The College Football Playoff Semi-Finals were played this week. Again, The quarter-finals were underwhelming (bar one game), but they gave us the four teams vying for a spot in the National Championship game. After these games, two will be left, but who would they be?
Orange Bowl: Penn State (#6) vs Notre Dame (#7)
In the first semi-finals, the Penn State Nittany Lions faced the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Orange Bowl. The Nittany Lions have had the easiest route to the game, defeating SMU and Boise State to get here. On the other hand, the Fighting Irish defeated the SEC Champions and the Georgia Bulldogs (albeit without Carson Beck) to reach the Orange Bowl. The teams are equal on paper. Who would win this game and make the national championship?
The Nittany Lions had the game’s first possession but would be unable to do anything with this possession and hand the ball over to Notre Dame, who themselves did nothing. However, on their next possession, the Fighting Irish would make the first mistake of the game. Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard moved his offense down to the 33-yard line, where the Nittany Lion’s defence intercepted his pass.
Penn State was able to capitalize on this mistake. The Nittany Lions offense, led by quarterback Drew Allar, would be able to move the ball down to Notre Dame’s nine-yard line. Here, Allar was lucky, as his pass was intercepted. But a penalty on the play against Notre Dame gave the ball back to the team from Happy Valley. After this, the offense went down to the three-yard line, where the drive stalled. To provide them with the early lead, Kicker Ryan Baker made the 20-yard field goal.
The Nittany Lions would extend their lead on their next drive, with the Allar-lead offense making their way down to the Notre Dame five-yard line. Here, Nicolas Singleton found the endzone for the rushing touchdown.
A lot happened on the final drive of the half. The Fighting Irish had possession, but Leonard would leave the game and enter the medical tent due to a potential head injury. He was replaced by Steve Angeli, who took the offense down to the Nittany Lions’ 23-yard line. This set up a 41-yard field goal attempt from kicker Mitch Jeter, which was successful.
This meant that the Nittany Lions had a 10-3 lead over the Fighting Irish at halftime.
The Fighting Irish had the first possession of the second half and would be able to get themselves back into the game. Starting from their 25-yard line, the Notre Dame offense, which featured a returning Riley Leonard, was able to move down to the Nittany Lions three-yard line. Leonard found the endzone for the rushing touchdown to tie the game.
Nothing else happened in the third quarter, but this was only a prelude to a memorable fourth quarter.
It started with the Fighting Irish taking the lead for the first time in the game. Leonard and company would get to the two-yard line; from here, Jeremiyah Love found the endzone.
But, this lead would not last for long. Allar could bring the Nittany Lions offense down to the Notre Dame seven-yard line on the following drive. Singleton found the endzone for the rushing touchdown to hand the lead back to Penn State.
The good luck continued for the Nittany Lions on the next drive, as Leonard’s pass was intercepted in his territory. Penn State were able to capitalize on this mistake, with Singleton finding the endzone for a seven-yard rushing touchdown to hand the team a seven-point lead.
But this lead did not last long. On the following drive, Leonard was able to shake off the interception and make a play that would bring the Fighting Irish back into the game. From Notre Dame’s 46-yard line, Leonard found Jaden Greathouse for a 54-yard touchdown pass. The successful PAT following the touchdown meant that, with under five minutes to do, the scores were level.
The scores would still be level, with 38 seconds remaining in the game. The Nittany Lions were in possession but were so deep into their territory that they either needed two extended plays to get themselves into field goal territory or hold onto the ball for the time left and take the game to overtime. In reality, neither of these things happened.
On the Nittany Lions’ 28-yard line, Allar’s pass was intercepted by Christian Grey on the 42-yard line. From here, and with only 30 seconds left on the clock, Leonard was able to move the Fighting Irish down to the 23-yard line. This set up Mitch Jeter with a 41-yard field goal attempt. He was successful with this, giving the Fighting Irish a three-point lead with seven seconds left on the clock,
This left the Nittany Lions with one final chance to get into the final. However, on the final play of the game, a failed lateral pass was all that was needed to kill any hope that Penn State had,
This meant the Notre Dame Fighting Irish had defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions 27-24 and advanced to the National Championship Game. But who would they meet?
Cotton Bowl: Ohio State (#8) vs Texas (#5)
The second semi-final was the Cotton Bowl, between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns had a very entertaining (and close) game last time, defeating the Arizona State Sun Devils in double overtime to book their spot in Dallas. Despite not making the Big Ten Championship game, the Buckeyes have been the strongest team in the playoffs, heavily defeating Temmessee and the number one-seeded Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl to get to this game. Could they do the same to Texas?
The Longhorns had the opening drive of the game. This would get somewhere, with Quinn Ewers leading his team to the Buckeyes’ 36-yard line. But, a failed fourth down conversion at this point handed the ball to the Buckeyes. It was business as usual for Ohio State, as they took control of the game with their first possession. The offense, led by Will Howard, went down to the Longhorns’ nine-yard line. Here, Quinshon Judkins found the endzone for the rushing touchdown to give Ohio State the early lead.
Both of these have shown outstanding offenses this season. However, their defenses are equally strong, with the Longhorns generally being seen as the best in the country. These defenses were on show for the rest of the first half. The following eight drives ended in a punt following the Buckeyes’ touchdown score.
The streak of punts would be broken near the end of the first half by Texas. Starting from their 41-yard line, Ewers moved his offense down to the Buckeyes’ 18-yard line. Ewers found Jaydon Blue for the touchdown pass to tie the game.
But this tie did not last long. On the first play of the following drive, Howard threw a short pass to TreVeyon Henderson, who ran down most of the field to find the endzone for a 75-yard touchdown pass.
This meant the Buckeyes had a 14-7 lead over the Longhorns at halftime.
Ohio State had the first possession of the second half, but it did not end well for them. The offense got themselves down to the Longhorns’ 48-yard line. Here, a mistake happened. David Gbenda intercepted Howard’s pass. However, Texas could not do anything on offense, quickly handing the ball back to the Buckeyes.
But, on their next drive, the Longhorns would be able to get themselves back into the game. Starting from their 33-yard line, the Ewers lead offense would slowly move down to the Buckeyes’ 26-yard line. This was a drive where there were multiple third-down conversions. But, at the 26-yard line, Ewers found Blue for the touchdown pass to level the scores.
The scores were still level going into the final quarter, but the Buckeyes would return to the lead. Howard would bring the Buckeyes’ offense down to the Longhorns’ one-yard line. Here, Judkins found the endzone to give Ohio State the lead again with seven minutes left on the clock.
The next drive from the Longhorns would be significant, and they would need to find the endzone to keep themselves in the game. Texas would make their way to the Buckeyes’ eight-yard line and face a vitally important fourth down attempt. However, it should be noted that the Longhorns were at the one-yard line a few plays before, but a seven-yard loss from Quintrevion Wisner did not help them.
On this vital play, Ewers was sacked by Jack Sawyer. He would also fumble the ball, which was recovered by Sawyer, who returned to the endzone to seal the win.
Things would get worse for Ewers at the end of the game, where he threw an interception, but this did not affect the final score.
This meant that the Ohio State Buckeyes had defeated the Texas Longhorns 28-14 to advance to the National Championship Game, where they will face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Many things can be said about these two very entertaining games, but they were very similar in their ending. Both games were tied late in the fourth quarter, but a mistake by Allar and Ewers gave their opponents possession, which led to the winning score.
As for the National Championship Game, the Buckeyes are considered the favorites, and the Fighting Irish should be an easy opponent for Ohio State.
