Favorite Stat of the Game: 607 and 31. 607 total yards of offense and 31 first downs. We are 2nd in total offense, first in passing offense, and first in first downs with 381 including 218 through the air. This team moves the football, period. With this offense and the defense playing with the biggest edge all season, I love this team’s chances in the Rose Bowl.
The Brooklyn Dagger Award: On 2nd and 13 from his own 22-yard line in the fourth quarter, Dwayne Haskins hit Johnnie Dixon for a 63-yard bomb. The next play he connected with Dixon for a 9-yard touchdown pass, those two plays finished off the bagging of back-to-back B1G Championships.
Favorite Player of the Game: Dwayne Haskins Jr. How could it be anyone else. I think we could and should, Heisman or no, see 7 HASKINS next to 10 SMITH. I mean all the records he owns he should win the Heisman, especially since Tua struggled late, and Kyler plays non-existent defenses. The Dwayne Train rolled on to the tune of 34 of 41, for 499 yards, and five touchdowns. It was his fifth 400+ yard game of the season. There was only one in all of Ohio State history before him. That puts him at 348 of 496, for 4,580 yards, and 47 touchdowns. That’s 527 yards more than Murray and 1,227 more than Tagovailoa. Seven more touchdowns than Murray and ten more than Tagovailoa.
Ryan Shazier-Devin Smith Award: Chris Olave, Taron Vincent, and Tommy Togiai. Olave has been the obvious choice for this one the past two weeks. In Indy, he added another touchdown and 79 yards on five catches to go with his stellar performance in The Game. This guy is already a superstar and he’ll be asked to do even more next year and he’s going to deliver. Two others to watch, especially if redshirt junior Dre’Mont Jones goes pro are Taron Vincent and Tommy Togiai. Togiai just doesn’t stop. He only had one tackle in his limited time against NU, but he made the most of it with a huge tackle for a loss. Same with Taron Vincent, he just came off the bench and got an important sack on Clayton Thorson. We’ll hear a lot more from these two in coming years.
Dane Sanzenbacher Award: Overshadowed by this epic offensive performance was the work of Chase Young. Young recorded three tackles that were all for a loss and were all sacks and forced a fumble. Thorson is still having nightmares about Young. So glad we got him for at least another year, he is a beast and a leader and will clearly be the leader on the line and for the whole defense in 2019.
Taylor Decker Award: The Rushmen. These guys had a tall task to carry on and be just as awesome without the likely number one overall pick in the coming NFL Draft. I think they did it better than any other group of defensive linemen could have. They had five sacks on Thorson, seven tackles for a loss and a forced fumble in the title game. Dre’Mont Jones has led the way, followed closely by Chase Young, and Robert Landers, Tommy Togiai, Taron Vincent, and Jashon Cornell, Devon Hamilton, Haskell Garrett, and Jonathan Cooper all recorded at least a tackle in Lucas Oil Stadium. These guys are peaking at the perfect time, through injuries, and making a huge difference.
Fedora Award: Dwayne Haskins and Wyatt Davis. Davis was practically flawless filling in for big Meechy Knox, who you got to love by the way for putting off the surgery he needs so he could be there in Indianapolis with his brothers. Haskins has us forgetting that we just graduated a guy that went 4-0 against that team up north, won two B1G Championships and lead his team to a national title too. I don’t envy Tate Martell in having to follow J.T. who shared with Jones, and they both followed Braxton. Sheesh, talk about big shoes to fill! Martell will be great in his own right, but right now I’m enjoying the G.O.A.T in however much time he has left suiting up for the scarlet and gray.
Sweater Vest Award: Drue Chrisman. This guy is a machine. Four punts, 219 yards, two inside the 20, a long of 63 and an average of 54.8 per punt. He has helped this struggling but improving defense a ton over this season. I don’t know how he didn’t get B1G Punter of the Year and how he’s not a Ray Guy finalist. Check out his stats for the season, 53 punts for 2294 yards, averaging 43.3 per punt. I detest punting. I’d go for it probably way too much if I were a coach. But if you’ve got to punt, then do it right. Drue Chrisman does it right.
Archie Award: Johnnie Dixon, the guy who almost had to quit football, finished championship night with seven catches 129 yards and a touchdown, including the 63-yard dagger. Dixon, Campbell, and McLaurin have been true leaders on this team and in this group of what is neck and neck with the 2005 Zone Six for the best this unit has ever been in a single season. Brian Hartline has done stunning work with these guys and even losing the three previously mentioned to graduation, in 2019 we’ll have Olave, Mack, Victor, and Saunders returning. This loaded group was led by an awesome leader with a great story of grit and determination. Johnnie Dixon has 40 catches for 642 yards and 7 touchdowns on the year. It takes a lot of class and character to endure the way Dixon has in his career in Columbus, and I know Ohio loves him for it.
