Number 6 Beat 9, Ohio State Nails Norte Dame 17-14 With a Touch Down in Last Moments
Number 6 Beat 9, Ohio State Nails Norte Dame 17-14 Without a Touch Down in Last Moments, to get all keep reading …
With a touchdown in the last second, No. 6 Ohio State beats No. 9 Notre Dame, 17-14.
Ohio State won 17-14 over Notre Dame thanks to a touchdown in the final second of play.
The Buckeyes got the ball back with 1:26 remaining and used virtually all of it as Chip Trayanum dove to get the ball just over the goal line.
The game-winning drive for Ohio State lasted 15 plays and covered 65 yards. The Buckeyes were successful on repeated third-and-fourth down opportunities.
Ohio State was unable to advance the ball on its first two plays of the drive, but on third-and-10, Emeka Egbuka gained 23 yards for the Buckeyes. With with 45 seconds remaining, on fourth-and-7, Kyle McCord connected with Julian Fleming for 7 yards.
The next play, with only 15 seconds remaining, McCord was called for intentional grounding, and Ohio State had to utilise its final timeout. McCord completed a 21-yard pass to Egbuka on third-and-19, moving the ball to the Notre Dame 1-yard line with seven seconds remaining.
It took Ohio State only three plays to score
Trayanum’s run went through a hole in the Notre Dame defence on the left side of the offensive line. The game-winning touchdown by Ohio State came while Notre Dame had only 10 players on the field. The team may have lined up with the absent player at that spot on the line of scrimmage before the snap.
The second half was considerably more thrilling than the first, and the game-winning drive by Ohio State was the icing on the cake. TreVeyon Henderson’s touchdown run in the second half gave the Buckeyes a 10-0 lead.
A touchdown pass from Sam Hartman to Rico Flores Jr. put Notre Dame ahead for the first time with 8:22 remaining in the game.
That Notre Dame touchdown drive ate up 6:29 of clock, and the Irish held the ball for the whole of the third quarter. By the time Notre Dame scored their first touchdown of the game, they had already run 33 plays in the second half to Ohio State’s eight.
Fourth-down chances not taken
Both teams had fourth-down opportunities they ultimately failed to convert. There were two fourth-down tries deep in opponent territory, and neither team was able to score.
In the first quarter, the Irish were inside the Buckeyes’ 20-yard line when quarterback Sam Hartman was sacked. On fourth down at the Ohio State 39, Hartman rushed for no gain to finish Notre Dame’s first possession of the second half.
In the second half, with 6:53 remaining, McCord threw an incomplete pass and Ohio State turned the ball over on downs a yard from the Notre Dame end zone.
On two consecutive plays in the second half, at the 11-yard line, Notre Dame defence held Ohio State without a yard gain.
Ohio State took a timeout before going for it on fourth down after Henderson was unable to advance after being sacked on third. The play call was for an end-around to Egbuka rather than another attempt to run it up the middle. That was crammed into the flat.
If Notre Dame had converted, they would have won by a far larger margin. Even though Notre Dame had gotten two first downs, Ohio State DE J.T. Tuimolau nearly single-handedly forced the Irish to punt the ball away. The game might have been decided with a third first down.
In the end, Hartman completed 17 of 25 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown, while McCord completed 21 of 37 passes for 240 yards. While Notre Dame’s Audric Estime also had 14 carries for 70 yards, Henderson finished with 104.
Defending Notre Dame’s Playoff Qualification
Whoever lost on Saturday night would have had to make up a lot of ground to make the College Football Playoffs. If Notre Dame doesn’t go unbeaten for the rest of the season, it may have a strong case to make the playoffs despite having two defeats.
The remaining games on the Irish’s schedule are against Duke, Southern California, and Clemson. If there is a dispute among schools with multiple losses for a playoff position, Notre Dame would have a strong case at 10-2 with a close loss to either USC or Clemson and wins over the two others.
However, the likelihood of that discussion really happening is low. The four-team playoff has never included a team with two losses. If Notre Dame wants to make the tournament, it will likely have to sweep the rest of its remaining opponents.
