The Ohio State football team has played with one hand tied behind their back the whole season. Despite that fact, they took down Texas in the Cotton Bowl and will play for a national championship. The Buckeyes have been able to win big games in the College Football Playoff despite a brutal stat.
We saw the Ohio State Buckeyes get crushed by penalties against Texas. Most of the calls were good calls, but the Buckeyes kept shooting themselves in the foot with dumb penalties. Meanwhile, Texas seemingly kept getting lucky that the refs didn't call multiple holding penalties on them.
It wasn't just luck for Texas. In fact, this has been the case for Ohio State opponents all season long. No team has had fewer penalties called against their opponents this year than the Buckeyes. They rank 134th out of 134 teams in opponent penalty yardage. That's not the worst of it, either.
Crazy penalty stats show what the Ohio State football team had to overcome this year
Not only are the Buckeyes not getting penalties called against their opponents, but they can't get a holding call at all. In fact, there has not been a single holding penalty called on an Ohio State opponent this year. That's absolutely nuts!!
Ohio State opponents only get 3.7 penalties called on them per game. They've had to play the whole season with one hand tied behind their back. There have been several games this year that clear holding penalties should have been called in favor of Ohio State, especially on offensive linemen.
Jack Sawyer is held on almost every single play at this point. It would be shocking if he did get a holding call at his point. Ohio State is used to this treatment from the refs, though. They have fought through it, and need to do so one more time this season.