Horned Rimmed Glasses Award: J.K. Dobbins. Dobbins always seems to find an extra gear when it’s needed. He had 118 total yards and two touchdowns. 68 yards rushing and 50 yards receiving and a touchdown in the air and another on the ground. For the guy who was really the star of last year’s team especially in Indy, he quietly has turned out another hard-nosed great performance, with back-to-back years of leading the team in rushing and getting 1,000 yards. He may not win two Heisman trophies, but he does remind me of Archie Griffin with how he plays and how seems as a person. Woody would most definitely want this guy on his team.
Bad Coaching Moment of the Game: With around 40 seconds left in the first half, Ohio State got the ball back and unlike last week against that team up north, was content to take the lead into halftime. I thought this was an awful thing to do when you are in a game that you need so called style points and need to win big. You’ve got the best quarterback in college football and timeouts. Let him run your offense and see what happens. A touchdown or even a field goal there may change the second half of the game, especially that third quarter, and at the time you’ve got to hope it may change some minds on the committee too, (though in hindsight we now know it wouldn’t have) so you have to be aggressive and go for the jugular.
Good Coaching Moment of the Game: Letting Dwayne Haskins throw. He’s the best quarterback in school and conference history. Letting him and helping him be his best self is the smartest thing you can do as a coach. Give Ryan Day credit, I’ve heard others debate his effectiveness as a play caller, but I don’t think there is much argument as to his ability as a quarterbacks coach, I just wish we could have found him after Texas Tom and before Tim Beck. I’ve given this staff some grief because during the stretch against Minnesota, Indiana, and Purdue I thought they were trying to get Haskins to be something he isn’t, but they’ve done a much better job at shaping this offense around him and have it working at the high level it is currently at than many have given them their due for.
Glass Half Empty: Screwed out of the final four. I truly think we’ve seen the greatest quarterback in conference history this season and it is an absolute disgrace that he won’t get a chance to play for the highest prize in the land. Though with how dumb the selection process has exponentially gotten with each passing season that prize is steadily losing credibility.
Glass Half Full: We got a chance to be 13-1 and add Rose Bowl Champions to B1G Champions. In a time when the process to determine a national champion is disingenuous at best and illegitimate at worst, Rose Bowl and B1G Champions are only gaining strength and prestige in my eyes. The committee has shown itself to be such a sham, that winning that old conference and the granddaddy of them all will very soon mean more than their regional invitational in which they usually invite one token team from outside the former Confederacy. UCF’s 2017 Title is gaining more traction and if by some insane miracle Oklahoma or Notre Dame won this year, UCF and Ohio State could both have claims within reason of a share of the national championship.
2014 Moment: Terry McLaurin’s 42-yard touchdown catch on 3rd and 20. It was a perfect throw down the sideline in tight coverage that had me thinking of Devin Smith and Cardale Jones. The hometown hero McLaurin finished his second to last game in scarlet in gray with three catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns.
2002 Moment: With 4:51 to go in the 3rd quarter and the score 24-21 Northwestern got the ball back on their own 39 after an Ohio State fumble. After a first down incompletion, Thorson again dropped back to throw but was sacked by Chase Young for a four-yard loss Young’s timely sack put Northwestern behind the sticks and they went three and out. On the subsequent Buckeye possession Haskins would find Olave from 29 yards out for a touchdown and the Bucks would never look back. That sack was the beginning of the end for the Wildcats with a timely stop.
1968 Moment: The aforementioned 29-yard pass from Haskins to Olave to put an end to Northwestern’s surging in the 3rd quarter. All nine Buckeye units calmly dominated from that point on with little to no panic or hiccups on the way to back-to-back B1G Championships.
I love going to Lucas Oil Stadium. It’s a terrific venue. The drunk Chicagoans in purple seemed to be trying to taunt and start something with their numerically and in the end football superiors around them, but fortunately no sparks flew. If this was the last game, I’ll get to see in person for a while, it too was a good one to go out on. If it is not, I think I’ll try to get to Indy every year too.
I’m still ticked about the idiotic committee but I’m trying not to dwell on that here. The Rose Bowl should be amazing. I know some aren’t excited about 10-3 Washington, but they may be the best three loss team in the country and they are extremely well coached. Chris Peterson always gets his teams to play their best in big games and we’ll be in for a battle. Still, we should end the 2018 season at 13-1, B1G and Rose Bowl Champions, with the Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. The Dwayne Train is leaving the station for New York City, then heading to Pasadena. All aboard!
Haskins for Heisman!
