Our countdown of Ohio State’s Top 25 Games of the Quarter-Century has reached the top 10.
Over the past three days, we’ve already looked back at 15 memorable games from the past 25 years. In case you haven’t had a chance to read Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3 yet, here’s a list of the No. 25-11 games on our countdown:
25. Oct. 20, 2012: Ohio State 29, Purdue 22 (OT)
24. Nov. 14, 2009: Ohio State 27, Iowa 24 (OT)
23. Nov. 30, 2019: Ohio State 56, Michigan 27
22. Sept. 23, 2023: Ohio State 17, Notre Dame 14
21. Nov. 20, 2004: Ohio State 37, Michigan 21
20. Jan. 1, 2010 (Rose Bowl): Ohio State 26, Oregon 17
19. Jan. 2, 2006 (Fiesta Bowl): Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 20
18. Sept. 29, 2018: Ohio State 27, Penn State 26
17. Dec. 21, 2024 (College Football Playoff First Round): Ohio State 42, Tennessee 17
16. Nov. 30, 2013: Ohio State 42, Michigan 41
15. Jan. 20, 2015 (National Championship Game): Ohio State 42, Oregon 20
14. Nov. 24, 2001: Ohio State 26, Michigan 20
13. Jan. 1, 2022 (Rose Bowl): Ohio State 48, Utah 45
12. Jan. 20, 2025 (National Championship Game): Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 23
11. Nov. 24, 2018: Ohio State 62, Michigan 39
Our rankings, which only include games that Ohio State won and that have been played since the start of the 21st century, were compiled with consideration to how memorable each game was, how exciting each game was to watch, the stakes of each game in terms of opponent and championship implications and their lasting legacies. The rankings, of course, are entirely subjective and open to debate – but there’s no debate that all 10 games still to come on the list are iconic games that won’t soon be forgotten by any Buckeye fan who watched them.
Part 4 of our countdown includes three of the most impressive postseason performances in Ohio State history as well as two of the most thrilling victories in the history of the Shoe.
10. Jan. 1, 2025 (Rose Bowl): Ohio State 41, Oregon 21
Oregon entered last season’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl as the top seed in the CFP. Ohio State didn’t even need a half to make it clear who was actually the best team in college football.
After suffering a heartbreaking 32-31 loss to Oregon during the regular season, Ohio State entered the Rose Bowl with revenge on its mind and a belief that it should have beaten the Ducks the first time around. But no one could have expected just how dominant the Buckeyes would be on New Year’s Day in Pasadena.
Facing an Oregon team that hadn’t lost a game all year, Ohio State scored on six of its first seven drives to take a 34-0 lead in the second quarter. Jeremiah Smith turned a short pass into a 45-yard touchdown just one minute into the game, and Will Howard threw a laser to Emeka Egbuka for a 42-yard touchdown just two drives later. A 43-yard touchdown connection from Howard to Smith and a 66-yard touchdown run by TreVeyon Henderson, sandwiched in between two Jayden Fielding field goals, gave the Buckeyes a five-score lead before halftime as they put up 390 total first-half yards.
Ohio State only scored once in the second half, but that was all it needed to secure a 20-point win over a team that hadn’t lost a game all year.
The victory marked just the third time this century that Ohio State beat a No. 1-ranked team, and it was by far the most decisive of the three (the others being the 2002-03 national championship win over Miami and the 2014-15 Sugar Bowl win over Alabama). It’s also the first time Ohio State has ever beaten a team it previously lost to in the same season.
As good as Oregon had been all year and as dominant as the Buckeyes were in the first half, the Rose Bowl was arguably Ohio State’s most impressive performance of the century to date. Ohio State still had to win two more games to win the national championship, but it was hard to envision anyone stopping the Buckeyes from winning it all after they bludgeoned the Ducks.
9. Jan. 1, 2021 (Sugar Bowl): Ohio State 49, Clemson 28
No opponent was a bigger thorn in Ohio State’s side during the 2010s than Clemson. The Buckeyes faced Dabo Swinney’s squad in three postseason games and lost all three of them, including a 31-0 rout in the 2016 CFP semifinals and a heartbreaking 29-23 loss in the 2019 CFP semifinals.
