Narrow chances bad breaks swing Peach Bowl out of Ohio

Narrow chances, bad breaks swing Peach Bowl out of Ohio State’s favor in a Customs game in Atlanta | Eleven W – Eleven warriors

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Attention Buckeye fans. The following exercise is not for the faint of heart.

You might find an examination of the twists, turns, tight decisions and bad breaks that affected the outcome of Saturday’s College Football Playoff semifinals quite infuriating. But someone has to do it.

Of course, a contest of any kind doesn’t get much closer than a point difference between winner and loser. However, the shot that would have won the game for Ohio State in the dying seconds was not particularly close. Noah Ruggles’ 50-yard effort went wide left of the goal post at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Buckeyes’ fate was sealed. But with Ruggles hitting a 48-yard field goal earlier in the night, Ohio State might just need a few more yards to set Ruggles up for a more doable kick.

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After a 27-yard scramble by CJ Stroud got Ohio State to Georgia’s 31-yard line with 24 seconds remaining, it looked like the Buckeyes had just won the game. But just on the edge of Ruggles’ reach, Ohio State couldn’t gain another inch from the kick. In fact, on a run down center with Dallan Hayden, the Buckeyes lost a yard in the next game after Stroud’s run, a decision Ryan Day was criticized for in hindsight.

Day said there were plays he wished he’d had back at the Peach Bowl, but this wasn’t one of them.

“Two timeouts remained to add that into the field goal. If we didn’t have two more timeouts, they went to zero,” Day said. “If you share one, you could get out back there. Two timeouts left, a few yards right there could add to the field goal and that was the idea. I didn’t execute quite as well as we’d like, but I wouldn’t change that call.”

Stroud supported Day’s decision when asked about the play call, stepping in to describe it as a “great call” at the end of his head coach’s response.

Still, Donovan Jackson said when the offense went off the field for the last time, he knew they had to do more to put Ruggles in a better position.

“I would say like I have all the confidence in the guys on this team but obviously when you are five meters away you prefer to be one meter away. So it was definitely in the back of my mind that I was like, ‘Man, I wish we were a little closer,'” Jackson said. “But I had all that faith in all the guys on the team, the special teams. So it just didn’t go our way, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that we worked hard in this game.”

That was hardly the first tight call, though. Before that came a litany of sequences that contributed to Ohio State’s eventual demise, which saw the Buckeyes fall from two touchdowns early in the fourth quarter to a one-point deficit as the celebration began in Atlanta.

The Buckeyes took a 10-56 lead 21-7 to play in the second quarter when Marvin Harrison Jr. caught his second touchdown pass from Stroud. Ohio State’s passing game was buzzing. But back came the Bulldogs, who scored two straight touchdowns in less than five minutes of play to tie things. The momentum was reversed and Ohio State had to backtrack.

To that end, Day decided to try from his own 35-yard line on the 4th and 1st after a buckeye drive quickly bogged down. Ohio State picked it up on an eight-yard run from Stroud, who moved the chains to give the Buckeyes a chance to answer Georgia’s run.

Not so fast.

A flag followed immediately after the game when Mitch Rossi was called for an illegal move penalty, and with the Buckeyes having returned to their own 30 as a result, Day had little choice but to punt. Georgia then kicked a field goal to take his first lead of the game just seven games later.

But this game was not as consequential as the following sequence.

Ohio State went for the next 17 straight points to take over a 14-point lead at the end of the third quarter, but the Buckeyes might have made it to 21 had it not been for a stand check that included a targeting call on Javon Bullard from Georgia would have wiped out the back of the endzone. Not only did Ohio State not get a new set of downs with the ball on the Bulldogs’ doorstep, but they also lost Harrison for the remainder of the contest when a concussion from the collision caused practice staff to shut him down.

The Buckeyes took four fewer points on that possession than they would have liked, and without Harrison – who by then had 106 yards and two scores – the passing offense only managed 29 yards the rest of the way.

“To say the loss of Marv had no effect on the game, it absolutely was,” Day said. “What this guy did and how he struggled with all those things in the second half I just can’t say enough. I’m so proud of how he played.”

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In ensuing possession, another difficult decision by the referee team kept a shot on goal alive for Georgia. On the 4th and 6th off the Buckeye 13 on the opening drive of the fourth quarter, Brock Bowers was ruled just ahead of the chains. Ohio State would have taken the downs 12-10 to play.

Upon further inspection, officers determined that Bowers had collected enough yards to move the sticks. Ohio State still kept Georgia out of the end zone, but a field goal got the ball rolling for the Bulldogs’ comeback in the fourth quarter.

Barely more than a minute passed before the next big moment happened. Ohio State went three-and-out and lined up to knock the ball back from their own 34 to the Bulldogs. But the Buckeyes faked the Bulldog defense by executing the wrong punt against Michigan, and Mitch Rossi grabbed a first down on a direct snap from Mason Arnold.

Again, not so fast.

The umpires waved the game off when Kirby Smart called a time-out just a split second before the ball was snatched and the Bulldogs adjusted their alignment to account for the potential for a fake. Day didn’t try again.

Georgia added insult to the injury just 10 seconds later. It took the Bulldogs just one play after the punt to get a 76-yard touchdown, and a two-point conversion gave them just three points, 38-35, with an 8-41 play. It’s not just that Georgia put in a good performance to get the explosive score. Lathan Ransom just fell flat in a one-on-one coverage of Arian Smith, and with no help behind it, it was a race to the end zone.

Smith might have beaten Ransom anyway, but if the Buckeye safety hadn’t slipped we might be talking about a different result in the Peach Bowl.

“I thought our team came out and swung and played hard in that game, fell short. It came down to one piece. It wasn’t just the last track,” Day said. “There were a lot of plays in the game that you wish you had back as a coach and player. That’s what happens in a game like this. But I told the guys I’m proud of how they played. I’m proud of how they did. For the older boys, the seniors, proud of what they’ve done for the program. For the younger guys coming back it’s an opportunity to learn and grow and see what it takes to win in the CFP.”

The what-if questions are endless and there’s no point in reliving them if you’re a Buckeye fan. But with a wound this fresh, it’s hard not to stare in awe unless you’re ignoring it completely.