What makes an offensive drive successful? Well, scoring is always advantageous. Sometimes it’s just making a couple of first downs to get the ball out of the shadow of your goal post or to give a tired defense a rest. They can be quick strikes at the end of a half or slow, methodical marches down the field, churning up the clock and the yards with the running game.
Over the course of the 2015 college football season, Ohio State had its share of successful drives, and some that were utterly forgettable (lookin’ at you, Michigan State game). In fact, the season started with a nice drive, covering 64 yards on eight plays in just a tick over four minutes, culminating in a 24-yard touchdown pass from Cardale Jones to Curtis Samuel. The second drive of the year was a one-play, 80-yard effort, with Ezekiel Elliott doing all the work on one rushing attempt. It took 13 seconds.
Looking at the Buckeye offense’s entire body of work this past season, which drives were the team’s best? It all starts with criteria. One of the most amazing drives by any college football team this season was Michigan State’s game-winning march against Iowa in the B1G championship game. That incredible drive covered 82 yards in 22 (!) plays, chewing up 9:04 on the clock. Of those 22 plays, the Spartans ran 16 times.
That drive was something any coach would like to frame and hang on the wall for all to see. It controlled the clock, took care of the football, and finished with a touchdown. I’m going to use that drive as a baseline of sorts. My criteria will consist of ball control, possession, clock management and the final result. Obviously there aren’t a lot of 22-play, 82-yard drives out there. So, what Ohio State drives most closely resembled that epic march?
Oh, and thanks to Dubcast listener James Wirt for inspiring this trip through the season’s drive charts.
Hawai’i
The purest drive of the season came against the Rainbow Warriors back on Sept. 12. Ohio State led 17-0 late in the third quarter when Jalin Marshall fair caught Rigoberto Sanchez’s punt at his own 9-yard line. Ohio State began an epic 17-play drive with a handoff to Elliott, who took it nine yards on first down. It was the first of 13 rushing plays on the drive, which took 8:10 off the clock and concluded with a 1-yard plunge by Zeke to make it 24-0. The longest play of the drive was a 14-yard run by Braxton Miller.
It was Ohio State’s longest drive of the season in terms of both plays and time off the clock. The 13 rushing plays broke Hawai’i’s will.
The Buckeyes also put together an 11-play, 77-yard touchdown drive earlier in the game, taking 5:25 off the clock. Seven plays on that drive were runs. Elliott also capped that drive off with a touchdown run from a yard out.
Maryland
Before Urban Meyer flipped all of Maryland’s four-star recruits, Terrapin fans had another reason to be salty about Ohio State football. Maryland had just taken a surprise 7-0 lead on Ohio State after starting the game with a defensive three-and-out. The Buckeyes couldn’t let the Terps have nice things, though.
Ohio State took over at its own 25-yard line after the kickoff went into the end zone. Miller lined up in the shotgun and ran for three yards on first down. Zeke ran for 12 yards on the next play and then—after an incomplete pass—Cardale found Mike Thomas for 12 more. He wouldn’t put it up often after that. The Buckeyes ran 10 times on the 14-play drive, covering 75 yards and taking 6:29 off the clock. J.T. Barrett, who was Ohio State’s “red zone quarterback” at the time, took it the final three yards on the ground to make it 7-7.
The Buckeyes went on to win 49-28.
Michigan
Ohio State saved most if its best drives of the season for That Team Up North. The Buckeyes put together four drives of 75 yards or more in the game, including perhaps the best march of the season.
The Buckeyes took over on their 16 after Marshall’s fair catch with 8:50 to play in the third quarter, leading their most hated rivals, 21-10. Barrett tossed a five-yard pass to Miller on first down, but from that point on, it was almost all on the ground. Ohio State went 84 yards in total, running 12 times on a 16-play drive that squeezed 7:05 off the clock. The final seven plays of the drive were all on the ground, as the Wolverines had no answer for the Buckeye rushing attack. Barrett’s 13-yard touchdown run put the dagger in Jim Harbaugh’s team and gave Ohio State a commanding 28-10 lead at the end of three quarters.
Other notable drives in The Game included:
- A 7-play, 94-yard drive in 3:21 on Ohio State's first possession, giving the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead. A delicious roughing-the-kicker penalty helped. Five of the seven plays were runs.
- A 9-play, 75-yard drive in 4:24 that made it 14-3 Ohio State. The last eight plays of the drive were runs.
- An 8-play, 82-yard drive in 2:39 that made it 21-10. Ohio State ran five times in eight plays.
Notre Dame
The Fiesta Bowl was not without a couple of outstanding drives. The second of Ohio State’s notable drives covered only 62 yards in just 2:30, but it took 11 plays to do it, and put the Buckeyes ahead 21-7 at the time.
But the best drive of the day came on Ohio State’s first drive, as the Buckeyes went 80 yards in nine plays in 3:06 to make it 7-0. The Buckeyes ran six times in those nine snaps, including a 27-yard rush by Miller in his final game in the Scarlet & Gray. Elliott gained 15 of the 80 yards, including the final two, putting Ohio State up early.
Other great drives this season include:
- An 11-play, 73-yard field goal drive in 3:42 against Northern Illinois to take a 13-10 lead. Six of the 11 plays were runs.
- A 14-play, 75-yard drive in 4:10 against Western Michigan to make it 31-6 on a 6-yard Elliott touchdown run.
- A 10-play, 70-yard drive in 3:17 for a field goal at Indiana. It put Ohio State on the board, down 10-3, and stopped the bleeding a bit.
- A 10-play, 70-yard drive in 4:00 against Penn State to give the Buckeyes their first lead, at 7-3, on a 5-yard Barrett run. Seven of the 10 plays were runs.
- An 8-play, 85-yard drive in 3:39 to put the Nittany Lions away, making it 31-10. Ohio State ran on six of the eight plays but the score came on a pass from Barrett to Miller from five yards out.
- A 10-play, 72-yard drive in 3:54 against Rutgers to make it 35-0. Barrett's 10-yard run was just the fifth rush of the march, in one of Ohio State's most balanced long drives of the season.
- A 7-play, 77-yard drive in 2:28 against Minnesota to make it 14-0. The key here was it paid off with Elliott's 15-yard touchdown run coming with just 54 seconds remaining in the first half.
- An 11-play, 75-yard drive in 3:58 against Illinois. The Buckeyes ran eight times on the drive, including Elliott's 1-yard touchdown that made it 21-3.
- As painful as the final score was, the 10-play, 32-yard drive in 4:04 was notable against Michigan State. At the time it gave the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead. It also showed that a little persistence in the run game could have paid dividends, as Ohio State ran nine times and capped it with Zeke's 1-yard dive. Elliott had eight carries on the drive but only 12 for the game. Hmmm...let's move on, because 2016 will be a lot of fun.
