ATLANTA — For a brief moment, in a game that had for so long seemed impossible to lose, Ohio State was acting like it was on the verge of a crisis.
The Buckeyes’ lead had melted from 31-7 to 31-23, and the clock wasn’t moving fast enough to feel comfortable. In fact, if Ohio State didn’t get at least one more first down, Notre Dame was going to have a clear shot to tie the game and maybe pull off the most shocking comeback in the history of the sport.
“The defense was ready if we had to go back out,” safety Lathan Ransom said. “We’re coached and ready for those moments.”
And most puzzling of all, it looked like Buckeyes coach Ryan Day was conceding the possession.
They ran quarterback Will Howard on first down. Nothing.
They ran him on second down. Nothing.
Were Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly turtling up? Were they reverting back to the frightened play calling that got them beat by Michigan? Down to third-and-11, how aggressive were the Buckeyes really going to be?
“The guys were talking to me about running the clock down, which I was good with because it was the right thing to do,” Day said. “I just thought to myself, only one national championship, you only get one opportunity a year to do this, let’s just lay it on the line and put it out there and be aggressive. And that’s what we did.”
Of course, it helps when you have Jeremiah Smith. And it was the perfect time for the Jeremiah Smith Experience.
‘We felt like we had an advantage with Jeremiah on that shot, and we talked about it all week,” Day said. “We really hadn’t thrown one all game, and it was like, you know what, game on the line, let’s just go.”
Go, they did. And Notre Dame made the mistake of leaving defensive back Christian Gray on an island against the most electric freshman receiver college football has seen in years.
The result? Maybe everyone in the building should have seen it coming: A deep route down the right sideline, easy separation from Gray and a dime from Howard that Smith brought in for 56 yards.
Game over.
“They were telling me to be ready, be patient,” Smith said. “I knew I had to get my mind ready to make a play.”
It’s a situation — and a coaching call — that can be debated forever from the Notre Dame side.
For a good part of the game, the Irish’s defense played zone coverage, but that didn’t work too well. And by the end, Notre Dame had reverted back to the man coverage it has been most comfortable with all season.
The decision from Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden and head coach Marcus Freeman, essentially, was to push all their chips in the middle of the table. They were bringing maximum pressure against Howard, and hoping against hope that Howard wouldn’t somehow find Smith.
‘It was do or die,” Freeman said. “It was that type of down. And we thought at that moment the best way to get them stopped is to run zero pressure. We have to have faith at some point that we can make a play.
“There was times in the second half that we (covered Smith) in man, but he’s a heck of a player. He’s difficult to cover. You want to play zone, and they’ll find ways to pick you apart. You want to play man, they’ll find ways to get him the ball. It’s a talented offense, with that situation right there.”
In the end, Notre Dame tried to play the percentages. The problem is that Smith, who had been mostly bottled up by Texas’ bracket coverage in the semifinals, is the kind of talent who often defies the odds. He’s NFL-ready right now.
“There’s 15 other calls I could have made,” Golden said. “We were kind of at the end of the rope in terms of a first down there is kind of it, anyway. Kid made a great throw and catch. Obviously, hindsight you’d always want to stop the play that everybody saw. The kid’s got to execute it and they did. … We went the pressure route and obviously 4 (Smith) made a great play.”
On the Ohio State sideline, it was controlled bedlam. Players could taste the championship as the clock ticked toward two minutes remaining with a fresh set of downs. And with the ball at the 10-yard line, a short field goal would put the game out of reach.
“(Smith), on the island, there’s a good chance that’s going to happen,” Ransom said. “We’ve seen it so many times. He’s such a special player, and it’s unbelievable that he has two more years to play.”
In an Ohio State locker room filled with cigar smoke, Smith wore ski goggles and answered questions patiently before joining the celebration. He reflected on a “hard, hard six weeks” that began after Ohio State lost to Michigan but ultimately transformed this group into national champions.
And he wasn’t at all surprised that the game came down to a play that he had to make.
“They changed up their game plan,” Smith said. “They knew not to play man. They came in playing a little zone, switched up what they used to run but it wasn’t working, so second half they went back to playing man. But the last drive, I knew I had to beat it.”
He did. And a few moments later, Ohio State could finally celebrate.