so the Spartans offense turned to the offensive line, and, boy, did it deliver, blasting open holes in a testament to physical ferocity. MI State reaped the benefit, which seemed unlikely at the start. Your mileage may vary. LeShun Daniels Jr. ran for two TDs for the Hawkeyes (11-0). After a two-week stretch in which the Buckeyes allowed 55 rushing yards total, the front seven looked a lot more porous against the Spartans. Jake Rudock threw for two touchdowns and the Wolverines ran for two TD’s.
But Saturday’s game was a rare treat nonetheless, and the enthusiasm around campus matched the stakes. Get him to the Heisman ceremony. What was supposed to be Urban Meyer’s next dynasty was dismantled in about four hours Saturday.
Analyst Rob Rang’s five prospect takeaways for this week. Offensive inconsistency has been an Ohio State anchor all season and in the biggest game of the year it might have sunk its national title hopes.
Elliott said it’s not the first time play-calling has been in question. Williams isn’t the mauling blocker his size suggests, though he does compete. “This game means the world to us and everyone in OH, and we represent everyone in Ohio”.
Advertisement
One of the bigger targets in the 2016 class, ESPN 300 defensive lineman Antwuan Jackson, made his way up to Ohio State.
