Ohio State Grinds Out Win as Mental Resolve, Toughness Tested

Man, I missed the emotional roller coaster of college football.

For longer than was comfortable, it sure looked like Ohio State's night might be defined by self-inflicted wounds. A Josh Proctor interception negated by a penalty. Denzel Burke committing a holding foul in the end zone. Minnesota rushing for 56 yards on 4th and 1 from fairly deep in its own territory.

Ohio State fans weren't emotionally prepared to be trailing at half time in their first game without Justin Fields.

But Ryan Day's calm demeanor and relentless attitude helped stabilize the offense during a rocky second quarter and the Buckeyes absolutely exploded in the second half on the way to victory. Day said repeatedly in the weeks and days leading up to this game that his team had to be tough, had to keep swinging when things got hard.

Boy did they ever. OSU averaged 14.1 yards per play in the second half during which it scored 35 points on 22 plays.

What's even more impressive? I think this game went almost exactly according to plan for Minnesota. Run the ball, control the clock, make C.J. Stroud uncomfortable and try to force the Buckeyes into mistakes.

The Buckeyes were out-possessed 75 plays to 48; Minnesota controlled the ball for exactly 39 minutes to Ohio State's 21. The Gophers ran it 50 times!

And yet, with the exception of Mohamed Ibrahim's 56-yard burst that left the Silver Bullets sick to their stomachs, the Gophers vaunted rushing attack was largely held in check. Even with that big run, Ohio State allowed just 4.1 yards per carry.

Meanwhile, the Buckeyes dialed up a handful of highlight reel plays in the blink of an eye. Every time Minnesota thought they had some momentum, Ohio State's talent crushed their hopes. Haskell Garrett's scoop-and-score touchdown, TreVeyon Henderson's 70-yard screen pass that saw him race untouched into the end zone were perhaps the two biggest momentum-defining plays. But C.J. Stroud also connected on 61 and 56-yard TD's with Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson for eye-popping scores.

So how do we appropriately digest the start of the season? Slowly, and with patience.

Ryan Day said postgame that they're going to play depth. That was pretty apparent - it felt like every single defensive player that traveled for the game saw time on the field. The secondary is young but had flashes of good play. The linebacking corps and defensive line did a really solid job stopping the run against a team that you knew was going to try and run it down your throat.

Perhaps the end of the game goes a bit differently if Mohamed Ibrahim doesn't leave with an injury. That was a real shame, I hate seeing guys get hurt. But Ohio State's toughness, resiliency and courage were enough to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive. After all, it's never to early to think about the major repercussions of losing early in the season.

But considering that C.J. Stroud basically hasn't played football in two years and he's following a couple of record-setting QB's in Dwayne Haskins and Justin Fields, I think Stroud played fine. The conservative play calls in the first half seemed to generally help him get in the rhythm of playing again - his longest completion was for 15 yards. Then when Ryan Day opened up the playbook in the second half, Stroud shined and threw a few absolutely perfect passes to his loaded receivers room.

No need to sound the alarm on a young team that will have some growing pains. The future remains bright for the Buckeyes.

And for now, the emotional roller coaster subsides.

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