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Ohio State’s defense lives by the battle cry “Give us an inch of grass and we will defend it.” It is a motivational motto heavy on heart and hell-bent on pulling the plug on electric offenses that grab all the headlines.
There is nothing sexy about short-yardage defense, at least not compared to the trapeze act of the modern passing game, of which Ohio State is the most high-flying of them all.
Kids don’t grow up wanting to be defensive tackles. Fans don’t buy jerseys sporting double-digit numbers beginning with 9. Even the name of the area where short-yardage defenses do business – the trenches – fails as an appealing office location.
Yet looking back at Ohio State’s season, the biggest determining factor in why the Buckeyes made it to the College Football Playoff championship game against Notre Dame was because the Buckeyes refused to give an inch.
Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Ty Hamilton (58) and defensive end Jack Sawyer (33) celebrate a sack against Tennessee on Dec. 21.
Most famously, needing to stop Texas on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line late in the Cotton Bowl semifinal playoff game, the Buckeyes threw four fastballs, the last of which struck out the Longhorns.
It will be remembered mostly that Texas went down swinging when OSU defensive end Jack Sawyer sacked quarterback Quinn Ewers, then scooped up the fumble and lumbered 83 yards for the clinching touchdown, creating a tagline − The Adventures of Jack Sawyer − that will live on in scarlet and gray lore. The three stops before that were just as important: a Texas run up the gut stopped for no gain; a 7-yard loss on second down when safeties Caleb Downs and Lathan Ransom shot through to tag-team the Texas running back on a toss sweep; and a Ewers incompletion on third down while under pressure from Sawyer.
It should be noted that…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ohio-state-football-defense-deserves-110107711.html
Author : The Columbus Dispatch
Publish date : 2025-01-14 11:01:00
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