Yahoo Sports’ Caroline Fenton reacts to the Miami Hurricanes defeating the Ohio St. Buckeyes, 24-14 to advance to the College Football Playoff Semifinals.
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Video Transcript
Miami finally got their revenge from the 2003 BCS National Championship as they take down the reigning national champion, Ohio State Buckeyes, 24 to 14 in a game where they were nine and a half point underdogs.
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So how did they do it?
It started defensively.
Miami’s defensive front got after Julian Sayon all night long.
They sacked him five times.
For the most part, and the really the large part of the first half, he looked utterly confused, much more confused than we’ve seen from one of the most effective and efficient passers in Ohio State history.
Julian Sayon threw the pick six in the first half, which gave the Hurricanes a whole lot of momentum, and then ultimately the pick late in the game that really put that game on ice.
The defensive front also essentially completely took the run game away from Ohio State, just 45 yards on the ground, good for 1.9 yards a crack.
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The other reason, they got the game that they needed from Carson Beck, nothing overly fancy, nothing overly sexy, 19 of 26, 138 yards, one touchdown and no picks.
He didn’t need to do too much because the run game picked up a majority of the slack, just like they did against Texas A&M in the first round of the college football playoffs.
A 153 yards on the ground total for the Hurricanes, 4.1 yards per carry, Mark Fletcher, 90 yards and 4.7 yards a carry.
He continues to prove why he is a household name in college football.
So what did we learn?
First of all, teams who have gotten the first round bye in the 12 team college football playoff, O for… O for five.
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We have three more games on New Year’s Day, so plenty of time left to rewrite that narrative.
But it’s proving that getting the first round bye may not be the overwhelming advantage than we initially thought entering this new era of the 12 team playoff.
The second thing that we learned, the College Football Playoff committee got it right.
As much as some of us don’t want to admit it, after going to Kyle Field and beating Texas A&M and ultimately taking down Ohio State, the reigning national champions, and the betting favorite to win the national championship, Miami has proven that they are not just back, they are here.
So the Hurricanes will move on and advance to the Fiesta Bowl and play the winner of the Georgia-Ole Miss matchup on New Year’s Day.