Ohio State will play Oregon in the College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 12 after downing Alabama 42-35 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Thursday. Chris Graythen/Getty Images Ohio State will play Oregon in the College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 12 after downing Alabama 42-35 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Thursday. Chris Graythen/Getty Images The Ohio State Buckeyes overcame enormous odds this season, losing two starting quarterbacks before handing the job to a redshirt sophomore who never started a regular-season college game. And now, very suddenly, coach Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes are one victory away from an improbable national championship. Sophomore running back Ezekiel Elliott battered Alabama for a Sugar Bowl-record 230 rushing yards, including an 85-yard touchdown burst with 3:24 left, powering No. 4 Ohio State to a 42-35 upset victory over the top-ranked Crimson Tide and a berth in the national championship game against Oregon in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 12. Alabama entered the game with the nation’s third-ranked defense. “That was a sledgehammer game,” Meyer said after his team advanced to 13-1 with its 12th consecutive victory, Ohio State’s first bowl victory over an Southeastern Conference team in 11 tries. “That was a classic, so we are good enough.” Ohio State was clinging to a 34-28 lead when it took over at its 5-yard line with 5:24 remaining. After the Buckeyes picked up one first down, Elliott, a high school sprinter who was timed at 4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash, took a handoff off left tackle, broke out of a diving tackle by linebacker Xzavier Dickson and ran unmolested for the score. “I knew going into the game that the Alabama defensive front was going to be very big and physical, and it was going to be hard for our offensive line to get movement,” Elliott said. …
Continue Reading: Ohio State runs wild, stuns Alabama in Sugar Bowl
