College Football Playoff Takeaways: Semifinal/National Championship Preview

Photo from USA Today

After the first round of the new 12 team playoff led to nothing but whiny complaints from annoying people, the following games have been absolutely great.

And a week from today, we will have the national championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Let’s dive into the games.

Notre Dame defeats Penn State 27-24

This was a story of pressure.

Notre Dame’s offensive line has been decimated with injuries, and Penn State’s defensive line made sure they felt that pain.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard was sacked 5 times, and that pressure led to him having a far from perfect game.

He threw two bad interceptions, and one of them almost cost his team a chance at the title game.

But late in the game, Penn State brought pressure over and over.

Leonard avoided the sack, made the smart play, and kept the drive alive for Notre Dame.

On the flip side, Drew Allar wasn’t pressured much at all, but with just a few minutes left in a tied game, the Irish brought pressure.

Allar threw late over the middle of the field and had it intercepted, and Notre Dame would go on to kick the game winning field goal.

It was far from perfect from Notre Dame, but it was a nightmare game for Drew Allar.

Allar was 12-23 with 135 yards, and didn’t complete a single pass to a wide receiver.

This was Penn State’s first trip to the playoff, and it was an easy path.

They faced SMU at home, Boise State, and a very injured Notre Dame team.

And they let it slip away once again.

Who knows the next time they’ll get an opportunity like that?

Ohio State defeats Texas 28-14

Texas defense was absolutely phenomenal.

They found a great blueprint to potentially upsetting the Buckeyes.

Dominate the line of scrimmage to stop the running game, and take Jeremiah Smith out of the game.

It was the exact same thing Michigan did to pull the upset, and it almost worked again.

The offense just never woke up against a great Ohio State defensive performance.

A large part of that was coaching.

Texas wasn’t running the ball particularly well, but with 2nd and goal from the three yard line, down 21-14 with under 5 minutes to go, they decided to run an outside toss instead of pounding it up the middle behind the big bodies.

Unsurprisingly, Ohio State shut it down for a loss of about 5, forcing Texas to throw on 3rd and 4th down.

And on 4th down, Jack Sawyer strip sacked Quinn Ewers, returned it for a touchdown, and blew the candles out on Texas’ chance to play for a national championship.

It was a difficult game where both teams struggled to run the football.

Despite that, Ohio State trusted their guys up front to win a rep against a good Texas defensive line, and it got them the game winning touchdown.

Texas didn’t, and it led to their demise.

National Championship Prediction

Michigan laid down the blueprint to beat Ohio State.

Control the line of scrimmage, don’t get beat over the top by the excellent Ohio State receivers, and make this a slug fest.

The last thing Ohio State wants is a fist fight. They want a track meet.

It led to Ohio State losing to Michigan, and it almost led to them losing to Texas as well.

And trust me, Notre Dame not only wants to do that, but has the capability of doing that.

They can shut down the Ohio State running game, and they have the safety help to prevent Jeremiah Smith from beating them over the top.

But, sadly for Notre Dame, they don’t have the talent Texas does, nor the health that is necessary.

I still think Notre Dame will make this game messy and sloppy and keep it close, but Ohio State will still have too much talent on both sides of the ball to get upset again.

Ohio State Wins the National Championship.