With the controversial calls that cost Ohio State in the 2019 loss still fresh on everyone’s minds, the Buckeyes got their shot at revenge when they met the Tigers in the CFP semifinals again one season later. This time around, the Buckeyes left nothing to chance.
After a back-and-forth first quarter in which both teams scored two touchdowns each, Ohio State took firm control of the game in the second quarter as Justin Fields threw three touchdown passes – two to Jeremy Ruckert and one to Chris Olave – to give the Buckeyes a 35-14 lead at halftime.
Clemson drew first blood in the second half as Mike Jones Jr. intercepted Fields and the Tigers drove for a touchdown from there, but Fields responded right back with a picture-perfect deep ball to Olave for a 56-yard touchdown. Two drives later, Fields and Jameson Williams connected for a 45-yard touchdown to deliver the knockout blow.
All told, Fields completed 22 of 28 passes for 385 yards and six touchdowns and ran for another 42 yards in the greatest performance of his Ohio State career even though he suffered a hip injury on a hit from Clemson linebacker James Skalski in the second quarter. Olave, whose route-running error led to Fields throwing a game-sealing interception in the 2019 loss, redeemed himself with six catches for 132 yards and two scores. Trey Sermon ran for 193 yards and a touchdown as the Buckeyes posted a whopping 639 yards of offense.
Ohio State was 0-4 all-time against Clemson entering the Sugar Bowl, having also lost to the Tigers in the 1978 Gator Bowl best known for Woody Hayes’ career-ending punch. All of that history made the triumph over the Tigers one of Ohio State’s most cathartic wins ever, and a victory that would probably rank even higher on this countdown if it hadn’t been followed by a lopsided loss to Alabama in the national championship game.
8. Oct. 28, 2017: Ohio State 39, Penn State 38
If this were a list of the best quarters in the 103-year history of Ohio Stadium, Ohio State’s fourth quarter against Penn State in 2017 would be among the contenders for the top spot.
Trailing 35-20 entering the fourth quarter, Ohio State appeared to be on the verge of losing to Penn State for the second year in a row. When Shareef Miller recovered a fumbled exchange between J.T. Barrett and J.K. Dobbins on Ohio State’s opening possession of the fourth quarter, it felt as though the Buckeyes’ chances of beating the second-ranked Nittany Lions had slipped away.
Ohio State’s Top 25 Games of the Quarter-Century
Then everything started to change.
Denzel Ward started the comeback with a blocked punt that gave Ohio State the ball back in Penn State territory. Two plays later, Barrett and Johnnie Dixon connected for a 38-yard touchdown to make it an eight-point game.
Penn State regained control of the game by driving all the way back to Ohio State’s 3-yard line, but the Buckeyes held the Nittany Lions to a field goal to keep the game within reach. Barrett completed five straight passes to drive the Buckeyes down the field, culminating with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Dixon, to cut the deficit to five.
Sam Hubbard started Penn State’s next possession with one of the quarter-century’s greatest defensive plays, simultaneously tackling Saquon Barkley and Trace McSorley for a 7-yard loss. That led to a 3-and-out, and Ohio State retook possession at its 42-yard line. Barrett – who finished the night with 328 passing yards and 95 rushing yards – drove the Buckeyes right back down the field with four more consecutive completions, culminating with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Baugh to push the Buckeyes ahead with 1:48 to play.
Ohio State’s defense forced a turnover on downs on Penn State’s subsequent possession, sealing the largest fourth-quarter comeback in Ohio State history. Ohio State had never previously come back from a deficit of more than 14 points in the fourth quarter.
The Buckeyes’ fourth-quarter comeback flipped the script from what happened one year before in Happy Valley, when Ohio State entered the fourth quarter with a 21-7 lead but lost 24-21 after allowing Penn State to score 17 unanswered points. That’s still the last win for the Nittany Lions over the Buckeyes, who have won eight straight games against Penn State since the 2017 thriller.
Had the Buckeyes lost to Penn State for the second straight year, they would have also lost the Big Ten East to Penn State for the second straight year. Thanks to their fourth-quarter comeback, Ohio State won the Big Ten East and went on to win its first of four straight Big Ten championships.
