INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Third-string quarterback Cardale Jones threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns, Ezekiel Elliott ran for a career-high 220 yards and two scores and No. 5 Ohio State made an emphatic statement with a 59-0 rout over No. 13 Wisconsin in Saturday’s Big Ten championship game.
Then the Buckeyes (12-1, 8-0) had to wait to see if they’d done enough to earn one of the four spots in this year’s inaugural playoff.
UPDATE: Ohio State was 4th in the final CFP rankings and will play No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl Jan. 1. No. 2 Oregon will play No. 3 Florida State in the Rose Bowl.
“[This game] was a huge statement [to the selection committee], I think,” Jones said. “I mean, we played a great, great team, the number two defense in the country. We put up 59 points on them.”
The big question Sunday morning was whether Florida State’s 37-35 victory over Georgia Tech was enough to put the unbeaten Seminoles into the semifinals. Jameis Winston threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns to help the Seminoles win their third straight ACC title. Alabama, Oregon and TCU had won their final games emphatically, but the Seminoles’ close call may have given the Buckeyes or No. 6 Baylor a chance to advance to the College Football Playoff.
Jones earned his 257 yards on 12-17 passing after taking over for the injured J.T. Barrett a week before the game.
It was the second time this season that head coach Urban Meyer had had to turn to a virtually untested quarterback on short notice. Barrett had taken over for Braxton Miller after the two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year re-aggravated a shoulder injury days before the season opener.
The Buckeyes also weathered an early-season loss to Virginia Tech, the suspension of key defensive lineman Noah Spence and the loss of hybrid back Diontre Wilson to an injury. They beat the higher-ranked Michigan State Spartans at East Lansing and a sound Minnesota team in Minneapolis.
Meyer would not be maneuvered into saying that the win over the Badgers should be his team’s ticket to the playoff.
“This is without question the most improved from start to finish team that I’ve ever been around. To see them operate in all facets of the game at a high, high level from our punter to the way we played defense — then, offense was incredible,” was all he would say to make his case.
The offense finished with 558 total yards, led by Elliott’s 220 yards and Devin Smith’s 137 receiving yards. Smith caught all three of Jones’s scoring passes on acrobatic, highlight-reel catches.
Ohio State has won 11 straight, this time with Jones, who started the season No. 3 on the quarterback depth chart, at the end of an emotional week that began with the news that defensive player Kosta Karageorge had died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Melvin Gordon ran for 76 yards as the Badgers (10-3, 7-1) had a seven-game winning streak snapped. It was Wisconsin’s worst loss since 1979 and its first shutout since 1997.