Did The Buckeyes Do What Needed To Be Done?

Leading up to Ohio State’s first round College Football Playoff game, I listed five things on offense and five things on defense that the Buckeyes needed to do in order to win the game.

Some of the items may have been on the obvious side of things while others were a little bit more specific.

Obviously, the Buckeyes took care of business with a 42-17 win over the Volunteers of Tennessee, including a 21-point outburst in the first quarter of the game to really set the tone and send the least hearty of Vols fans retreating to their hotels.

Let’s take a look back at the items I listed and make a quick judgment if the Buckeyes were able to accomplish each of these goals that I had set for them.

Hold Tennessee to 21 points or fewer

There was no gray area here, either you hold your opponent to the number, or you don’t, there is no in-between. The Buckeyes accomplished this one, holding the Vols to just 17 points and seven of those points were in the last minute of the game against Ohio State’s back-ups. It is safe to say that the game wasn’t even as close as a 42-17 score would indicate.

Hold Dylan Sampson to 140 yards on the ground

When I made this pick, there was no real public news about Sampson’s ailing hamstring. Sampson had several weeks of rest to get ready for this game and gave it a go, and it didn’t go well. He had six yards on two carries as he left the game early, did return but was ineffective. Let’s be honest, nobody was going to get one over on the Ohio State defense on Saturday night.

Get after Nico Iamaleava

This one is a little more subjective, but Ohio State accomplished this goal. The Buckeyes sacked the Tennessee QB four times and had him running for his life in several other situations. To Iamaleava’s credit, he did break off a few nice runs, was able to juke a few defenders and showed that J.T. Tuimoloau should not be the first choice as a QB spy, but all things being equal, Ohio State made Iamaleava’s life very difficult.

Keep Dont’e Thornton Jr. in check

Another subjective one, but another check in Ohio State’s box. Yes, news came out after the game that Thornton Jr. was not 100-percent, but injuries are a part of the game and asterisks don’t exist for injuries in the score column. He did have one reception for 14 yards in the game and that was it.

Control the clock, so to speak

Time of possession is not normally a category that Ohio State finds itself all that interested in, the Buckeyes have not really been a tempo team this season, but with that, the Buckeyes can score quickly. That leads to being on the wrong side of the TOP ledger. The Buckeyes held on to the ball for 32:50 of this game, keeping the Tennessee offense on the sidelines. The Buckeyes forced four three-and-outs and forced three six-play drives that all resulted in having to punt at the end. Success.

Score more than 24 points

Flipping over to the offense, the Buckeye checked off this box. It was not until the 3^rd quarter after the fast start, but there really was little doubt after Ohio State put up 21 points in the first 12 minutes that it was going to happen and probably should have happened on the next drive if not for a blatant pass interference call that went uncalled and interception that still could be debated either way.

Get off to a fast start

Done and done. There will be haters who will lament the facemask call that extended Ohio State’s first drive of the game and turned a three-and-out into seven points. The Buckeyes came back and answered with two more scores on the next two drives and the wheels were in motion and despite seeing the margin cut to 11 points at halftime, this game was not going to get away from the Buckeyes.

Rush for 140+ yards

The Buckeyes did this and actually outrushed the Vols. Let’s not forget that Ohio State called the dogs off early in the 4^th quarter or the numbers could have been larger. Ohio State ran for 156 yards, led by TreVeyon Henderson’s 80 yards, followed up by 37 yards from Will Howard and 34 from Quinshon Judkins. What I did not talk about in the piece was Ohio State getting four rushing touchdowns, a number that would have seen unimaginable just a few weeks ago.

Commit no more than one turnover

This one got a little dicey, we saw the Howard interception and we can debate the validity of the call until the cows come home. But there were a couple of near disasters in the game with Caleb Downs fumbling (and then recovering) a punt return along with a weird exchange between Howard and Judkins on a red zone play where Quinshon had to pin the ball against his rear end before being able to get it hauled in. The overall point here was about not giving the Vols extra possessions or sudden change momentum.

Allow two or fewer sacks

We heard about it and heard about it, the Ohio State offensive line was not going to be able to hold up against this Tennessee pass rush and Neyland North was going to erupt into joy as Buckeye tears (and the goalposts) would end up in the Olentangy River. That did not happen. Not only did the Buckeyes not allow two sacks, the Buckeyes allowed no sacks. That doesn’t mean that Howard did not have to escape the pocket a couple of times, but this much ballyhooed Tennessee pressure never materialized.

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