7. Dec. 6, 2014 (Big Ten Championship Game): Ohio State 59, Wisconsin 0
Say the phrase 59-0 to any Ohio State fan, and it’s a safe bet they’ll still know what you’re referencing more than 10 years later.
59-0 became one of the most iconic scorelines in Ohio State history in the 2014 Big Ten Championship Game, when the Buckeyes catapulted themselves in the first College Football Playoff with perhaps the most stunning display of dominance in program history.
Ohio State entered the game as a 4.5-point underdog to Wisconsin after J.T. Barrett, the Buckeyes’ starter for the entire regular season, broke his ankle in the regular-season finale against Michigan. But the cannon arm of Cardale Jones proved to be rocket fuel for the Buckeyes’ offense.
In his first career start, “12 Gauge” immediately became an Ohio State legend as he threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns on just 17 attempts (12 completions). A 39-yard opening-drive touchdown pass from Jones to Devin Smith, who finished the night with 137 yards and three touchdowns on just four catches, set the tone for what the entire game would look like.
Ezekiel Elliott, who ran for 220 yards and two touchdowns, broke off an 81-yard touchdown on Ohio State’s third drive to make it 14-0. Another long touchdown pass from Jones to Smith and another touchdown run by Elliott, sandwiched by a Sean Nuernberger field goal and a Joey Bosa fumble return touchdown, made it a 38-0 game at halftime.
The Buckeyes never took their foot off the gas on either side of the ball, finishing the night with 300 more yards of offense than Wisconsin (558 to 258) while forcing four Badger turnovers.
Had Ohio State scraped by Wisconsin with a close victory, it’s uncertain whether the Buckeyes would have made the first College Football Playoff, as Big 12 co-champions Baylor and TCU were also candidates for the fourth spot in the field. Ohio State’s emphatic display of dominance, however, made it impossible for the committee to deny the Buckeyes the chance to compete for a championship, a chance they would ultimately capitalize on.
6. Nov. 26, 2016: Ohio State 30, Michigan 27 (2OT)
The Game has never had a more dramatic ending than the double-overtime finish between the Buckeyes and Wolverines at Ohio Stadium in 2016.
Ohio State’s offense struggled throughout the regulation portion of the contest. The Buckeyes’ only offensive touchdown, a 1-yard touchdown run by Mike Weber, came after an interception by Jerome Baker and two Michigan penalties gave Ohio State the ball at the 4-yard line. Their other touchdown in four quarters came on a 16-yard interception return by Malik Hooker. Tyler Durbin missed a pair of field goals from 37 and 21 yards out, but converted a 23-yard field goal with one second left in the fourth quarter to send The Game to overtime for the first time in the history of the rivalry.
Both teams scored touchdowns in the first overtime period. J.T. Barrett ran for a 7-yard score, and Michigan tied the game on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Wilton Speight to Amara Darboh. But the Buckeyes’ defense held Michigan to a field goal to start the second overtime, setting up the drama-filled finish.
After Curtis Samuel was stopped one yard short of the line-to-gain on 3rd-and-9, Ohio State opted to keep its offense on the field rather than attempt a field goal to send the game to a third overtime. Barrett ran the ball himself and was tackled by Michigan linebacker Delano Hill right at the 15-yard line, prompting a lengthy replay review. Ultimately, the officials upheld their initial call that Barrett had reached the first-down marker, much to the chagrin of Jim Harbaugh.
One play later, Samuel took a handoff from Barrett and ran all the way to the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown – a play now forever known as the “Brooklyn Dagger,” an homage to Samuel’s New York City roots. Fans stormed the field for a raucous celebration with the Buckeyes as they secured their fifth straight win over Michigan and their second College Football Playoff berth – all the while knocking their rival out of the CFP.
The season ended on a sour note with the aforementioned 31-0 blanking at the hands of Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. But the double-overtime win in The Game remains transcendent as one of Ohio State’s most memorable rivalry wins ever.
Eleven Warriors researcher Matt Gutridge contributed to this article.
