Rece Davis questions Texas play calls on 1-yard line

With 3:54 left in the fourth quarter of the Cotton Bowl Classic, Texas was first-and-goal on Ohio State‘s 1-yard line. On first down, the Longhorns handed the ball off to Jerrick Gibson up the middle for no gain. Instead of trying to punch it through Ohio State’s defensive front again, Texas switched up its strategy.

On second down, Texas ran a sweep for Quintrevion Wisner to the left for a loss of seven yards. On third down, Texas turned to its passing game, but failed to complete a pass Ryan Wingo. Finally, disaster struck on fourth down when Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer stripped quarterback Quinn Ewers and returned the fumble for a touchdown.

On Saturday, ESPN’s Rece Davis reflected on Texas’ questionable play calls in the pivotal red zone drive.

“You could tell they didn’t have confidence to get any push, and understandably so. They hadn’t gotten any,” Davis said. “But then they brought in heavy personnel. On the first one, they got stuffed. I think I would have tried it two more times. And then if you have to go all or nothing, you know what, you wound up all or nothing anyway.”

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The failed drive was the nail in Texas’ coffin. With the scoop-and-score, Ohio State secured a 28-14 lead. Quinn Ewers threw an interception on the third play of Texas’ next drive and Ohio State ran out the clock.

While Davis believes the outcome could’ve been different if Texas had ran a few different plays in the red zone, he’s confident the Buckeyes deserved the win.

“To me, clearly the better team won the game because everything was so much harder for Texas to get done,” Davis said. “Ohio State often seemed to be their own worst enemy, whether it was, TreVeyon [Henderson’s] unsportsmanlike conduct, or was a holding penalty, or whatever it was — Ohio State stopped themselves a little bit more than Texas stopped them.

“Ohio State, you know, not invincible. We’ve seen them lose twice. We’ve seen them lose to an average team and they’re going to play a much better team in the championship game, but they’re the class of college football. They’re the team that should win the national championship and they’ve probably been the class of the sport.”

Ohio State will have a chance to prove just that on Jan. 20 when it squares off against Notre Dame in the National Championship at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN.