The final one of these for the 2021 season: I'm rewatching the Rose Bowl to see what went right, what went wrong and what's next for this Ohio State team as it heads into the offseason.
First quarter
Defense
The first drive for the Ohio State defense was a short depiction of what would happen over the course of the Rose Bowl.
The first play was familiar: a soft curl route from tight end Cole Fotheringham in the slot, gaining 11 yards with ease. The third: a 10-yard gain by running back Tavion Thomas, ceasing a large hole creates from a lack of pressure between the left tackle and guard. The fourth: a six-yard scamper off the option by quarterback Cameron Rising.
Utah was ahead of schedule, something that would become much more evident as the game went along.
But Ohio State was able to do enough: forcing a Rising incompletion and a no-gain rush by Thomas off pressure from Kourt Williams III and tight end-turned-linebacker Cade Stover.
This was Ohio State’s defense against Utah: allowing big plays — represented by scores later in the game — but buckling down when it needed to to do just enough.
But it got a lot worse before it got better.
Ohio State showed it had trouble against Utah’s up-tempo look, looking consistently behind and confused. It showed in Britain Covey’s 19-yard touchdown: a simple three-yard and turn around, finding the hole between Zach Harrison — dropped back into coverage — and Steele Chambers, and was off to the races.
It continued in Utah’s next drive, keeping Ohio State’s defense on the field for the majority of the first quarter, whether it was a slant by Brant Kuithe and a broken tackle by safety Bryson Shaw, a Covey flea-flicker off the jet sweep that broke down, leading to an eight-yard gain instead of a tackle-for-loss and, to cap it off, a wheel route by Micah Bernard confusing the hell out of Chambers and Tommy Eichenberg, forcing the switch and the easy touchdown in the back of the end zone.
Offense
The first drive for Ohio State was no indication for how it would go Saturday. Really, it just looked like a continuation of the Michigan game.
Redshirt freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud began with two handoffs to freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson. Then, feeling the pressure of a third-and-long situation, threw one up to sophomore wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba running a streak from the slot, but sat in tight man coverage, leading to a pass breakup by former Ohio State commit Clark Phillips.
From this first drive alone, it seemed like Ohio State didn’t want to be there, that it hadn’t learned anything from its last loss in Ann Arbor.
The problems continued to fester into the second drive: two short completions to Smith-Njigba — trying to open up the horizontal pass game — and an incompletion on third-and-short, an apparent mistrust of the run game, much like there was in Ann Arbor.
So what really was the first play that showed some signs of life? A Stroud run: facing a third-and-eight and tucking the ball, running forward for a 10-yard scramble.
With that, the offense opened up a bit, leading to a beautiful pitch-and-catch to Emeka Egbuka down the sideline for a 30-yard gain, setting up momentum for Marvin Harrison Jr.’s first score early in the second quarter.
What's next
This was a continuation of the Ohio State seen in Ann Arbor: a defense that fell behind, a one-dimensional offense that take a bit to get going. It was something Utah was taking advantage of early on, signifying the changes necessary heading into 2022, especially with new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles on his way.
First quarter
Defense
The first drive for the Ohio State defense was a short depiction of what would happen over the course of the Rose Bowl.
The first play was familiar: a soft curl route from tight end Cole Fotheringham in the slot, gaining 11 yards with ease. The third: a 10-yard gain by running back Tavion Thomas, ceasing a large hole creates from a lack of pressure between the left tackle and guard. The fourth: a six-yard scamper off the option by quarterback Cameron Rising.
Utah was ahead of schedule, something that would become much more evident as the game went along.
But Ohio State was able to do enough: forcing a Rising incompletion and a no-gain rush by Thomas off pressure from Kourt Williams III and tight end-turned-linebacker Cade Stover.
This was Ohio State’s defense against Utah: allowing big plays — represented by scores later in the game — but buckling down when it needed to to do just enough.
But it got a lot worse before it got better.
Ohio State showed it had trouble against Utah’s up-tempo look, looking consistently behind and confused. It showed in Britain Covey’s 19-yard touchdown: a simple three-yard and turn around, finding the hole between Zach Harrison — dropped back into coverage — and Steele Chambers, and was off to the races.
It continued in Utah’s next drive, keeping Ohio State’s defense on the field for the majority of the first quarter, whether it was a slant by Brant Kuithe and a broken tackle by safety Bryson Shaw, a Covey flea-flicker off the jet sweep that broke down, leading to an eight-yard gain instead of a tackle-for-loss and, to cap it off, a wheel route by Micah Bernard confusing the hell out of Chambers and Tommy Eichenberg, forcing the switch and the easy touchdown in the back of the end zone.
Offense
The first drive for Ohio State was no indication for how it would go Saturday. Really, it just looked like a continuation of the Michigan game.
Redshirt freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud began with two handoffs to freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson. Then, feeling the pressure of a third-and-long situation, threw one up to sophomore wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba running a streak from the slot, but sat in tight man coverage, leading to a pass breakup by former Ohio State commit Clark Phillips.
From this first drive alone, it seemed like Ohio State didn’t want to be there, that it hadn’t learned anything from its last loss in Ann Arbor.
The problems continued to fester into the second drive: two short completions to Smith-Njigba — trying to open up the horizontal pass game — and an incompletion on third-and-short, an apparent mistrust of the run game, much like there was in Ann Arbor.
So what really was the first play that showed some signs of life? A Stroud run: facing a third-and-eight and tucking the ball, running forward for a 10-yard scramble.
With that, the offense opened up a bit, leading to a beautiful pitch-and-catch to Emeka Egbuka down the sideline for a 30-yard gain, setting up momentum for Marvin Harrison Jr.’s first score early in the second quarter.
What's next
This was a continuation of the Ohio State seen in Ann Arbor: a defense that fell behind, a one-dimensional offense that take a bit to get going. It was something Utah was taking advantage of early on, signifying the changes necessary heading into 2022, especially with new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles on his way.
