5 interesting stats from Ohio State’s CFP win on Monday night

On Monday night, Ohio State won its ninth national championship with a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame in Atlanta. The win was the third straight year the Buckeyes have defeated the Fighting Irish and the seventh straight win over the South Bend team. The victory capped a memorable four-game series for Ohio State, fueled by players and coaches who dug deep after an embarrassing 13-10 loss to Michigan in Columbus in the final game of the regular season.

In addition to many memorable moments from Monday night’s game for Buckeye fans to look back on, there were a number of interesting stats from the game that tell much of the story we saw on the stadium field Mercedes-Benz. Today, we’re going to look back at five of the most interesting stats from the title game win over the Fighting Irish, as well as Ohio State’s four-game series in the College Football Playoff.

4:37 p.m.-1:23 p.m., first half time of possession

Monday night’s game got off to a rough start for Ohio State’s defense. Notre Dame received the opening kickoff and went on an 18-play touchdown drive that ate up 9:45 of the first quarter’s time. Thanks to methodical driving down the field that included nine points from quarterback Riley Leonard, the Fighting Irish became the first team in this year’s College Football Playoff to hold a lead over the Buckeyes.

Ohio State didn’t trail for long, as they responded with an 11-play drive that took 6:05 late and ended with a Jeremiah Smith touchdown run. After Notre Dame seemed to have the initial momentum following their touchdown, the Buckeyes came right back with a drive that went effortlessly. With the score tied, Ohio State began to take control, only allowing the Fighting Irish to run seven more plays for the remainder of the first half.

Just imagine telling someone after Notre Dame’s first drive that Ohio State would win the first-half possession battle by three minutes. The Fighting Irish took up nearly a third of the first half with their opening drive. Instead of getting rattled, Ryan Day’s team kept their cool and stuck to their game plan. After their first drive lasted 6:05, the Buckeyes’ next drive lasted 6:06, and their third possession of the half totaled 4:26.

Many teams may have seen their confidence take a hit after Notre Dame opened the game with a touchdown drive nearly 10 minutes in. Instead, Ohio State not only responded to tie the game on the next drive, but they got even stronger afterward.

13 of 13

The calming force for Ohio State in the title game, as well as throughout the CFP, was quarterback Will Howard. In Howard’s greatest game ever, the former Kansas State quarterback completed only his first 13 passes, setting a record for most consecutive completions to start a playoff game of college football. The performance was a stark contrast to what we saw from Howard to open Penn State’s game in early November, when it was clear that nerves got the better of him over the first two series as he played school for which he dreamed of playing as a child.

Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Howard was one of the most accurate passers in college football this season. Of the 16 games Ohio State played, Howard completed at least 80 percent of his passes in half of those games. For comparison, Kyle McCord completed just 80 percent of his passes in a single game as Buckeye quarterback last year, in the 63-10 win over Western Kentucky. There have only been three games this season where Howard missed at least 10 passes in a game. The only one of those inaccurate Howard games that the Buckeyes lost was at Michigan.

Heading into the regular season, as well as much of the 2024 season, many people questioned whether Ryan Day made the right decision in letting McCord enter the transfer portal and bringing in Howard. Even though McCord had a fun season throwing the football for the Orange, there is no doubt that Howard was the right choice to lead the Buckeyes. Not only do Howard’s posted stats speak for themselves, but his leadership on the team was tremendous. It’s hard to imagine Ohio State replicating its success this year if McCord was still in Columbus.

205

Entering Monday night’s game, Emeka Egbuka had caught 199 passes in his Ohio State career, putting him three shy of KJ Hill for most receptions in school history . The title game against Notre Dame would be Egbuka’s final game in the scarlet and gray, and he made sure to put his mark on the school’s record book. Midway through the first half, Egbuka had already completed three passes to surpass Hill’s mark. The Washington wide receiver would catch three more passes during the game to finish with 205 career catches.

Although Egbuka managed to set the school’s career receptions record, he did not top the list for career receiving yards. Egbuka finished with 64 receiving yards against the Fighting Irish, finishing his time as a Buckeye with 2,868 receiving yards. Although his mark is under threat, Michael Jenkins still has the most career receiving yards in school history with 2,898 yards. At least Egbuka can hang his hat by passing David Boston on Monday night, now sitting 13 yards ahead of Boston in the school’s all-time ranks.

Will Egbuka join the ranks of recent Ohio State receivers to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft? That remains to be seen. While Egbuka may not be heading to the NFL with the hype of guys like Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Marvin Harrison Jr., what Egbuka has is the talented receivers he played with in Columbus n don’t have, it’s a national championship. .

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Ohio State head coach Ryan Day improved his coaching record at Ohio State to 70-10 with Monday night’s win over Notre Dame. Day’s 87.5 winning percentage is not only the best among active college football coaches who have coached at least 50 games, Day also has one of the highest winning percentages of all time in the college football. What’s even crazier about Day’s coaching record is that almost half of the 10 losses he suffered as a head coach came at Michigan.

Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images

The national title is vindication for the Buckeye head coach. After the Michigan game, many Ohio State fans would have gladly helped Day pack his bags so they never had to see him coach another game for the Buckeyes. Less than two months later, Day was finally a national champion. Ohio State put together a four-game stretch that will never be forgotten in Columbus, and the first game of that stretch was a game against Tennessee where Buckeye Nation was on edge before the game because they didn’t know what they were in for see. the team after the deflating performance against Michigan.

Who knows what’s in store for Day, whether he’ll be Ohio State’s head coach for another year or another decade. There’s still the Michigan hurdle that Day must find a way to overcome, but he’s much easier to handle as a national champion. Who knows if Jim Harbaugh still thinks Ryan Day was born at third base?

That doesn’t matter, since Day now has as many national titles as Harbaugh, and at least Day can say what he did this year was clean, which Harbaugh certainly can’t say about the title from Michigan last season.

244

After rushing for over 40 yards on its first touchdown, Notre Dame finished Monday’s game with just 53 rushing yards. By stifling the Fighting Irish’s rushing attack, Ohio State secured its third playoff game where it held its opponent to fewer than 60 yards rushing. Overall, Ohio State’s run defense has given up just 244 rushing yards in its four CFP games. The only team that managed to have some success on the ground against the Buckeyes was Tennessee, who ran for 156 yards in the first round game in Columbus. If we’re being honest, the Volunteers managed to rack up most of those yards after the Buckeyes already had a good lead.

Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles pushed the right buttons after the first game against Oregon, as well as after the loss to Michigan. Just look at how the Buckeyes were able to contain Jordan James in the Rose Bowl after the Oregon running back was difficult to tackle in the first game between the teams in Eugene in October. It was obvious the defense was playing with a chip on its shoulder after the loss to the Ducks, and the chip got even bigger after Michigan ran for 172 yards at Ohio Stadium in late November.

Ohio State made Notre Dame one-dimensional after the first drive. Riley Leonard was stuffed on his next eight carries after the nine sacks he had on the first drive. What was most curious about the Fighting Irish on offense was that they didn’t try to involve Jeremiah Love in the rushing attack, with the 1,000-yard rusher only having four carries in the match. Knowles will undoubtedly draw interest from a head coach next year, but it appears that if he hasn’t led a program thus far, he may have no intention of coaching -chief. Thanks to Knowles for staying in Columbus as long as Ohio State can keep him.