PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — 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 semifinals 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 Oct. 12.
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.
Texas tops Arizona State in 2OT classic
ATLANTA (AP) — 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 quarterfinal 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 3-yard touchdown run to start overtime against No. 4 Texas (13-2).
No. 10 Arizona State — a two-touchdown underdog according to BetMGM Sportsbook — was on the verge of winning when Texas faced fourth-and-13 on its 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 2-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 semifinal on Jan. 10 against Ohio State, which defeated previously unbeaten and top-ranked Oregon, 41-21.
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 5-yard scoring run from Ewers with just over 10 minutes remaining.
