COLUMBUS, Ohio — While doom and gloom felt omnipresent following Ohio State’s Sept. 6 loss to Virginia Tech, Urban Meyer cautioned that everything the 2014 Buckeyes were playing for was still on the table.
Three weeks later, they proved it.
Because that Ohio State team that suffered a 35-21 defeat at the hands of the Hokies during its own home opener wasn’t the same squad that ran Cincinnati out of Ohio Stadium Saturday night. In what at one point threatened to be a track meet that the Buckeyes once appeared ill-prepared to take part in, OSU scored 50 points, accumulated 45 first downs and tallied 710 yards—at one point eclipsing the school record (718 yards) before losing.
Even with a redshirt freshman at quarterback making the fourth start of his college career, these Buckeyes looked like the playoff contender they were supposed to be when they entered the season ranked as the No. 5 team in the AP Top 25. And with so much of the 2014 season left, who’s to say that Ohio State still doesn’t have a chance to land one of the four coveted spots in the first-ever College Football Playoff?
“I still felt like all the goals were still going to be there after Virginia Tech,” said senior defensive tackle Michael Bennett. “We knew it was going to be a learning process with this team. We had to prove it to ourselves before we could prove it to anybody else.”
On Saturday, the Buckeyes appeared to do just that—and then some—clicking on all cylinders…
Continue Reading: Win over Cincinnati Revives Ohio State’s Playoff Hopes for Now
