The Ohio State Buckeyes may not receive a second chance to defeat the Michigan Wolverines this season. Still, they will have a revenge opportunity against the Oregon Ducks, as Ohio State dusted off the Tennessee Volunteers in the first round of the CFP 42-17 at the Horseshoe in Columbus.
Will Howard threw for over three hundred yards and two touchdowns to Jeremiah Smith (six catches for 103 yards) to lead the passing attack and TreVeyon Henderson ran for two scores and eighty yards on ten carries.
Ohio State will meet Oregon in the "Rose Bowl"/ CFP Quarter-Final on New Year's Day.
2) I wasn't worried even as Tennessee closed the gap to 21-10 at halftime.
It took a few bad calls and breaks for Tennessee to score those points and their drives were so long that I didn't think the Volunteers were capable of multiple drives to cut into the lead further.
3) The call on the end zone interception by Tennessee's Will Brooks was questionable on two fronts.
The first is that Jeremiah Smith was clearly interfered with and should earned a penalty for pass interference.
The other is that I don't think Brooks had full control of the football when he landed with his foot in bounds.
Those are minor quibbles after a 42-17 win but they didn't feel minor at the time.
4) Tennessee's only touchdown drive of the first half, Ohio State appeared to have snuffed out the drive on an interception by Davison Igbinosun before a very light roughing the passer penalty on Kenyatta Jackson allowed the drive to continue.
Just a terrible call on that one.
5) Ohio State played looser and with abandon and it was easy to see from the start as the play calling was aggressive and kept hammered on Tennessee, no matter the situation.
Ryan Day coaches better when he is aggressive rather than timidly and it's my biggest complaint with Day.
6) Jeremiah Smith became the first Ohio State freshman to exceed one thousand receiving yards in the win.
More players will achieve this goal as seasons lengthen, so it was nice that Smith took this in twelve games.
7) Ohio State's offensive line had been maligned throughout the season but they bullied a Tennessee defense that was expected to stuff the Buckeye ground game.
Ohio State outrushed Tennessee 156-152 beating the Vols at the game that was expected to be their best chance at victory.
8) TreVeyon Henderson ran for eighty yards and caught four passes for fifty-four yards as he continued his late-season push to surpass Quinshon Judkins as Ohio State's lead back.
Henderson's career started with so much promise but injuries caused a downturn in production.
Henderson's late-season play has revitalized his career and I bet he will be starting for someone in the NFL next season.
9) Jack Sawyer and J.T Tuimoloau dominated the Tennessee offensive line with Tuimoloau and Sawyer combined for three and a half sacks.
These two are playing the best football in their career at the right time for both the Buckeyes and the players just as they are ready to move to the pros.
10) Tennessee brought an estimated 30,000 fans to the game as Ohio State's ticket department had their discount code leaked early. Volunteers fans scooped up tickets happily as disgruntled fans from the Michigan loss were too slow to get started.
That combined with a drivable distance (357 miles) gave the visitors a major presence in the Horseshoe.
Give Tennessee's crew credit for their craftiness and for coming out but OSU caused much of that.
11) As happy as I am with the win, it's frustrating to think of just how easily this team could have cruised past Michigan had they played half as well on offense as they did vs Tennessee.
As hard as it is to accept that, the title is in reach and the Buckeyes will be motivated against Oregon.
Should be a good one.
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