Subscribe
Follow Us
The College Football Playoff semifinals are almost here. We started with 12, and there are now just four teams remaining in the hunt for the national championship: five seed Texas, six seed Penn State, seven seed Notre Dame and eight seed Ohio State. The Nittany Lions and Fighting Irish will do battle first as they will meet in the Orange Bowl CFP semi on Thursday night. The Buckeyes and Longhorns will follow that up with a matchup on Friday in the Cotton Bowl CFP semi. These should be two good games, and the winners will meet on January 20th in the national title. Now, let's talk Cotton Bowl as Quinn Ewers hopes to lead Texas past Ohio State.
Ohio State is the clear national title favorite after the way that they have dominated through the first two rounds. The Buckeyes easily handled Tennessee at home in round one, and then they dismantled one seed Oregon in the Rose Bowl last week.
Everyone is picking the Buckeyes in this one, but don't count out Texas. They survived a scare against Arizona State in the quarterfinals, and that could've been the wake up call they needed.
Before we get into predictions for Quinn Ewers in this matchup, let's take a deeper look at both of these teams:
Ohio State looks unstoppable right now
The Ohio State football team has looked completely different since losing their regular season finale against Michigan. That loss to the Wolverines squashed two goals for the Buckeyes (beat Michigan and win the Big Ten), but winning the national title is still on the table. Ohio State is two wins away from that becoming a reality.
Ohio State was dominant in their first round win against Tennessee, but the Oregon game was the real wakeup call to the rest of the CFP. The Buckeyes lost to Oregon in the regular season, but this game was completely different. Halfway through the second quarter, Ohio State was up 34-0 and the game was essentially already over.
If Ohio State keeps playing like they did against Oregon, they are going to win the national championship. Will Texas be able to slow them down?
This will be Texas' toughest test yet
The Texas football team has two losses on the season, and they both came against Georgia. The Bulldogs beat the Longhorns in the regular season and they beat them again in the SEC title game. Georgia earned a bye in the CFP, but they lost to Notre Dame in the quarterfinals.
Texas' best win this year is against Clemson in the first-round of the playoff. They haven't played a team as good as Ohio State, and they certainly haven't beaten anyone as good as Ohio State. This is going to be an incredibly challenging test for the Longhorns and they will have to play mistake-free football to get a win.
The Longhorns have the talent to keep up with the Buckeyes, but the question is can they put it all together for 60 minutes? We saw Texas step up and make plays when they needed to against Arizona State, but they looked sluggish for much of the game, letting the Sun Devils hang around. Texas will need to play much better to beat the Buckeyes.
If Texas is going to win this game, they will need a big game from quarterback Quinn Ewers. Here are three predictions for his performance:
Quinn Ewers will throw two interceptions
Quinn Ewers is a very talented QB and he is capable of playing at an elite level. However, we saw him make some mistakes in the Peach Bowl against Arizona State. The offense went stagnant for much of the game and Ewers threw a costly interception late in the contest. Now, he is going up against a much better team in Ohio State. Ewers is going to turn it over at least a couple times on Friday.
Quinn Ewers and Texas will not score 20 points
Against Arizona State, the Longhorns immediately scored a touchdown on offense to go up 7-0, and then they returned a punt to go up 14-0 just halfway through the first quarter. However, they finished regulation with just 24 points. It wasn't a good offensive performance, and this Buckeyes team will present a more difficult challenge. Quinn Ewers and the Texas offense will struggle.
Quinn Ewers and Texas will lose 38-17
Nothing from this College Football Playoff indicates that Texas can hang around with Ohio State in this game. The Buckeyes have looked incredibly dominant so far, and Texas has looked quite the opposite. Quinn Ewers will not get the win against his former team as Ohio State will win this one 38-17 to advance to the national title game.
Ohio State and Texas will kick off the Cotton Bowl at 7:30 ET on Friday night from AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, and the game will be airing on ESPN. Ohio State is currently favored by 5.5 points.
How we got to the CFP semis
From 12 to four, we made it to the College Football Playoff semis. All four of these teams started from the beginning as none of them had a bye, so let's take a quick look at how they are all still standing.
Starting with five seed Texas, the Longhorns took down Clemson at home to start the College Football Playoff. The Longhorns won comfortably by two touchdowns to set up a showdown with Arizona State. The Sun Devils put up a great fight, but they weren't able to get it done as Texas got won it in overtime. Now, they essentially have a home game in the semis against Ohio State.
Six seed Penn State started the playoff with a blowout win against SMU at home. That one was never close, but the Nittany Lions got a good fight from Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. A strong start and finish was the difference as Penn State won that one 31-14.
Up next is seven seed Notre Dame, and they also started the playoff out at home. The Fighting Irish easily took care of business against Indiana, and they upset two seed Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to punch their ticket to the semis where they will meet up with Penn State.
Dominant eight seed Ohio State started things off with an easy home win against Tennessee, and then the Buckeyes got revenge on Oregon in the Rose Bowl with another convincing win. Ohio State is the favorite to win it all.
The playoff hasn't had a ton of close matchups yet, but hopefully we see a couple good ones in the semis.
