Ohio State football: Just keep swinging at its arms

In the 1951 sci-fi classic, The Thing, a group of scientists and military personnel are terrorized by an alien who had crash-landed near their Arctic outpost. When the heroes decided to do away with their unwanted visitor by using an arc of electricity, they were standing around with axes awaiting his arrival when one of them asked what to do if the plan doesn’t work. The reply was, “Just keep swinging at its arms.” That’s just what the Ohio State football team did in the 108th Rose Bowl against the Utah Utes monster. They just kept swinging at its arms.

We should have known what was coming when C.J. Stroud scrambled for a first down late in the first quarter. The Buckeyes were already down 14-0 and had run just nine plays to that point. Giving the ball back to a Utah offense that was having its way with the OSU defense was not going to be a good thing.

So, Stroud decided to do something he’d rarely done all season to keep the drive alive. The Buckeyes eventually scored to keep themselves in the game, but they also sent a subtle message that they were going to do whatever it took to come away with a win.

Regardless of what the Utah Utes monster did, the Buckeyes just kept swinging at its arms. The monster scores again to go ahead by 14, OSU comes right back to cut it to seven. This went on throughout the remainder of the first half. The monster did seem to have a comfortable lead at the break, but they knew the guys wielding those axes in scarlet and gray were just going to keep swinging at their arms.

Throughout the first half, it was the Ohio State football team’s offense swinging the metaphorical ax. Once the second half began, the defense finally joined in. Tommy Eichenberg seemed to be everywhere. The much-maligned linebacker who was a liability all season finished the game with seventeen tackles.

I thought defensive tackle Taron Vincent gummed up the middle and played his best game as a Buckeye. Kourt Williams showed his potential as a bullet and was outstanding in his first career start. Cade Stover let us know why he should have never been moved to tight end-he’s a born linebacker.

While the defense began getting enough stops to give the Ohio State football team’s offense a chance to close the gap on the scoreboard, OSU’s special teams picked up their axes as well. After a slow start, true freshman Emeka Egbuka finished with 163 kickoff return yards and provided the offense with great field position time after time. With all three units cleaving away, the Utah Utes monster began to fade. The Buckeyes just kept swinging at its arms.

While an arc of electricity was ultimately used to destroy the monster in The Thing, the Buckeyes used the arc of a football. Stroud shredded the Utah Utes monster for 573 yards and six touchdowns. He threw just nine incompletions in 46 attempts. That’s a completion rate of eighty percent.

Time and again the ball left his hand, arced through the air, and into the waiting hands of a Buckeye receiver. Jaxon Smith-Njigba set an all-time bowl record with 347 yards on fifteen catches and true freshman Marvin Harrison, Jr. finished with three touchdowns.

The monster’s defense looked exhausted by the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Buckeyes showed no mercy and just kept swinging at its arms. The final swing came not from a metaphorical ax, but from the actual foot of kicker Noah Ruggles.

When the former North Carolina transfer swung his foot onto the ball and drove it through the uprights with just nine seconds on the clock, the Buckeyes had finally vanquished the Utah Utes monster.

Our Scarlet and Gray heroes didn’t save the world like those in that classic sci-fi movie, but they certainly saved the day for Buckeye Nation and sent us all into the offseason with a very big smile on our faces. All because they just kept swinging at its arms.