It’s the bowl that neither team wanted to be in.

Both the Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish had higher goals than the Fiesta Bowl weeks ago.

And if it weren’t for a pair of field goals, they might have both achieved those goals.

However, a loss to the Michigan State Spartans on a tiebreaking field goal as time expired dropped the Buckeyes from the Playoff conversation. Meanwhile, a heartbreaking loss suffered to the Stanford Cardinal, when they nailed a field goal of their own at the buzzer, punched a gaping hole in Notre Dame’s playoff hopes.

So with their playoff hopes ruined, the Buckeyes will do battle with the Fighting Irish in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.

ND-OSU History

Ohio State has led the series history lately, with three consecutive victories against the Irish. The squads haven’t played since 2005 and have only met five times overall with the Buckeyes holding a 3-2 overall edge. The Irish hope to break their winless streak versus Ohio State, having not won since 1936. They’ve only played three times since, but it was the Buckeyes that emerged victorious in each game.

Close Calls All Season Lead To Buckeye Heartbreak - Spartans

The Buckeyes entered the season as the defending national champions. And, much like the previous defending champs, the Florida State Seminoles, Ohio State had quite a few games that were much closer than they should have been. The Buckeyes played an incredibly weak schedule until their final two games, but still managed to have several very close games. They squeaked past Northern Illinois in their third game, escaping with a 20-13 victory. In their Big 10 opener, the Buckeyes had to engineer a comeback to defeat the Indiana Hoosiers 34-27. They struggled to put away both Maryland and Minnesota, before ultimately pulling away in both games.

This all led up to their first real challenge - a matchup against the Michigan State Spartans. The one-loss Spartans needed a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. With the amount of too-close victories they had had, a Buckeyes’ loss would likely end their drive for the playoff as well. The Buckeyes managed just 132 yards of offense and saw Michael Geiger curve a 41 yard field goal in between the posts for a 17-14 Spartan victory. Ohio State beat up on the Michigan Wolverines in the final week, but it was to no avail. The win boosted them to #7 in the nation but still three spots outside the Playoff. So, instead, they’ll settle for attempting to take home a Fiesta Bowl victory over the Irish.

Injuries Hamper Irish But Two Road Losses End Their Playoff Dreams

With dual-threat quarterback Malik Zaire and star running back Tarean Folston, plus a defense that had 10 returning starters, Notre Dame looked to be in great shape entering their 2015 season. However, defensive lineman Jarron Jones injured his knee in the preseason, Folston went down to injury in their season opener, and Zaire followed suit, breaking his ankle in their Week 2 victory over Virginia. In a costly November 21st victory over Boston College, Notre Dame lost star cornerback KeiVarae Russell as well as another running back in C.J. Prosise.

This left Notre Dame with a backup freshman quarterback in Deshone Kizer and true freshman third-string running back in Josh Adams. With a depleted defense, Notre Dame struggled against Stanford in the final week of the season. After their offense gave the Irish a 36-35 lead with barely half a minute on the clock, the defense allowed Stanford to march down the field and nail the game-winning field goal as time expired. The Irish put together an impressive season considering the injuries they suffered but the Stanford loss, plus a 24-22 loss to now #1 Clemson was too much for the Irish to overcome. They finished ranked #8, the second highest ranking for a 2-loss team, behind Stanford.

Ezekiel Elliott Leads Buckeye Brigade

With a quarterback tandem for the majority of the year, Ohio State has leaned on running back Ezekiel Elliot to lead their run-first offense. Ohio State went to their ground game on 64% of offensive plays this year. Elliot will get the bulk of the carries for the Buckeyes but J.T. Barrett can use his legs to punish the Irish as well. They’ll be facing a talented defensive front for Notre Dame, led by Jaylon Smith and Joe Schmidt.

However, Notre Dame has given up 4.5 yards a carry so if Ohio State can get a clock-draining run game going, it could make things difficult for Notre Dame’s offense. If not though, the Buckeyes will have to air it out, where the Irish can be quite good or quite bad. They were quite bad in the game against Stanford and they’ll certainly need to be better in the Fiesta Bowl to fend off Barrett and/or Cardale Jones. They have held opposing quarterbacks to just a 55% completion percentage but surrender about 13 yards per completion. Even if the run game can’t get going, if Barrett or Jones can start making those types of completions on third down, it’ll be a long day for the Notre Dame defense.

Deshone Kizer Fires For Fighting Irish

As their leading passer and their second-leading rusher, there is no doubt that a tremendous amount of weight will be placed on Kizer’s young shoulders on Thursday. He’s been tremendous this season for Notre Dame but tends to make rookie mistakes. He can be turnover-prone like he was against Boston College, or he can play like Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks. The Irish will need Kizer to be able to get it going both on the ground and through the air in order to break a strong Ohio State defense that surrendered just 14 points per game.

Their run defense will make it tough on Kizer and freshman running back Josh Adams who has emerged as a huge running threat for the Irish after the fall of Folston and Prosise. They’ve forced opposing quarterbacks to a completion percentage of under 50%. With future first round draft pick Joey Bosa on the defensive side of things, Kizer will have to several things. He’ll need to be able to scramble because Bosa and Ohio State’s defensive line will likely pressure him. He needs to make the right decisions and avoid turnovers. And he needs to play it safe as well. He can’t make rookie mistakes like throwing long passes into double coverage which likely will result in interceptions. He needs to be able to recognize a broken play, and either use his legs to salvage some yardage or just throw the ball out of bounds. He needs to do these things because the result of the game for Notre Dame likely depend on him.

The Prediction

While it should be a good game, this writer is going with Ohio State. The Buckeyes have a potent offense and a stiff defense. Their offense will be trouble for Notre Dame’s depleted defense and the Irish’s offense is too inconsistent to match up.


Prediction: Ohio State 34 Notre Dame 20