Ohio State avenged its October loss to Oregon by defeating the Ducks 41-21 in the Rose Bowl, advancing to the Semifinal Cotton Bowl in Dallas. 

Taking A Look By The Numbers at Just How Bad the Top Seed was Beaten

The No. 8-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes got their revenge against the top-seeded Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl in the second round of the newly expanded College Football Playoff. The final score was 41-21, with the Scarlet and Gray demolishing the spread and jumping out to a whopping 34-0 lead in the first half.

The Ducks were unbeaten heading into their first playoff game of the year but were no match for this version of the Buckeyes. In fact, no team in the country will beat this version of the Scarlet and Gray. Just how dominant was the performance by Ryan Day and company? Let’s look at the numbers and all the broken records during this Pasadena clash.

The Offense Exploded For Big Plays and Made It Look Easy

Ohio State led 34-0, and before you could even blink, the game was 7-0 after a 45-yard catch-and-run by the best receiver in the country, Jeremiah Smith. This was the first of FOUR 40+-yard touchdowns by the Buckeyes offense. Smith added a 43-yard touchdown in the second quarter,r and fellow Buckeye wideout Emeka Egbuka had an impressive 42-yard snag midway through the first quarter.

Running back TreVeyon Henderson and his big-play ability shined in this game, and the first of his two touchdowns was a 66-yard burst to the endzone in the second quarter. Henderson’s long run was the longest rushing touchdown by a Buckeye in Rose Bowl history. This also marked the first time in the last 25 years that an FBS or NFL team recorded at least four touchdowns of 40+ yards in a single half of a postseason game. It could be a cherry-picked stat, but it is impressive, to say the least.

Jeremiah Smith took a picture with Buckeye legend Cris Carter pregame and broke the all-time great’s single-game freshman receiving record with his 187 receiving yards. If the game was any closer, there were talks about former Buckeye Jaxon Smith-Njogba’s Rose Bowl-record performance with 347 receiving yards.

The 20-point win was also an Ohio State program record as the largest margin of victory against an AP No. 1-ranked team. The Ducks hadn’t lost a game all year, with their one-point win in October being their only real scare. The Buckeyes remembered that and weren’t going to be denied again. That was also the most points a No. 1-ranked team has ever trailed by while having zero points scored, at 34-0.

The Defense Rose to the Occasion Yet Again

Ohio State had zero sacks and allowed 496 total yards of offense in their first matchup with Oregon in Eugene. In the Rose Bowl, the defense got to Dillon Gabriel for a whopping EIGHT sacks, and the Silver Bullets allowed just 276 total yards of offense as a team.

The defense has been stellar all year long, with a few big plays determining their loss to Oregon earlier in the year. Ohio State’s defense has allowed just 12.07 points per game this season, the third-lowest total since 2012.

As a team, the Ducks had 28 rushes for -23 rushing yards, with -0.8 yards per carry. No player averaged more than 2.0 yards per carry, and it was a party in the Oregon backfield all game long. Not only is the defense as a whole playing out of their minds, but the entire defensive line deserves all the credit in the world for their pure dominance in the trenches as of late. 

Jack Sawyer has not forced an offensive holding call since September of 2021 but has battled through holds all game to make huge contributions for his team. This was the most talented Oregon offense and team as a whole we have seen in quite some time, and they seemed like they were not supposed to be on the same field as the Ohio State Buckeyes on New Year’s Day.

Since the Michigan loss, the Ohio State Buckeyes have played like the best team in the country, with 25-point and 20-point wins over talented Tennessee and Oregon teams. Their next matchup is a Cotton Bowl date in Dallas against the Texas Longhorns, another talented team. If the Buckeyes play anywhere close to how they did against the Ducks, the Longhorns will also be in for a long night.