The big question coming out of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals is: Can anyone beat Ohio State?
After defeating Tennessee in the first round, Ohio State jumped out to a 34-0 lead and cruised to a 41-21 victory over previously unbeaten Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
The Buckeyes have returned to form after losing to rival Michigan for the fourth year in a row.
Next up for OSU is Texas, which survived a major scare against Arizona State in the Peach Bowl thanks to Quinn Ewers’ late-game heroics. The Longhorns led 24-8 in the fourth quarter and needed double overtime to win 39-31.
Beating the Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl will require more consistency than Texas brought to the game against the Sun Devils.
Penn State slowed Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and defeated the Broncos 31-14 in the Fiesta Bowl. The Nittany Lions have defeated two playoff opponents by a combined score of 69-24.
They’ll face Notre Dame, which defeated Georgia 23-10 in a Sugar Bowl that was postponed one day due to the deadly attack in New Orleans early Wednesday morning.
The national semifinals will begin on January 9, with Ohio State favored to win the national championship. Before we proceed, here are the winners and losers from the quarterfinals:
Winners
Ohio State
Oregon never had a chance. After defeating OSU 32-31 during the regular season, the Ducks were overwhelmed by one of the most electrifying offensive performances in Rose Bowl history.
The Buckeyes had an even 500 yards of offense on 8.8 yards per play, led by quarterback Will Howard’s 319 passing yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins rushed for 179 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries. Jeremiah Smith, a freshman receiver, stood out with 187 yards and two touchdowns on 26.7 yards per catch.
Not to be outdone, the Oregon State defense recorded eight sacks and 13 tackles for loss, becoming the first team to hold Oregon under 300 yards since Utah in the 2021 Pac-12 championship game.
Ryan Day
Day has exorcised the negative vibes caused by another loss to the Wolverines by orchestrating this dominant start to the playoffs.
Going into the 12-team tournament, the expectation was that Day would win at least one, if not two, games to gain more traction with the OSU fan base; thus far, consider this a success.
But you have to wonder: Given how they’ve performed in these two games, would Day face criticism again if the Buckeyes don’t win the whole thing?
Notre Dame
Beating Georgia is Notre Dame’s biggest win in years, cementing the school’s decision to take a chance on an unproven Marcus Freeman three years ago.
Credit the Fighting Irish for capitalizing on Georgia’s mistakes, including a crucial fumble and a strip-sack that resulted in a Riley Leonard touchdown late in the second quarter. The Irish also returned the second-half kickoff for a score.
Leonard, on the other hand, averaged just 3.8 yards per attempt, despite having 65 yards on the ground; the receiver corps struggled to get separation against Georgia’s secondary, with a long reception of only 14 yards; and the typically potent backfield pairing of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price had only 51 yards on 13 carries.
Notre Dame also went 2 of 10 on third down and scored only two field goals outside of the game-winning 54-second barrage.
Penn State
Despite losing star edge rusher Abdul Carter to an apparent arm injury in the first half, the Nittany Lions defense performed admirably against Boise State. That weakened what is usually a very strong pass rush, making things easier for Boise quarterback Maddux Madsen. However, the defense was up to the task of stopping Jeanty, who had his worst game in a memorable 2024 season.
If we’re nitpicking another double-digit playoff win, Penn State made an odd decision to avoid a very effective running game and made several questionable play-calling decisions on short-yardage plays, allowing the Broncos to hang around longer than expected before the Nittany Lions delivered the knockout blow on Nick Singleton’s 58-yard touchdown run.
Quinn Ewers
Texas persevered and advanced despite Cam Skattebo’s best efforts. The senior turned in perhaps the most impressive individual performance of the postseason, rushing for 143 yards and two touchdowns, hauling in a team-high 99 receiving yards, and even throwing a 42-yard touchdown that sparked the Sun Devils’ fourth-quarter comeback.
However, Ewers had one of his best games of his college career, with a fantastic final stretch. He was perfect on the final drive of regulation, setting up a missed 38-yard field goal, and then threw two touchdown passes in overtime, including a ridiculous 28-yard strike on fourth down to force the second overtime period.
Losers
Oregon
Even with the regular-season victory over Ohio State, Oregon’s loss may not come as a surprise. What was surprising, however, was how easily OSU breezed past the only unbeaten team remaining in the Bowl Subdivision and the playoffs’ undisputed top seed.
Oregon may not have to start over, as this team was the best in the country during the regular season, defeating the Buckeyes, Broncos, and Nittany Lions. However, this is a significant disappointment that will prompt Eugene to reflect during the offseason.
Georgia
A staggering number of errors doomed Georgia’s chances of victory, with backup Gunner Stockton starting in place of an injured Carson Beck. Overall, Stockton performed admirably, completing 18 of 29 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown, but his fumble after being sacked with less than a minute remaining in the first half set up Notre Dame’s first score.
Running back Trevor Etienne’s fumble late in the first quarter ended a 71-yard drive that lasted more than eight minutes. Georgia also committed a crucial offsides penalty, extending Notre Dame’s heartbreaking drive late in the fourth quarter.
But you can ignore the self-inflicted mistakes and concentrate on something even more painful for Georgia: Notre Dame was the better team in the Sugar Bowl, and it wasn’t even close.
Arizona State
There may not be a strong sense of disappointment at ASU following an incredible run to the Big 12 championship and a program-establishing double-overtime loss to the Longhorns. (At the very least, if Texas had lost, there would have been far more heartbreak on the opposing sideline.)
The Sun Devils’ accomplishments this season will likely make them the preseason Big 12 favorite heading into next September, as well as one of the top contenders to return to the playoffs. However, there were missed opportunities to defeat the Longhorns, as well as some controversy.
Officials did not call a targeting penalty on Texas defensive back Michael Taafe on a third-down completion during the Sun Devils’ final drive of the game, which would have set up ASU for the potential game-winning field goal.
Ashton Jeanty
Jeanty’s 104 yards against one of the best run defenses in the FBS should be commended, even if it was 23 yards shy of his previous season low and the Nittany Lions became the first FBS opponent to keep the Heisman Trophy runner-up out of the end zone.
Unfortunately, Jeanty fell just short of Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record. That should not detract from one of the best seasons for a running back in FBS history.
