Ohio State was feeling the pressure heading into the College Football Playoff after a disastrous loss to Michigan. But in the Playoff, the Buckeyes are playing free and angry, and that’s a bad combination for the rest of the field.

On New Year’s Day, it was Oregon in the Rose Bowl and a rematch of Ohio State’s midseason loss as the next team to try and tangle with the Buckeyes. While many expected another close game between the new Big Ten rivals, that did not develop.

Instead, the Buckeyes scored the first 34 points of the game and looked like a team incapable of a mistake for most of the first half. By the time the final whistle mercifully blew, Ohio State had secured the 41-21 win to advance to the CFP semifinals and send the Ducks packing.

Ryan Day has certainly been under fire this season, and for good reason at times. But his Buckeyes now have wins of 25 and 20 points in the first 2 rounds of the Playoff and will be favored in a Cotton Bowl matchup vs. Texas.

Here are the key takeaways from the Rose Bowl as the Buckeyes keep their season rolling:

The Jeremiah Smith takeover

Coming into this game, Jeremiah Smith was rolling off a first-round heater against Tennessee. He went off for 103 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Vols, including the game-opening score on a one-on-one situation.

Smith made it 2-for-2 in terms of game-opening scores vs. Oregon, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

By the time Ohio State’s 3rd drive of the game was over with a 14-0 lead, Smith was already on the doorstep of 100 yards receiving. He eclipsed that mark well ahead of halftime, complete with his 2nd receiving touchdown of the game.

In the first half alone, Smith had 161 yards and spearheaded an Ohio State offense that jumped out to a 34-0 lead before Oregon cracked the scoreboard. The unit as a whole could do no wrong for the Buckeyes, but Smith undoubtedly opened up the game by forcing the Ducks to allocate more manpower to try and slow him down.

In the 2nd half, Smith officially eclipsed Cris Carter’s OSU single-game freshman record of 163 yards. And while Smith fell short of Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s Rose Bowl receiving record or tying Marvin Harrison Jr. and others with a hat trick, the electric freshman ended the game with 7 catches for 187 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Across 2 Playoff appearances, Smith is now up to 290 receiving yards with 4 touchdowns and over 22 yards per catch. Not bad at all.

Ryan Day’s big-game prowess

Anyone looking to be critical of Ryan Day will find plenty of ammunition. However, his big-game performances leading the Buckeyes this season are not among them.

With Wednesday’s blowout of the Ducks, Day is now 3-1 against top-5 opponents this season and 4-1 against top-10 teams. The lone loss in that span was the 1-point defeat — on the road — against the Ducks in October.

The Buckeyes are averaging 34.4 points per game in those matchups. The average margin of victory in the 3 wins has been 18.75 points.

The Michigan loss is an issue, there’s no question about it. But anyone trying to build the case that Day is washed in big games as Ohio State’s head coach is going to come up empty this postseason.

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 Defense heats up across the board

There’s nothing to be taken away from Ohio State’s offense after putting up 41 points on the board against Oregon. However, the defense was equally impressive in putting this one to bed well before all zeros hit the scoreboard.

In fact, a lot of the heavy lifting from the defense was done before halftime.

From Oregon’s first 6 drives of the game, 5 ended in a punt, including a whopping 4 drives that went 3-and-out before halftime. The 6th drive in that span ended in a turnover-on-downs before reaching midfield with the Ducks already feeling desperation setting in.

Oregon came alive to score 21 points, but the game was never seriously in danger of getting close. And it was a truly dominant defense at every level of the unit for the Buckeyes.

Up front, Ohio State manhandled the Ducks with 8 sacks and 13 TFLs. Cody Simon, JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer each contribued 2 sacks while Simon was the team leader with 11 total tackles.

The sacks were also a testament to Ohio State’s coverage. Time after time, Gabriel was forced to hold onto the ball while trying to look for an open receiver, only to find his guys blanketed.

Another standout contributor for the Buckeye defense was star safety Caleb Downs. His versatility in coverage and run-stopping was evident all game long, and he delivered 3 pass breakups in the game.

As a unit, the Buckeyes recorded 9 pass breakups with Sawyer also delivering 3 from his defensive end position. When Ohio State’s defense plays like that, the Buckeyes are virtually impossible to slow down.