CFP Title Game - Sunday Storylines

Buckeyes outlast Notre Dame - Will Howard to Jeremiah Smith, just like you draw it up.

With second-half momentum working against it, Ohio State pushed its chips into the center of the table and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly made the play call of the night.

3rd and long. 8-point game. Notre Dame has all the momentum and has somehow made this a ballgame. After back-to-back stuffed quarterback draw plays, Howard took the snap and uncorked a heave to Smith, who was one-on-one with Notre Dame corner Christian Gray. Smith predictably won the matchup, hauled down the ball and all but wrapped up the 34-23 victory for the 2024 college football national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.

Notre Dame deserves a ton of credit for against-all-odds’ing this second half to make it a ballgame. The Fighting Irish looked dead in the water after a third Quinshon Judkins touchdown, but piece by piece made this thing a ballgame.

Riley Leonard made some big-time throws. Jaden Greathouse made some huge catches. Hell, the Fighting Irish even converted a pair of two-point conversion plays. The only huge miss came when head coach Marcus Freeman elected to attempt a short field goal attempt (it was stoinked off the up-right) and failed to make it a one-possession game.

Riley had a pretty good game all things considered, and finished with 255 yards and two touchdowns through the air, along with one on the ground. Overall, Notre Dame’s offense managed just 308 yards.

Howard had a really strong game and finished with a stat line of 17/21 for 231 yards and two touchdowns. Judkins was also huge all night and tallied three touchdowns.

With the win, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day gets an absolute gorilla off his back and, in a strange twist of fate, begins to heal his relationship with this tumultuous Buckeye fanbase.

Notre Dame got the party started with a wildly impressive 18-play, 75-yard opening drive that gobbled up 9:45 of game time. Leonard did his best Tim Tebow impression on that drive and capped it off with a one-yard touchdown to put the Fighting Irish up 7-0.

Ohio State answered the bell, and put together a silky drive of its own. The Buckeyes responded with an 11-play, 75-yard drive of their own that was capitalized by a dazzling play call from Chip Kelly that saw freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith catch a wide-open touchdown pass.

The Ohio State defense settled in after that opening drive mauling. Notre Dame couldn’t get anything going on the next few drives and finished the first half with just 93 total yards. Leonard’s inability to pass has put this team in some tough spots all year and it reared its ugly head in the second quarter.

The polar opposite of Leonard through the air, Howard was excellent in the first half. He finished 14/15 with 144 yards and two touchdowns. In particular, he did a really nice job of using his legs to evade pressure and scramble when the Notre Dame secondary was stuck in man coverage.

In the second quarter, the Buckeyes added two touchdowns to their tally, both of which came from running back Quinshon Judkins. Judkins had an impressive lunging touchdown run for his first score and later caught a pass from Howard for the second to put Ohio State up 21-7 entering the halftime break.

Judkins was the man of the hour again early in the second half after he broke off a 70-yard run that took him down to the Notre Dame five-yard line. A few plays later, he punched it in for his third score of the game.

Notre Dame had a fantastic year by all accounts and Marcus Freeman deserves a ton of credit for getting this team this far.

Speaking of credit, man oh man, Ryan Day. What can you say? He overcame an immense amount of adversity and overcame a total shitstorm to lead his team to a national title.

After his post-game interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, Day shared a passionate embrace with senior defensive end Jack Sawyer. That moment says everything.

+3 units on the 2024 season

-8 Ohio State vs. Notre Dame - +1 unit

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