COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tennessee fans did their part, bringing a massive group of people on the road to Ohio State. They were the only people from the Volunteer State that showed up. Ohio State torched Tennessee from the jump, ending the Vols’ season with a 42-17 loss in the first round of the College Football Playoffs.
Here’s four quick takeaways on the season-ending loss.
Disastrous Start
Coming off a bad loss against Michigan, Ohio State’s fans were on edge to start the game. With a lackluster passing attack, Tennessee is not built to come from behind. Those two things led to the start of the game being extremely important.
Things couldn’t have gone worse for Tennessee to start.
The Vols nearly forced a three-and-out to start the game when Bryson Eason sacked Will Howard on third down. But Eason grabbed his face mask on the way down. Three plays, and two chunk passing plays later and Jeremiah Smith was in the end zone giving the Buckeyes the early lead.
Tennessee’s offense answered with a three-and-out and Ohio State’s offense went back to work. It didn’t take them long, finding the end zone in five plays with a Howard deep ball to Emeka Egbuka being the big play.
The Vols went backwards on their next drive and Ohio State marched right down the field again. TreVeyon Henderson found the end zone from 27 yards out to give the Buckeyes a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
By the time the first quarter ended, Ohio State had 205 yards and Tennessee had 16 yards. It was as one-sided as could be.
Passing Game Struggles
Tennessee’s passing attack has struggled throughout the season but it has particularly had issues against elite defenses. That continued against Ohio State.
Nico Iamaleava didn’t complete a single pass in the disastrous first quarter on his way to completing just 14-of-31 passes for 104 yards.
Tennessee’s receivers struggled to get separation throughout the game and Ohio State’s pass rush gave the Vols’ pass protection struggles. Iamaleava did a good job of extending plays but he also had some happy feet in the pocket and had a number of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage.
The Vols once again failed to create any chunk plays in the passing game, totaling just two passing plays of over 15 yards with their longest passing play being 21 yards.
It’s been the most common theme of Tennessee’s losses this season. The Vols have failed to eclipse over 170 yards in any of those passing games.
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Tennessee’s Pass Rush Non Existent
Tennessee’s most obvious path to victory was for its defensive line to control the game against a banged up Ohio State offensive line.
But the Buckeyes pass protection held up well all night and Will Howard torched Tennessee through the air. Eason sacking Howard while grabbing his face mask was the closest the Vols got to a sack all game.
Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly did a great job of scheming up some quick passes in space and the Buckeyes did torch Tennessee on a handful of those. But when the Buckeyes ran play action or had straight drop backs, Howard had all day to throw.
The end result was by far the best game of Howard’s season. He completed 24-of-29 passes for 311 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. It was just the second game that he had thrown for over 300 yards and he would have thrown for much more if they hadn’t gone to the backup with over nine minutes to play.
Tennessee’s cornerbacks who had been good all season were not up to the task of guarding Ohio State’s vaunted receivers. The Vols’ pass rush had to make up that deficit. They weren’t close.
Some Jarring Numbers
This was an incredibly one-sided beatdown. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers that show that story.
- Ohio State out gained Tennessee 467-256.
- Tennessee’s running backs totaled just 105 yards on the ground.
- Will Howard had just five incompletions
- Ohio State averaged 7.4 yards per play. Tennessee averaged 3.7 yards per play.
- Ohio State had six touchdowns and nine total third downs. The Buckeyes converted four of them. Three of those third downs came after Ohio State put its backups in.
- Ohio State had 12 plays of over 15 yards. Tennessee had four.
