Ohio State scored with one second left to get a 17-14 win over Notre Dame.
The Buckeyes got the ball back with 1:26 to go and just one timeout and needed nearly every second of that drive as Chip Trayanum got the ball just across the goal line on a dive play with one second left.
Ohio State needed 15 plays to go 65 yards on the game-winning drive that included multiple conversions on third and fourth downs. After failing to pick up a yard on its first two plays of the drive, Ohio State converted a third and 10 for 23 yards to Emeka Egbuka. Four plays later, Kyle McCord found Julian Fleming for seven yards on fourth and seven with less than 45 seconds to go.
Not long after that, McCord was called for intentional grounding and Ohio State was forced to use its last timeout with 15 seconds left. On the next play — a third and 19 — McCord hit Egbuka for a 21-yard game to the Notre Dame one with seven seconds to go.
Three plays later, Ohio State scored.
Trayanum’s run came on the left side of the offensive line and at an area of the Notre Dame defense that was exposed. Notre Dame had just 10 players on the field for Ohio State’s game-winning score. And based on the way the team was aligned before the snap, that missing player could have been assigned to that area of the line of scrimmage.
Ohio State’s game-winning drive capped a second half that was much more exciting than the first. The Buckeyes led 3-0 at halftime before taking a 10-0 lead on a TD run by TreVeyon Henderson.
Notre Dame then scored 14 consecutive points and took the lead for the first time with 8:22 to go on a TD pass from Sam Hartman to Rico Flores Jr. That Notre Dame TD drive took 6:29 as the Irish controlled the ball for much of the second half. Notre Dame’s first TD drive of the game took nearly half the third quarter and the Irish had run 33 plays in the second half to Ohio State’s eight when they went up 14-10.
