Texas avoided the first big upset of the College Football Playoff, beating Arizona State 39-31 in double overtime when an interception by Andrew Mukuba finally ended a Peach Bowl quarter-final classic Wednesday. Jaydon Blue of the Texas Longhorns is tackled by Keyshaun Elliott and Xavion Alford of the Arizona State Sun Devils during the fourth quarter on Jan. 1 in Atlanta, Georgia.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Jeremiah Smith caught two of Will Howard’s three long touchdown passes during Ohio State’s sensational 34-point first half, and the No. 6 Buckeyes roared into the College Football Playoff semi-finals with a 41-21 victory over No. 1 Oregon in the 111th Rose Bowl Game on Wednesday night.
Howard passed for 319 yards, Emeka Egbuka also caught a long TD pass and TreVeyon Henderson made a 66-yard touchdown run in a redemptive Rose Bowl for the Buckeyes (12-2, CFP No. 8 seed), whose big-game execution sometimes hasn’t matched their formidable talent this season.
Ohio State has seized the second chances created by the first 12-team CFP, emphatically blowing out the tournament’s No. 1 seed. The Buckeyes scored on six of their first seven drives and took a 34-0 lead late in the second quarter on the U.S.’s only remaining unbeaten team in the Granddaddy of Them All.
Ohio State is headed to the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10 to face No. 4 Texas for a berth in the national title game. The Longhorns barely advanced earlier Wednesday, holding off Arizona State 39-31 in a double-overtime Peach Bowl.
Dillon Gabriel passed for 299 yards and hit Traeshon Holden for two touchdowns for the Ducks (13-1, CFP No. 1 seed), whose dreams of their first national title were flattened on the famed Rose Bowl turf. Oregon’s 14-game winning streak also ended.
Eleven days after routing Tennessee to open the Playoff, Ohio State dominated this rematch of these Big Ten teams’ regular-season thriller, won 32-31 by the Ducks in Eugene, Ore., on Oct. 12.
Smith, the Buckeyes’ standout freshman playmaker, had a remarkable bowl debut with seven receptions for 187 yards – including five catches for 161 yards in the first half alone, hauling in scoring passes of 45 and 43 yards.
Texas beats Arizona State in double overtime in Peach Bowl
Texas avoided the first big upset of the College Football Playoff, hitting a fourth-and-long touchdown pass to keep the game going and beating Arizona State 39-31 in double overtime when an interception by Andrew Mukuba finally ended a Peach Bowl quarter-final classic Wednesday. Cam Skattebo led the Sun Devils back from a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter and put his team ahead for the first time all day with a three-yard touchdown run to start overtime against No. 4 Texas (13-2). No. 10 Arizona State – a two-touchdown underdog – was on the verge of winning when Texas faced fourth-and-13 on its first overtime possession. But Quinn Ewers found Matthew Golden breaking free behind two defenders to haul in a 28-yard touchdown. After moving to the opposite end of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Ewers threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Gunnar Helms on the very next play, followed by a two-point conversion pass to Golden. The Longhorns finally put Arizona State (11-3) away when Mukuba picked off Sam Leavitt’s pass at the three to end the game. Arizona State finished with 510 yards to 375 for the Longhorns.
Sugar Bowl will be Thursday afternoon
Sugar Bowl organizers took the extraordinary step of postponing the football game that was scheduled for Wednesday night at the Superdome in New Orleans, after a 42-year-old man rammed a pickup into New Year’s revellers in the early morning hours on Bourbon Street and killed at least 15 people. The game, a playoff matchup between Notre Dame and Georgia, is now scheduled to be played Thursday afternoon. The Super Bowl is scheduled to be played at the Superdome, not far from the scene of the attack, on Feb. 9. Postponements of major sports events are rare and have happened typically because of storms or earthquakes. One notable exception was the 10-day pause in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. More recently, sporting events around the U.S. were on hold for months after the coronavirus outbreak in March, 2020. After U.S. president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, the NFL was widely assailed for playing its games as scheduled two days later. But most often, postponements are related to disasters caused by hurricanes, fires and earthquakes. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina tore the roof off the Superdome and forced the New Orleans Saints to play their games that season in Baton Rouge, La., and East Rutherford, N.J. In 1989, the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics was delayed after the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area.
With files from the New York Times News Service