I recently received my “Scoop and Sawyer” shirt from Breaking T that commemorates Jack Sawyer’s amazing strip, sack, scoop, and score to seal Ohio State’s win over the Texas Longhorns. That play assured the Buckeyes would play for the national championship. My intent at bringing up the shirt, for which this is not an advertisement (although you can pick yours up or just see what they look like here) is to showcase an important moment in program history.
Rather, the shirt’s arrival had me watching that play online repeatedly (again), which got me thinking about the many iconic plays in Ohio State lore. I’ve been in the stadium for many of them, and watched countless more on television. Certainly some of them occurred before all games were televised, and many happened long before most of us were born.
It would be a massive undertaking to unearth all the top plays that Ohio State was built on, but I wondered if the modern Buckeyes could be summarized in just a few of the most iconic plays. Here are five that I think do well to represent what the Buckeyes of the last couple of decades are all about.
I’d rather not rank them, so let’s go in chronological order, starting with the most recent…
Jack Sawyer vs. Texas — Jan. 10, 2025
One thing that most Ohio State teams of the past couple of decades have in common is a tough defense that has often bent but seldom breaks. Nursing a one-touchdown lead against Texas, the Buckeyes allowed the Longhorns to get down the field while using some clock. But when their opponents got into scoring position for a possible tying (or go-ahead) score, the defense rose to the occasion.
After stuffing first down at the goal line, the secondary came up big to force a loss on second down. Third down saw Sawyer pressure up the middle, forcing an errant throw. That set up a do-or-die play for Texas.
Quinn Ewers felt the pressure from his right, but Sawyer was relentless, running the play down, hitting the quarterback, knocking the ball out, and taking full advantage of the perfect bounce. Ignore Fowler’s assertion that Sawyer went 82 yards and the incorrect distance on the video’s thumbnail. Jack ran 83 yards, officially.
Ezekiel Elliott vs. Alabama — Jan. 1, 2015
They call it “85 Yards through the Heart of the South” for good reason.
Ohio State led the seemingly invincible Alabama Crimson Tide by six points. The Tide had two timeouts remaining and just over three and a half minutes on the clock. The goal was to grind out a couple of first downs to run out the clock. Ezekiel Elliott had other ideas.
Zeke took the handoff and ran left, cut through a nice hole, and blazed down the field to ice the College Football Playoff semifinal matchup. This play summarizes the Buckeyes’ ability to put opponents away in tight games. This was shown above in the Sawyer play, as well as the drive to grind out the Penn State game this season.
Joey Bosa vs. Penn State — Oct. 25, 2014
Joey Bosa made more than his fair share of big plays while at Ohio State, and one of the most memorable put an end to a double-overtime win over Penn State on the road.
The Nittany Lions somehow didn’t put an offensive lineman on Bosa on a critical fourth-and-6 play. Running back Akeel Lynch was left to try to protect Christian Hackenberg. Bosa used Lynch as a weapon to make the sack, showing two of Ohio State’s strengths — taking advantage of a mismatch and finding creative solutions to a problem.
Braxton Miller and Devin Smith — Oct. 29, 2011
The Buckeyes trailed Russell Wilson and Wisconsin by a field goal with half a minute remaining. Not quite in good enough position for a field goal, the Buckeyes had the ball at the Badgers’ 40-yard line and one timeout. There seemed to be plenty of time to pick up a few more yards and kicking a tying field goal. However, Braxton Miller had other ideas.
Under pressure, Miller rolled to his right and had the room and the speed to pick up at least 10 yards. Instead, Miller kept his eyes downfield. Concerned Miller could hurt them with his feet, the Badgers lost track of Devin Smith. Miller threw back against his body, getting enough on his pass to hit Smith in the end zone for the winning touchdown.
The play illustrated Ohio State’s field-goals-as-a-last-resort approach to offense and refusal to quit.
Maurice Clarett vs. Miami — Jan. 3, 2003
Speaking of refusing to quit, there was perhaps no better example than freshman Maurice Clarett running down Sean Taylor after he’d intercepted the ball and taking it back for his offense. Without that play by Clarett, Ohio State wouldn’t have tacked on three more points to the lead and the Buckeyes might never have won a national championship under Jim Tressel.
Clarett’s play showed the determination that has driven the team not only under Tressel, but since then under Urban Meyer and Ryan Day. Like any team, Ohio State sometimes has lapses, but for the most part, the team’s commitment to excellence in the modern era goes back to plays like this one and (earlier that same year) the “Holy Buckeye” play.
Bonus Play
It was hard work to select just five plays to encapsulate Ohio State football, even when narrowing things down to the post-turn-of-the-century era. And in doing so, I had to leave out one of my all-time favorite plays.
Ohio State might never have won a national championship 10 years ago had it not been for this play. This play speaks to two traits of the Buckeyes: inventiveness and precision. The Buckeyes needed to score against a tough Alabama defense. To do so, they called an unexpected play and everyone executed perfectly, even though the trick play didn’t quite fool the opposition.
Evan Spencer, a wide receiver, threw the perfect pass, and Michael Thomas used every bit of his talent to jump up and high point the ball and still land with a foot in bounds.
We’ve all got our favorite plays, but the above serve as a good microcosm of Ohio State football since the year 2000. What are some of the plays you think encapsulate Buckeye football? Let us know in the comments section below.
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