Ohio State Buckeyes win the National Championship

What Happened?

Ohio State Buckeyes ended a ten year wait to be, once again, crowned national champions. They beat Notre Dame Fighting Irish 34-23 in Atlanta in what was quite an entertaining game.

Both teams have had amazing seasons, overcoming their own respective challenges to string together a great run in the playoffs. Notre Dame dealt with the shock loss in week two to Northern Illinois (8-5 record in the MAC – Mid American Conference) to go the rest of the season unbeaten up to last night. For them, the clock continues to run since their last National Championship in the 1988/89 season.

For Ohio State, they had to deal with the disappointment of the week six narrow loss to Oregon by 1 point but also the later loss to their fierce rival Michigan. The latter of these I will come back to in another post.

In a one-off final, it always seems important for someone to grab the initiative, and Notre Dame certainly did that when QB Riley Leonard punched in the first touchdown after 10 minutes. Alongside the extra point that was the only scoring of the 1st quarter which finished 7-0.

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Ohio State then found some rhythm in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and went on a 31-point scoring run which included 4 touchdowns (3 by Quinshon Judkins) and a field goal. Notre Dame gave Ohio State something to think about late on with two touchdowns of their own to make it a 1-score game before Ohio State sealed things with a late field goal.

Summary	1st Quarter	2nd Quarter	3rd Quarter	4th Quarter	Final
Ohio St	0	21	10	3	34
Notre Dame	7	0	8	8	23

Delivering in Big Moments

Whilst It might not have seemed it from the final score, the game remained competitive until the end. Up to the final field goal with 26 seconds to go, Notre Dame would only have needed a touchdown and two-point conversion to take the game to overtime. Great for a neutral like me!

In a matchup like this, it felt like both teams would get their key moments and the result would depend on who took best advantage of theirs. There was some concern going into the game that Notre Dame were struggling with too many injuries and whether their key players would be able to deliver after such a bruising run. The quiet night that Jeremiah Love had might be a shining of example of this turning out to be the case.

Riley Leonard had some success with his feet (a TD from his 40 yards off of 17 carries) and with the ball in his hands (2 TDs from his 255 yard of passing (22/31 – 22 passes completed from 31 attempts). Jaden Greathouse chipped in and scored two touchdowns off his 6 receptions for 128 yards.

On the other side of the field Ohio St quarterback Will Howard threw for 231 yards (17/21) for two touchdowns. He also managed 57 rushing yards from 16 carries.

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Looking at the game stats the teams were quite evenly matched – I have not mentioned defence yet but Buckeyes/Fighting Irish defences made 54 and 56 tackles respectively, tackles for a loss of 7 and 5 respectively and had 2 sacks each.

It was then, as always, those key moments and amongst others an example being the Notre Dame missed field goal to bring the game closer before half time. The call to take a shot at a field goal came with the Fighting Irish on the Buckeyes 9-yard line at forth and goal. The aim was to take the relative security of 3 points rather than risk running a play 9 yards out and getting nothing. There is much logic to this (although opinion on whether the right call or not will be divided) but it didn’t quite come off and the kick slammed into the post.

In addition there were also a number of Buckeye third down moments where the Fighting Irish defence just couldn’t come up with a stop to get their offence back onto the field. This kept momentum with the Buckeyes at key points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Indeed Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman said in pre-game interviews that he felt his team had to win the explosive-play battles and unfortunately, they probably didn’t quite do that.

For the Buckeyes, we can look at the moment in the 4th quarter where they were 3rd and 11 and Will Howard threw a 56-yard pass to Jeremiah Smith. Not only does it get them down the field and a new set of downs but it ultimately, setup the field goal which took the game out of reach. If that play does not complete, then Notre Dame get the ball back with the opportunity to get the game tying score. I am sure Buckeyes fans will savour the image of that ball gliding into Jeremiah Smith’s hands for some time to come.

And so, Ohio State were left to hoist the trophy, the first as part of the new 12-team playoff format. Notre Dame must reflect on what could have been albeit at the end of a campaign that they will surely be proud of.

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I read somewhere that there are 215 days to go until the start of the new season…perfect amount of time for me to dig into a few topics around college football and produce a few more explainers for newcomers to the sport. But I am sure there will be plenty of news to talk about over the coming weeks and months!