GLENDALE, Ariz. — When Pat Elflein made the decision to return to Ohio State for a fifth season, he had every dream of leading the Buckeyes back to the College Football Playoff.
A year after missing out on a chance to defend its 2014 title, Urban Meyer's team earned a trip to the desert. Elflein saw everything he wanted right in front of him. But as one of the main leaders in the program, he found it difficult to put into words his feelings after Clemson trounced the Buckeyes 31-0 on Saturday at the Fiesta Bowl.
“It's not how we play, not Ohio State football. It's weird. Feel like I let them down a little bit. We made it here and that's the standard at Ohio State. We lived up to that standard. We just didn't finish.”
Clemson ravaged Ohio State's offense with a punishing defensive line to the tune of three sacks and 11 tackles for loss. J.T. Barrett peeled himself off the University of Phoenix Stadium turf on what felt like every other play. An early injury to starting left guard Michael Jordan thrust Demetrius Knox into the fold, who clearly wasn't ready. Jordan returned in the second half and played through his ankle injury but by then it didn't matter. The Buckeyes trailed the Tigers 17-0, who were well on their way to handing Urban Meyer the first shutout loss of his career.
“I'm not used to it. We're not used to it,” Meyer said. “And that's not going to happen again. So go to work.”
An offense that struggled to find its footing all season tanked in resounding fashion on the grandest of stages on Saturday. Barrett threw two interceptions, Mike Weber fumbled twice, Tyler Durbin missed a pair of field goals, the Buckeyes picked up only nine first downs, managed just 215 total yards and converted only 3-of-14 third down attempts. The offense did not even run a play in the red zone the entire game.
“We didn’t play Buckeye football today. Went into the game feeling good, got a few things we didn’t expect and we didn’t react to it the right way,” running back Mike Weber said. “I just feel like it wasn’t our day. It wasn’t our day.”
Even before his two fumbles, Weber only ran it once in the first half, a five-yard carry. Ed Warinner, Tim Beck and Meyer dialed up a series of edge runs and touch passes to Curtis Samuel, hoping to get the speedster from Brooklyn in space only to see a swarm of orange swallow him up.
The Buckeyes hardly saw that kind of speed and depth defensively from any of its first 12 opponents this season. It showed. And if not for a stout defense of their own, the game could have gotten out of hand much sooner than it did.
“They did a good job being disruptive, the D-line did. I mean, there was times I could have done a better job getting the ball out, as far as seeing my reads faster,” Barrett said, who finished with 127 passing yards on 19 completions. “But they definitely — I mean we just didn't execute really on offense. It wasn't really like we were surprised by the looks that we had. I think we prepared really hard and coaches did everything they could as far as like throwing us the different looks that we thought we were going to get, and we just didn't execute it anywhere on offense, really.”
“Nothing surprised us. It just goes back to beating your man, winning the one-on-one matchups,” Samuel said. “Blocking, running the ball or receivers blocking, or us making a play downfield.”
The only time that happened was a 21-yard catch by freshman Binjimen Victor in the first half and Samuel's 64-yard run late in the fourth when the outcome was decided. Chunk plays like those were mostly absent all season from Ohio State's offense. Clemson just exposed them, slowly swallowing up any prayer the Buckeyes had at winning with a suffocating defensive front and Deshaun Watson brilliantly executing the Tiger offense. He threw two interceptions but accounted for three touchdowns and led his team to the national title game for the season straight season. Clemson faces top-ranked Alabama on Jan. 9.
“Great player,” Meyer said of Watson.
“We made a few mistakes in the first half but we really controlled the game from start to finish. I think that's the most yards they've given up all year. We had 470,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “Anytime we can have the balance that we had — 200-plus run and pass — we're a hard team to handle, especially when you've got the best player in the country in Deshaun Watson making decisions out there for you.”
Ohio State's defense created plays and scored points all season, returning six interceptions for touchdowns. It didn't happen on this night, though it became clear early on that unit was the team's best chance at scoring. The Buckeyes came away with zero points despite starting two of their first three drives on the Clemson 33- and 42-yard line.
Durbin's missed field goals ended each series of plays, with both of those drives consisting of 10 total plays for a mere 15 yards. Twenty-one of Ohio State's first 27 plays were called passes. An offense that averaged more than 250 rushing yards per game managed only 88 on 23 attempts.
“That was not the game plan,” Meyer said. “I think we kind of got taken out of the game plan a little bit. But no, that was our plan, to be balanced. We didn't follow the plan.”
“I think it was just unfortunate things kept on continuing to happen, especially our offense. We didn't help our defense at all,” Barrett said. “I mean we had the game at was 10-0 for the longest time. We just couldn't get sustained drives and keep them off the field.”
“Thought I had J.T. ready to go against a difficult defense,” Beck said. “I thought he played hard, he played tough. He made some mistakes as kids can do. But I'm proud of him and I love him. I am behind him 100 percent.”
The blatant shortcomings leave Ohio State fans with a ton of questions as they head into a long offseason. If and how Meyer retools his staff and what pieces elect to return is an interesting storyline as he lays the groundwork for another run at the college football mountaintop. Because what happened on Saturday night in Arizona left everyone within and on the outside looking in on the program befuddled.
“Never did it cross my mind that I was going to lose this game,” Raekwon McMillan said. “I’ve only lost four games here at Ohio State. Just not used to losing like that.”
“No thought in my mind that we would ever lose by that much. Ever. No matter who we’re going against,” Samuel said. “I don’t ever expect us to lose like that. But it is what it is. I felt like I didn’t do enough out there.”
“We just didn't execute very well. You can call whatever plays you want but if you don't execute then it's not going to get done,” Elflein said. “Each play has a solution to each blitz and we just weren't executing against it.”
The final result is Meyer's sixth loss as Ohio State's head coach and another missed opportunity at a national championship. Now the coach is forced to look in the mirror at his staff like he did following his last loss to Swinney and Clemson, which came in the 2014 Orange Bowl. Defense was the issue then. Offense is the issue now.
“I'm going to take a hard look at some things when we get back, and obviously there were some great things this year, some great things,” Meyer said. “I go back to Norman, Oklahoma and some other great things. But anytime you struggle a little bit, you always take a hard look.
“Most frustrating? That I had a group of players, played our tail off,” he continued. “And same group of guys went to Norman, Oklahoma and played and won, and went to Madison, Wisconsin and won in overtime, and then against our rivals, two overtimes. And we got beat.
“So we're going to move on quickly, and my respect for the football player, our team, has not changed. Identify things that have to get better and we will. That's what we do.”
We won't see if that actually happens until Aug. 31 when the Buckeyes travel to Indiana for a Thursday night opener. That sits 242 days away.
