Ohio State Buckeyes vs Alabama Crimson Tide Match Player Stats On Jan 01, 2015

SportsDirect Inc. staff
Jan 2, 2015

No. 4 Ohio State 42, No. 1 Alabama 35: Ezekiel Elliott ran for a career-high 230 yards and two touchdowns as the fourth-seeded Buckeyes advanced to the College Football Playoff title game with a thrilling upset of the top-seeded Crimson Tide at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

Making his second career start in place of the injured J.T. Barrett, redshirt sophomore Cardale Jones passed for 243 yards and a touchdown, while senior wideout Evan Spencer threw a TD on his first career pass and Buckeyes defensive lineman Steve Miller returned an interception for a score. Devin Smith and Michael Thomas each caught a touchdown pass for Ohio State (13-1), which faces No. 2 Oregon in the CFP championship game on Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas.

Alabama's Blake Sims threw for 237 yards and two touchdowns to Amari Cooper (nine catches, 71 yards) and drove his team into Ohio State territory in the final minute before his final-play heave to the end zone was picked off. Sims threw three interceptions and also rushed for a score - as did Derrick Henry (95 yards) and T.J. Yeldon (47) - for the Crimson Tide (12-2), who had their eight-game winning streak snapped.

Ohio State, which rallied from a 15-point first-half deficit, held a 34-28 lead with less than four minutes left when Elliott broke through the middle of the Alabama line and raced 85 yards to the end zone, breaking his previous career high of 220 yards - set in the Buckeyes' 59-0 demolition of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game - and also setting a Sugar Bowl rushing record in the process. Ohio State tacked on a two-point conversion, but the Crimson Tide promptly responded with Sims' short TD pass to Cooper with 1:59 left, although Ohio State was only able to run off 26 seconds before giving the ball back to Alabama with 1:33 to play.

The Buckeyes trailed 21-6 with less than four minutes to go in the first half before Elliott's 3-yard plunge made it an eight-point game and with 12 seconds left in the half, Spencer took a pitch and made a perfect throw to Thomas, who tip-toed the end zone for a 13-yard TD, making it 21-20 at the break. Jones threw a 47-yard TD bomb to Smith six plays into the third quarter and Miller's 41-yard interception return later in the period made it 34-21 before the Crimson Tide quickly answered with Sims' 5-yard TD run.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Ohio State outgained Alabama 537-407, including 178-30 in the second quarter. ... Miller's third-quarter touchdown marked his first career interception and was the first "pick-six" thrown by an Alabama quarterback since 2007. ... Coach Nick Saban had been 78-2 at Alabama when leading by 14 points.