Key Takeaways From Ohio State's Rose Bowl Win Over Utah

The Buckeyes pulled off a record-breaking comeback win in Pasadena that fans will truly never forget.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Jan 1, 2022 11:54 PM EST

There were times on Saturday afternoon during which Ohio State's Rose Bowl performance made fans queasy. In fact, if you're a Buckeye fan and didn't experience a wide range of emotions watching that game, I'm not sure you really paid attention.

The 2021 season came to a close on Saturday in epic fashion as Ohio State came storming back to beat Utah, 48-45.

Here are a few of my initial takeaways from the game:

We can't start anywhere other than C.J. Stroud. After Ohio State's defense had an absolutely miserable first half, and with the rushing attack not nearly as effective as they'd like it to be, Ryan Day empowered Stroud to break an all-time Ohio State record. NEVER before had a Buckeye QB thrown for 500 yards. Not only did Stroud do it, he did it under all the pressure and spotlight provided by this incredible venue. His 573 passing yards were the second most ever by a Big Ten quarterback.

That's pretty telling considering the Big Ten is the oldest conference in the country.

Most of his magic found Jaxon Smith-Njigba's hands. The sophomore from Rockwall, Texas finished the night with 15 catches, 347 yards and three scores. The 347 yards is an all-time bowl record for a receiver, and he broke the Ohio State single season catches and receiving yards records along the way.

On a day where so much of the pregame attention was on Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave's absence, Smith-Njigba reminded fans that he actually had the best season of any receiver on the Buckeyes' roster. I can't wait to see what he does for this team in 2022.

Perhaps the most impressive part of this performance was that in came in a virtual road game. I'm not sure how much of it was truly that the Buckeye faithful didn't want to travel, with expensive ticket prices and rising concerns in Los Angeles with positive CoVID-19 cases. But Utah's first ever trip to Pasadena featured an extremely pro-Ute crowd. While it's hard to tell based on the colors in the stadium, I routinely heard estimates that Utah fans out-numbered Ohio State fans 4-to-1.

We'll wrap our instant takeaways with the defense. Look the first half was terrible. You can't expect to routinely win games when things unravel the way they did in the first half. But the Jim Knowles era is officially here, and Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Matt Barnes is heading to Memphis to take over as defensive coordinator for the Tigers. Tommy Eichenberg was the best defensive player for the Buckeyes by a mile today. He played an outstanding game and finished with an eye-popping 17 tackles.

That said, if you were hammering the defense at half time for playing so poorly, then you also need to properly give them credit for much better play in the second half. Ohio State doesn't win this game if the defense doesn't play far better in the second half.

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