COLUMBUS, OH — After hearing their toughness and physicality questioned all offseason, the No.2 Ohio State Buckeyes answered their critics with an old-school, knock down Big Ten-style brand of big boy football in drafting the No.5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 21-10.
In only the seventh meeting all-time between the college football titans, and first on campus since 1996, Notre Dame was hoping to beat Ohio State for the first time since 1936.
Thanks to an early field goal, aided by a 54-yard completion to Lorenzo Styles and a 15-yard personal foul for roughing the passer, Notre Dame jumped out to an early 3-0.
Following a 31-yard touchdown reception from C.J. Stroud to WR Emeka Egbuka to give Ohio State a 7-3 lead, the Irish responded back on a one-yard Audric Estime touchdown run, to give Notre Dame a 10-7 lead, which would turn out to be the last points the upset-minded Irish would score.
After a 24-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Johnson to give Ohio State a 14-10 lead, Ohio State would close the game on a two-yard touchdown run by RB Miyan Williams.
It wasn’t pretty or up to the normal high-scoring standard that many fans are accustomed to, but Ohio State won ugly and played a patient and methodical game plan. The loss of leading wideout Jaxon Smith-Ngijba gave the title-minded Buckeyes a early season test of adversity that they passed.
The Buckeyes also did a great job of not letting the words of former standout and current Irish head coach, Marcus Freeman get to them and getting caught up in the “17.5 point underdog” narrative that many national publications were trying to propagate.
Of last night is a preview, than this Buckeyes team is going to play and win different, and should have no issues in making plans for Los Angeles.
Below are my five observations:
1.) Thisnis not your older TikTok brother’s Buckeyes, this year’s Ohio State team put on the pads and played some big boy old-school football against a very motivated and fired up ND team, that played a near perfect game down in Columbus.
Love him or hate him, Marcus Freeman brought his team into The Shoe, and played a near-perfect game vs. one of college football’s most potent offenses. They held Ohio State to 7 points at halftime, which is impressive.
2.) I can’t stress enough how much C.J. Stroud has matured since the The Heisman Trophy press conference in New York. He seems to have taken personal umbrage to all the off-season criticism of being too much finesse and pass-happy and made the tough throws down the stretch. While not a Heisman-like type of performance, he made clutch throws when it mattered the most.
3.) DT Michael Hall Jr. is going to be a problem. He did a great job of constantly disrupting and collapsing the ND offensive line. He never gave ND QB Tyler Buchner time to get comfortable all night long.
4.) With this new balanced offense philosophy, expect to see more of RB’s Miyan Williams and TreVeyon Williams this season. Especially with the uncertain health of Smith-Njigba.
5.) While not perfect, Ohio State showed tremendous poise, maturity and patience in sticking to their game plan of running and passing, instead of trying too hard for the big play.