Comment from Ohio State HC Ryan Day should immediately end one narrative about Tennessee's playoff loss to Buckeyes
Before the clock hit zero on the Tennessee Vols' 42-17 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes, the hot takes about UT football and the College Football Playoff were getting fired off on social media. The most popular hot take that I saw on Twitter/X.com was that Indiana played Ohio State tougher than Tennessee did. Neither […]
Before the clock hit zero on the Tennessee Vols' 42-17 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes, the hot takes about UT football and the College Football Playoff were getting fired off on social media.
The most popular hot take that I saw on Twitter/X.com was that Indiana played Ohio State tougher than Tennessee did.
Neither team played well against Ohio State. Indiana lost by 23 points while the Vols lost by 25 points.
But anyone thinking that Indiana played the same version of Ohio State that Tennessee played is misguided.
The Buckeyes team we saw against the Vols on Saturday night in Columbus was Ohio State at its best. The Buckeyes had a great game plan, they played with tremendous energy, they competed for a full 60 minutes, and they executed at an extremely high level.
Offensively, Ohio State played significantly better against Tennessee than they did against Indiana.
And that's not necessarily because the Hoosiers stopped Ohio State's offense. Instead, it's because the Buckeyes are simply a different team now than they were during the regular season. And if you don't want to take my word for it, then just listen to what Ohio State head coach Ryan Day had to say after the win against the Vols.
"I think when you go back and look at the season, we talked about it going into the game, we were a different team," said Day. "When we lost Seth (McLaughlin), we played that Indiana game, we got the punt return, looking back on it. We got that turnover down in the red zone. We really didn't play great on offense in the Indiana game, truth be told."
Ohio State didn't truly start firing on all cylinders, at least compared to the last couple of weeks of the regular season, until the game against Tennessee.
There's no doubt that the Vols could've played better. But the credit really goes to Ohio State. The Buckeyes have the more talented roster and they played arguably their best game of the season against Tennessee. I don't know how the playoff version of Ohio State would've fared against Indiana, but anyone who thinks it would've been a close game should be classified as delusional.
