A Magical Numerical Run – Part Two

For a lot of Ohio State fans, the 2024 season will come down to four games, not the 16 games that made up the season in its entirety.

This is not because the first 12 games of the year were bad (there were bad points) but a run of games against Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame seems to have more stroke than games against Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall and Michigan State to start the season.

Afterall, it is about how you end the season, not how you start it and while Ohio State outscored its opponents 195-27, the final four games saw Ohio State win 145-75.

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Great players make great plays in the highest of leverage moments, and that was no different for this Ohio State team with many of the top playmakers on both offense and defense saving their best for last.

In this second piece of “A Magical Numerical Run” we look at some of the top outings by Ohio State’s key players and how those efforts fueled the Buckeyes on to a championship ending and college football immortality.

offense

The Buckeyes will end the year No. 14 overall in scoring offense, coming in at 35.7 points per game, strangely enough, 0.4 points per game less than national finalist Notre Dame.

There was a level of consistency however, Ohio State scored 36.3 points per game in the postseason run while scoring 35.5 points per game over the 12-game regular season.

Obviously, Ohio State’s biggest weapons were locked and loaded for the postseason runs and players like Will Howard, Jeremiah Smith et al were all primed to do damage with the largest of stakes and a, “win or go home” edict in the air.

Just how dominant were some of the players? Let’s go deeper into their numbers.

Quarterback

Will Howard would maintain a 75.2-percent completion mark through the four games of the playoffs. Think about the fact that Ohio State would go against the No. 1 (ND), No. 2 (Texas), No. 6 (Oregon) and No. 10 (Tennessee) pass efficiency defenses (regular season rankings) in the four-game stretch. There wasn’t one or two teams on the list that were bad against the pass, Ohio State would face 40-percent of the top 10 and Ohio State’s inclusion in the top 10 meant that the offense was either practicing or playing against the best in the nation.

Howard would throw for 1,150 yards over the four games, breaking down to 287.5 yards per game. Remember, Ohio State would call the dogs off in the first two games (Tennessee and Oregon) or Howard would have easily eclipsed a 300 yards per game average over the playoff run. Howard would only have two games in the regular season where he would break 287 yards passing, games against Oregon (at) and Western Michigan.

Yes, the play calling was different in the postseason run, but it shows that Howard performed well under pressure and when other players may have gotten lost under the bright spotlight, Howard ran with it.

Speaking of running, we saw more Howard run in the postseason than we did during the regular season and while there were no callbacks to Braxton Miller or JT Barrett running the ball, Howard would run it 33 times for 95 yards (sack adjusted) and keep the chains moving. Howard would run the ball 72 times in the regular season for 131 yards. Howard was kept out of the end zone during the postseason on the ground, but it was clear that Ohio State had more than enough offense when each game reached 0:00 on the final clock.

Running Backs

The Buckeyes would run the ball 54.1-percent of the time over the four-game postseason in schedule and pick up 52.4-percent of their rushing touchdowns on the ground. Even with having a talented running back room like Ohio State’s, it was no secret that the Buckeyes were going to butter their bread via the throw game.

TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins were both fresh (that is a relative term, mind you) for the postseason and we are not that far removed that a top back would want ‘all’ of the carries, and a top back would go for 30-plus carries a game.

Henderson would average nine carries per game in the four-game run while Judkins came in a little higher at 11.8, but it is a far cry from the 28 carries per game that Zeke Elliott would have during Ohio State’s two-game title run in 2014.

Obviously the strategy of the head coaches comes into play here with Urban still being more of a run-based RPO type of player, who had a third-string quarterback under center where Ryan Day can be a ‘pass first, pass second’ type of guy, and even with the addition of Chip Kelly as a primary play caller, Ohio State picking up 64.7-percent of its total offensive yardage by pass is no accident, especially with the evolution of the modern game.

Judkins would hold the edge of the four-game sample with six rushing scores to Henderson’s four, but Henderson had an edge in yards per carry, coming in at 7.36 YPC to Judkins’ 5.43 YPC, still both coming in at great numbers, especially against the level of competition each round of the playoffs, no tomato cans to build numbers up on.

Both backs would eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season during the playoffs and while some detractors may be quick to point out that it was over a 16-game season, neither back would break the 200-carry mark this season.

Henderson and Judkins would each play a role in the receiving game as well, we will get into that here in the next section.

Wide Receivers

You can’t have the success throwing the ball that Ohio State did without having someone(s) out there to catch the ball. We have seen years where there have been stellar wideouts and nobody to throw them the ball just like we have seen upper tier quarterbacks with a lack of weapons to throw the ball to.

Not this year, this offense was just too deep at every skill position and wide receiver was no different with the likes of a front line of Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate. Sprinkle in an tight end like Gee Scott Jr. and a pair of talented pass catching running backs and it caused a lot of sleepless nights for all around, Ohio State included. With an average of just 60.5 offensive plays per game during the four-game run, how will you keep everyone happy and still run the offensive gameplan that you see fit?

It should come as nobody’s surprise that Jeremiah Smith was the most targeted wideout of the group during the postseason run but it was Egbuka who led the way in receptions, with 27 to Smith’s 26.

Smith led things in yardage (381) and touchdowns (five). Strangely enough, Egbuka only had one TD reception during the postseason, the same number as both Henderson and Judkins. And, somehow, Tate did not have a postseason touchdown.

It is easy to nitpick now, with hardware already locked up as contractors are figuring out how to restage the trophy lobby at the Woody for all the new additions.

The Buckeyes obviously had plenty of offense and left a lot on the field, either by shutting things down or the fact that not every play gets executed just the way it was drawn up. What happens if Jeremiah Smith is not interfered with against Tennessee, leading to an interception? Tate and Howard were so-very-close to connecting on a wide open touchdown against Notre Dame. The list goes on.

Just think about this, both Smith and Egbuka had enough receptions, individually, during the four-game run to be the leading receiver of the 2011 Ohio State football team, where 14 receptions led the team. You know, the passing game that Urban Meyer called “A Clown Show”.

Tate and Scott Jr. would have been good for 6th on that offense with just the four games.

How things have changed.

We will come back after the weekend and look at the defense as we continue our deep dive into some postseason numbers.

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