How can you get angry about a 25-point win over a tough SEC opponent in the College Football Playoff? Well, I’ll tell you how!
Ohio State hosted a College Football Playoff game for the first time as the Tennessee Volunteers visited the Shoe for a first-round matchup between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds. I felt going in that this was one of the toughest possible first-round matchups, but it didn’t turn out that way.
The Buckeyes played angrily and aggressively, building a big early lead, withstanding a run from Tennessee after the failure of the officiating crew to see an obvious pass interference, and re-establishing their dominance early in the second half.
If we’re being honest, there’s not that much for me to be grumpy about this week. However, since that’s the entire point of this column, here’s what got my eye twitchy from Saturday’s game…
Early Issue
Facing a third down on the first possession, somehow Ohio State let the play clock run down and had to burn a timeout early in the game. That proved to be a bit costly late in the half, as the Buckeyes ran out of time to get closer just before halftime and had to settle for a field goal try from extreme range.
It didn’t seem like a good omen at the time, but things worked out.
Too Much Tempo?
It happens far too often to Ohio State — the Buckeyes decide to use tempo and somehow get it all completely wrong and suffer a pre-snap penalty. This not only negates the tempo to begin with, but it puts the team behind schedule. To their credit, the Buckeyes recovered from the penalty, but it’s maddening to see a team go too fast for its own good.
Don’t Drop Punts
Caleb Downs has been fantastic all season, which is why it was terrifying seeing him muff a punt. Ohio State was able to retain possession, but it could have been a big turning point had the Vols been able to fall on it. The weather conditions weren’t the best for special teams, but in that case, I’d like to see a player get away from the punt than risk a turnover.
The Pick
Ohio State was up 21-0 and threatening to blow Tennessee off the field well before halftime. Will Howard tried to thread a pass into the end zone to Jeremiah Smith, but the freshman wide receiver was completely wrapped up by his defender (for your convenience, photographic evidence of the early contact is in the feature photo above this article).
Not only was the defensive pass interference not called, but the tipped ball ended up being caught by another defender. Personally, it didn’t look to me like the defensive back got possession of the ball until his toe was off the ground and then he landed out of bounds, but it was called an interception on the field and the play stood.
The ABC/ESPN rules analyst in the game agreed with my opinion on both counts, but no one in charge of officiating the game asked either one of us. That turnover led to a Tennessee field goal drive, followed by a three-and-out by Ohio State’s offense, and then a touchdown drive. Instead of being up 28-0, the game became 21-10 by halftime.
Speaking of Bad Officiating…
Davison Igbinosun’s interception should have served as a case of “ball don’t lie,” but the officiating crew doubled down, calling roughing the passer on Kenyatta Jackson. Instead of taking over possession, Tennessee got a first down and ended up scoring.
Jackson hit the quarterback fairly but was penalized — supposedly — for landing with his full weight on Nico Iamaleava. The problem with the call is that while the players were in the air, they hit the back of a Tennessee offensive lineman, turning them midair, which changed their landing points.
It was an iffy call without the change of direction — something well beyond Jackson’s control — but when factored in, it was ridiculous.
Wide Receiver Screens… Who Needs ‘Em?
When do wide receiver screens work? The answer to that question is probably when other teams run them. Ohio State hasn’t had a great deal of success with that kind of play, so it irked me to see it called on the third-and-short after Tennessee got on the board. That’s the one time Ohio State had to give its defense a rest and put a drive together.
It appeared the Buckeyes had the numbers to make it work but Will Kacmarek and Carnell Tate got pushed backward into Emeka Egbuka, blowing the play up and forcing the first Buckeye punt of the evening. Tennessee used its momentum to work its way down the field and pull within two scores.
Disappointing Broadcast
No matter how many times we heard about it from the broadcast crew, the “Tennessee Takeover” was a false narrative. Of course more Vols fans showed up for College Gameday. SEC fans are the show’s target audience. Many Ohio State fans stopped caring about that show long ago.
Certainly Tennessee fans got into the stadium early. Ohio State fans were outside tailgating, because they know how long it takes to get inside and settle in. Traveling fans almost always arrive early in a new location. Don’t get me wrong, the Vols’ fans traveled well, and that was beyond the number of visiting fans we usually see in the Horseshoe, but there’s no way there were the “40,000 to 50,000” that Kirk Herbstreit tried to assure us we were seeing.
The stadium holds 105,000. A couple of sides had a good bit of orange in them, and they stood out among the scarlet, but that’s because there was a lot more scarlet. Chris Fowler ludicrously suggested Ohio State not being set was caused by the noise being made by Vols fans. I didn’t even notice anything abnormal on the broadcast in terms of crowd noise until Ohio State’s derisive “S-E-C!” chant.
Aside from that narrative, Herbstreit went off on a bizarre tangent about Ohio State’s “lunatic fringe” growing and wanting Ryan Day fired. Again, this is ridiculous. There are a lot of OSU fans who are simply frustrated at four consecutive losses to Michigan and feel that there are perhaps coaches who could get similar results against Purdue, Michigan State, and the MAC schools in the non-conference schedule, while perhaps playing to the team’s strengths against the Wolverines.
Those fans may prove to be wrong — either about Day or about another coach being able to do a better job. Standards are high at Ohio State, and yeah, perhaps part of the #FireDay crowd had the pitchforks out after the one-point road loss to Oregon, but many who saw that as just a tough loss to a good team understandably found a loss to a middling Michigan squad as unacceptable, especially with the coaching staff’s incomprehensible game plan to attack Michigan’s strength with Ohio State’s weakness.
It just came off as being sour grapes by a guy who was reportedly miffed that OSU’s staff didn’t call or text him to congratulate him for his son signing with Michigan.
S-E-C!
Finally, the SEC narrative is just so ceaselessly tiring that everyone needs to drink a tall glass of shut-the-hell-up.
Indiana, which lost by the slimmest margin of any of the losing teams in the first round, continues to get bashed because the Big Ten team “didn’t belong” in the playoff over Alabama, Ole Miss, or South Carolina. When Penn State demolished SMU, it was the Mustangs who didn’t belong, meaning a Big Ten team was actually bad when it lost, thereby fitting the narrative, and a Big Ten team that won did so because the other team didn’t belong.
Then Ohio State crushed a team that finished ahead of Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina, and it should have shut everyone up, but it didn’t. Nobody suggested Tennessee might not have belonged. No, not the SEC team that lost by four scores. The ACC team that lost by scores? Sure. The Big Ten team that lost by two scores? Obviously. But not the Volunteers.
The SEC narrative is old. It’s tired. And it’s false (for now, anyway… these things are cyclical). Could it simply be that home field in the College Football Playoff is a pretty big advantage?
Anyway…
Those are the things that had me big mad when the Buckeyes hosted the Vols. OK, maybe not big mad. Maybe just kind of irritated. After all, it was a 25-point win in a playoff game over an SEC team.
There were so many positives in the game. Jeremiah Smith and Will Howard were cooking. All of the players I wrote about last week who returned to take care of “unfinished business” — Egbuka, TreVeyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams, and Denzel Burke — had great nights. The offensive game plan was aggressive, inventive (in the run game, especially), and played to the team’s strengths.
Short of the turnover the defense creating not counting, it was a complete game. Anytime you see your backups on the field with nine minutes remaining because your lead is safe, it’s a good thing.
Next up: It’s time for a rematch against Oregon in the Rose Bowl, as the Buckeyes face the Ducks in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.