I turned up late to the start of this game and I was kind of worried about that because I expected it to be a rapid-fire score-fest on both teams' parts. So when I arrived and it was 7-0 and had been for quite some time I was actually very surprised. One takeaway that I got from almost the entire first half was that Ohio State always seemed to be the aggressor and Texas was barely hanging on and getting a few clutch plays here and there.
OSU wasn't dominating though and they were making mistakes, mostly in the form of penalties, that was self-destructing their offense. Then of course there was a moment there where Texas got the equalizer touchdown on a brilliant pass and the momentum appeared to be shifting towards Texas for the first time in the game... for exactly 5 seconds of game time.
If you score a touchdown, which Texas had just done as well as gotten their fans riled up for the first time since the opening kickoff, you have to kick the ball to the other team and give them possession. Mostly this incorporates simply kicking it into the end zone, which is boring but an effective way of keeping the other guys from getting a runaway kick return. Texas fans and the Texas team were riding high on this wave only to have OSU do a tiny screen pass that they returned for a 75 yard touchdown on the very first play of the drive.
This really shut the Texas fans up and the cameras kept going to the crowd to see the demoralized faces of fans in orange.
Somehow I think that Miller Lite didn't taste so sweet after that play.
After the half though, Texas appeared to have had some pretty effective team talk because on the back-end, they appeared to have more of an answer to Ohio State's strategy and things got very interesting as we had a tit-for-tat game for the first time with each team threatening to score on every drive. When Texas basically controlled the 3rd quarter and then threw another brilliant 26-yard TD pass to tie the game at 14, we all knew we were in for a very exciting 4th quarter.
The thing about American football is that in the 4th quarter when things are close, this game becomes a game that is very centered around time management and the plays are specifically chosen for either wasting the clock or preserving as much of it as possible. When OSU managed to get to within 10 yards of a go-ahead TD on 1st down, I don't think that many football fans had much hope that the Texas defense was going to be able to hold them. They were not able to hold them.
At that point, there was 7 minutes left in the game and Texas appeared to be making full use of wasting away as much of the clock as possible on what very well could be (and turned out to be) their final drive of the game. They soon found themselves in exactly the same situation that OSU was in just a few minutes prior. After a couple of pass interference calls in a row (I think) they had just a couple of yards remaining until they got the equalizer. All of us at the bar I was in were thinking that they have 4 down to just push forward a few inches per play for a basically guaranteed TD but I guess I don't understand why coaches do what they do a lot of times and I presume they are better at this than we are and that is why they are paid millions a year. Why Texas decided to do a pitch running play to the left side is anyone's guess, but this set them back to almost 10 yards shy of a desperately needed TD. A field goal would do them no good. OSU would simply burn out the clock and win the game by 4.
So they had to go for it and well, since passing plays had really been working for them up to this point that's what they went for, but this single play went horribly awry.
Jack Sawyer of OSU got on the Texas quarterback and got a hand on his outstretched arm that was preparing to pull the trigger on a pass and knocked the ball down and just by really lucky happenstance, the bounce of the ball off the resulting fumble had the football land right back in his hands. Then Jack, as they say, was off to the races.
I'm sure those members of the Texas offensive line were running as fast as they ever have in their lives (maybe not number 85) but so was Sawyer and there was just no catching him. This 6 foot 5 defensive lineman ran 83 yards for the touchdown that was the nail in the coffin. Just moments ago we were looking at what was at the time considered an almost guaranteed tie to the game resulted in the final nail in the coffin.
At 28-14 with just 2 minutes remaining there isn't anything that Texas could really do now. Even if they used all their timeouts to stop the clock OSU would be able to easily run out the remaining time. Hell, even if they got an interception (and nobody runs passing plays when they are trying to run out the clock) that would still put them at 7 points down.
That one play, or I should say the play call that took Texas from the 2-yard line to the 9-yard line on the play previous, was a bad choice and while anyone could get the ball stripped from them the bad luck (or good, depending on your perspective) with the ball landing right in Sawyer's bread basket after the strip was just incredible.
Many will look at this play that resulted in the TD and say that was the play that ended the game but I disagree. I think it was the play prior to that one that defies any real logic that ended the game. I don't understand why they didn't just do small yardage sneak plays 4 in a row. This is kind of Texas' thing, ya know? All of a sudden 2 yards became nearly 10 and it was necessary to change up the strategy to something considerably more risky and hence, the ball being stripped and returned for a game-ending TD.
It was a good game and now we only have one more game to look forward to. I picked Notre Dame to win the national championship and I wanted Texas to win this game only because I think Notre Dame would have a better chance vs. them as opposed to OSU. We will find out next week!