Ohio State beats Alabama in Sugar Bowl to reach playoff final
NEW ORLEANS – It's Ohio State and Oregon in the inaugural College Football Playoff title game.
The Buckeyes joined the Ducks in the final with a 42-35 victory over Alabama in Thursday's Allstate Sugar Bowl.
After trailing 21-6 midway through the second quarter, Ohio State scored 36 points to Alabama's 14 as the Tide's defense couldn't stop the Buckeyes' rushing attack.
The dagger came with 3:24 remaining as Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott ripped off an 85-yard touchdown run to give the Buckeyes a 42-28 lead after a two-point conversion pass.
Alabama had a chance late in the game thanks to some curious playcalling by Ohio State, but quarterback Blake Sims' Hail Mary pass toward the end zone ended up in the arms of safety Tyvis Powell as time expired.
The Tide scored a touchdown to bring the game within seven points with 1:50 to go and, with two timeouts remaining, attempted an onside kick. It failed, but Ohio State, sensing a chance to kill the game off, called a pass play on first down. Jones had receiver Evan Spencer in man coverage on the outside, but the pass fell incomplete, giving Alabama what essentially amounted to a free timeout.
"You start questioning why we threw that ball," Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. "It was my call to throw it down the field. And you're going to not gain a yard anyways against very good players, they're playing zero coverage. Everyone is within two yards of the line of scrimmage and it was my call.So, maybe it wasn't the right call.
"So, I just kept thinking I screwed this thing up."
He didn't.
Two running plays later, Ohio State was forced to punt with 1:39 remaining. However, Alabama's chances of getting down the field were quickly extinguished when the first two plays of its drive took 45 seconds.
Ohio State cut the Alabama lead to 21-20 right before halftime and got the ball to start the second half. On the sixth play of the drive, Jones found Devin Smith for a 47-yard touchdown and the Buckeyes' first lead since 3-0 after the first drive of the game.
Alabama created the early margin on Ohio State by capitalizing on two early Buckeyes turnovers and turning them into 14 points. While the scoreboard might have read 21-6 in favor of the Tide, Alabama coach Nick Saban said he didn't like the feel of the game at that point.
"But we weren't really playing and executing the way we needed to even then," Saban said. "I didn't like the feel of the game even then. So, we just stopped them in the red zone and we got two turnovers and that was the difference. And in the second half I thought we played a little better and did a little better job.
"But we did not control the football game like we usually do and it wasn't anything that they did differently. They had a good plan. They executed it well against us. And we gave up far too many big plays in the game, which has been a problem for us toward the end of the year, and that was – when you give up big plays you don't get off the field on third down, you've got lots of problems."
Ohio State was 10-of-18 on third downs while Alabama was 2-of-13.
The Buckeyes seized scoreboard control of the game via Alabama's first turnover in the third quarter. Sims was looking for star receiver Amari Cooper and didn't see Ohio State defensive end Steve Miller, who stepped in front of the pass and returned it to the end zone for a 34-21 lead.
Elliott finished with 20 carries for a Sugar Bowl-record 230 yards and two touchdowns. He accounted for nearly 82 percent of Ohio State's 281 yards on the ground, a number that's more than triple what Alabama entered the game giving up.
For more Alabama news, visit TideSports.com.
For more Ohio State news, visit BuckeyeGrove.com.
Popular college football video on Yahoo Sports:
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
