Jeremiah Smith caught two of Will Howard’s three long touchdown passes during Ohio State’s sensational 34-point first half, and the No 6 Buckeyes roared into the College Football Playoff semi-finals with a 41-21 victory over No 1 Oregon in the 111th Rose Bowl Game on Wednesday night.
Howard passed for 319 yards, Emeka Egbuka also caught a long TD pass and TreVeyon Henderson made a 66-yard touchdown run in a redemptive Rose Bowl for the Buckeyes (12-2, CFP No 8 seed), whose big-game execution sometimes hasn’t matched their formidable talent this season.
Ohio State has seized the second chances created by the first 12-team CFP, emphatically blowing out the tournament’s No 1 seed. The Buckeyes scored on six of their first seven drives and took a 34-0 lead late in the second quarter on the nation’s only remaining unbeaten team in the Granddaddy of Them All.
Ohio State is headed to the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10 to face No 4 Texas for a berth in the national title game. The Longhorns barely advanced earlier Wednesday, holding off Arizona State 39-31 in a double-overtime Peach Bowl.
Dillon Gabriel passed for 299 yards and hit Traeshon Holden for two touchdowns for the Ducks (13-1, CFP No 1 seed), whose dreams of their first national title were flattened on the famed Rose Bowl turf. Oregon’s 14-game winning streak also ended.
Eleven days after routing Tennessee to open the Playoff, Ohio State dominated this rematch of these Big Ten teams’ regular-season thriller, won 32-31 by the Ducks in Eugene on 12 October. The Ohio State defense that couldn’t sack Gabriel in the teams’ first meeting dropped the Heisman Trophy finalist eight times in the rematch.
Smith, the Buckeyes’ standout freshman playmaker, had a remarkable bowl debut with seven receptions for 187 yards – including five catches for 161 yards in the first half alone, hauling in scoring passes of 45 and 43 yards.
Ohio State turned the CFP’s most anticipated quarter-final matchup into a long celebration at the Rose Bowl, which has hosted several thrilling, close games in recent Januaries. This one pitted two powerhouse programs widely considered to have the top two teams left in the inaugural 12-team Playoff, but the Buckeyes scored early and often at the Rose Bowl.
The Big Ten champion Ducks couldn’t make any offensive headway until they trailed by 34 points, failing to create any of the big plays that carried the Ducks to victory in Eugene.
After the usual pregame pageantry in 70F (21C) sunshine at the venerable stadium in Arroyo Seco, Ohio State needed just three plays and 49 seconds to strike first. Howard threw a short play-action screen pass to Smith, who motored through Oregon’s secondary for a 45-yard score.
On the Buckeyes’ third drive, Howard feathered an exceptional long pass over three Ducks to the sprinting Egbuka for a 42-yard TD. Howard finished the first quarter with a career-best 212 yards passing, surpassing his 160 yards during Ohio State’s hot start against Tennessee.
Early in the second quarter, Smith got so open near the Ducks’ goal line that he had two seconds to settle under Howard’s long throw like an outfielder with a fly ball, scoring a 42-yard TD untouched.
When Henderson broke a 66-yard TD run down the Oregon sideline for a 31-0 lead, both sides of the Rose Bowl stands rippled with disbelief.
Oregon finally got moving on its final drive before halftime. Gabriel found Holden for a five-yard TD pass at the gun, and the Ducks added a two-point conversion to salvage something from their horrific half.
The Ducks drove for Noah Whittington’s two-yard TD run to open the second half, scoring the first touchdown allowed in the third quarter all season by Ohio State. Oregon even forced a punt moments later to stir faint hope in its fans, but the Ohio State defense drove the Buckeyes backward for a punt before Howard’s group methodically drove for Henderson’s second TD.
Peach Bowl: No 3 Texas 39, No 12 Arizona State 31 (2OT)
Texas avoided the first big upset of the College Football Playoff, hitting a fourth-and-long touchdown pass to keep the game going and beating Cam Skattebo and Arizona State 39-31 in double overtime when an interception by Andrew Mukuba finally ended a Peach Bowl quarter-final classic Wednesday.
Skattebo led the Sun Devils back from a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter and put his team ahead for the first time all day with a three-yard touchdown run to start overtime against No 4 Texas (13-2).
No 10 Arizona State were on the verge of winning when Texas faced fourth-and-13 on their first overtime possession. But Quinn Ewers found Matthew Golden breaking free behind two defenders to haul in a 28-yard touchdown.
After moving to the opposite end of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Ewers threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Gunnar Helms on the very next play, followed by a two-point conversion pass to Golden.
The Longhorns finally put Arizona State (11-3) away when Mukuba picked off Sam Leavitt’s pass at the 3 to end the game.
After a bunch of lopsided results through the first five games of the expanded 12-team playoff, the format finally produced a classic that sends Texas back home for a Cotton Bowl semi-final on 10 January against No 1 Oregon or No 6 Ohio State, who were facing off in the Rose Bowl on Wednesday.
Despite being dominated on the stat sheet most of the game, the Longhorns had a seemingly comfortable 24-8 lead after scoring two early touchdowns and getting a five-yard scoring run from Ewers with just over 10 minutes remaining.
But Skattebo and the Sun Devils were just getting warmed up.
The running back who calls himself the best in the nation, Skattebo backed up his bravado with a performance for the ages, showing every facet of his all-around game.
First, he took a pitch on fourth-and-2 and heaved a 42-yard touchdown pass to Malik McClain that gave the Sun Devils a chance when they made the two-point conversion.
Then, Skattebo broke loose down the sideline and hauled in a 62-yard throw from Leavitt – getting his helmet ripped off at the end of the play, which seemed like the only way to bring him down.
That set up a two-yard touchdown run by the bowling ball of a back, and it was only appropriate that Skattebo also powered in for the two-point conversion that tied the game at 24 with 5 minutes remaining.
Texas had a pair of chances to win in regulation, but Bert Auburn was wide right on a 48-yard field goal attempt and clanked one off the left upright from 38 yards away as time expired.

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