Ohio State’s College Football Playoff Run Led By First-Quarter Dominance, Second and Third Quarter Control

That emphasis yielded dividends. As Eleven Warriors dove into Ohio State’s quarter-by-quarter and half-by-half splits during the 2024-25 CFP, the first quarter stood out as the biggest period of Buckeye dominance.

Ohio State held significant edges in the second and third quarters, too, while holding level in the fourth.

The Buckeyes outscored Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame by a combined 42-7 in the first quarter, tripling their four opponents’ offensive outputs with 622 yards of offense against just 199 yards allowed. The yards-per-play numbers are perhaps the most staggering: Ohio State picked up 9.4 yards per play in the first quarter during the CFP while opponents managed a meager 3.5 yards per play.

Fast starts fueled the Buckeyes most in the first two rounds of the CFP against the Ducks and Volunteers. Ohio State outscored Tennessee and Oregon by a combined 35-0 and outgained them by a combined 438 to 53 in the first quarter. That’s more than eight times the yardage output in 30 total minutes, which is mind-blowing even when considering the Buckeyes received the football to start both games.

Starting with the football also doesn’t impact yards per play, and Ohio State picked up 11.2 yards per down to Tennessee and Oregon’s two in the pair of opening frames.

“We’ve always wanted to have fast starts,” Ryan Day said before the Texas game. “You want to set the tone for the game as an individual but also as a team. In both games, we started off with the ball and have gone right down and scored. … Execution fuels emotion. That certainly has a big part of it. They go together. We’ve executed well on those first couple of drives. The defense has gotten some three-and-outs early in the game. We’ve been able to jump on the last two opponents.”

Ohio State jumped on Oregon in particular, as most readers probably remember. The Buckeyes got out to a 34-0 lead against the No. 1 seed and only undefeated team in the CFP, held a 34-8 edge at halftime and closed with a 41-21 victory.

The first half holistically was a dominant phase for Ohio State, who held a halftime lead of at least seven points in each of its four CFP games en route to a +58 scoring margin in the opening 30 minutes. The Buckeyes picked up 8.8 yards per play in CFP first halves while allowing just 4.1.

Halftime adjustments were also a strength of Ohio State’s, even if the margins aren’t as gaudy as their first-quarter or first-half splits. It’s true that the Buckeyes only outscored their opponents by nine points across the four playoff third quarters, but they iced out Tennessee with a 14-0 penultimate frame after kicking off to start the second half and finished a string of 31 unanswered points vs. Notre Dame with 10 to start the third quarter.

Plus, thanks to the ferocity of their first halves, many of the second halves during Ohio State’s title run were spent running out the clock to ice games. That’s the main reason why the fourth quarter is the only split where the Buckeyes didn’t show clear control across their four-game run. Third-stringers saw action in the fourth quarter against the Volunteers and there were multi-score leads to protect in the final 15 minutes against the Ducks and Fighting Irish. 

That goes to explain why CFP opponents outgained the Buckeyes 361 to 299 in total yards and 5.4 to 5.2 in yards per play in the fourth quarter. In the lone fourth quarter where Ohio State needed to outperform its foe – the Texas game where it entered the final frame tied 14-14 with the Longhorns – it did so.

After sputtering on offense for much of the second and third quarters, the Buckeyes amassed a 13-play, 88-yard scoring drive to go ahead 21-14 before assembling what might now be the most legendary goal-line stand in team history to seal a 28-14 victory.

Notre Dame came charging back from its 31-7 hole and 31-15 deficit entering the fourth quarter with a Jaden Greathouse touchdown to slice the lead to 31-23, outgaining Ohio State 147 to 109 in the final frame as the Buckeyes ran a few conservative plays to drain the clock. But there was nothing conservative about the since-dubbed “3rd-and-Jeremiah” throw to seal a national championship.

JEREMIAH SMITH DOWN THERE SOMEWHERE
pic.twitter.com/GVtQqoDKdz

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) January 21, 2025

That’s the story of Ohio State’s CFP splits: A team that dominated both sides of the ball out of the gates of games, then made the plays it needed in the second half to ensure those starts didn’t go to waste. And it hoisted the CFP national championship trophy as a result.