After a thorough 49-37 upset of Michigan State Saturday night, Ohio State notched an enormous signature win and avenged a devastating loss in the Big Ten Championship Game last season.
The Buckeyes, who were once discarded as castaways following a stunning loss to Virginia Tech earlier in the year, now find themselves firmly planted in a fluid national picture. They also might’ve reclaimed part of a dream that Meyer said was “ripped away” in 2013.
“This is one for the ages,” Meyer said.
After all, this nighttime bout meant a shot of confidence for an Ohio State team that flopped on the big stage — be it against the Spartans and Clemson last year or an increasingly bad Virginia Tech team this season. Offensive line coach Ed Warinner said:
“I just think we earned back our confidence, I think we just earned back the belief our players have, a belief in our program, belief in how we do things at Ohio State, how Coach Meyer runs his program and we just got our confidence back that we can win a big game.”
But before that?
“There was talk that we only played well against really bad teams,” redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett said.
It’s why — whether it was real, perceived or fabricated injustice — Ohio State talked of playing with a chip on its shoulder all week. After toppling Michigan State, 49-37, on a cold Saturday night in East Lansing, the Buckeyes reiterated they steeped in their role as the underdog for motivation.
Sophomore running back Ezekiel Elliott said:
“No one believed in us."
And this:
“We came into this game with a chip on our shoulder ... We think we're ready for the big stage."
After all, Ohio State should jump up in the College Football Playoff rankings. When asked whether the Buckeyes are worthy of one of four spots, Meyer didn’t shy away from campaigning:
“I think it is because I love my team — and I don’t know enough — (but) if I have to go fight for this team, what they’ve done, very impressive. That darn loss the second game [Virginia Tech], if that hurts us then I’ll take the hit for that. Because that’s a young team playing at a extremely high level right now.”
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio and the Spartans found out firsthand:
“The bottom line is we couldn't stop them.”
Of course, this game was also about revenge for Ohio State — even if some tried to downplay it during the week.
“Last year, they got us in the Big Ten championship and that was what we rallied around in the offseason. This is what we talked about, being that we were gonna see them again in East Lansing,” Barrett said.
Added Warinner:
“This team was highly motivated team … try to stay in first place in our division to win a road game against a team that knocked us out of a possible championship game last year. There was a lot of motivation in a lot of areas.”
Which is why the Buckeyes aren’t all that shy about talking about their place in the big picture. Senior wide receiver Evan Spencer said:
“We feel that we’re as good as a football team as it gets, but at the same time we gotta go out and play to our best ability and I think we did pretty well today.”
On offense, pretty well is an understatement. Against one of the nation’s elite defenses, Ohio State dropped 568 yards of offense (for perspective: the Spartans surrender an average of 279). Spencer said:
“When we were kind of breaking them down, we realized that, ‘Hey, we can after these guys in the secondary.’ And they’ve got good players back there but, hey: We’ve got really good players.”
In particular, senior wide receiver Devin Smith torched a Michigan State secondary once known as the “No Fly Zone” for 129 yards and a touchdown on six catches. Meyer said he had the best game of his career:
“He’s the best — if not the best — deep ball players we’ve ever had. He tracks the ball very well.”
Smith’s success was part of an aerial attack led by Barrett, who threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns. Ohio State took shot after shot down the field and, according to Meyer, it was more or less the same game plan as the last time the Buckeyes played the Spartans:
“That kind of defense forces you to go over the top … they force you to go over the top, and we felt like we had some matchups somewhere and if we found them right then we’d take that shot. We had that planned really starting last year. We went into the Big Ten Championship Game and just missed on some of those. If you remember, we threw it down the field, we just missed. And this year we hit them.”
And often at that.
