Sports
‘Down and dirty’: Ohio State finds a way to win ugly
By Laken Litman
FOX Sports College Football Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ryan Day walked into Ohio State’s postgame interview room Saturday smiling. Actually, he was giddy.
Yes, the second-ranked Buckeyes had just beaten fifth-ranked Notre Dame 21-10 at a roaring Horseshoe to open the season. But this wasn’t the 45-point, offensive explosion of a performance we were all expecting. This was gritty.
Ohio State’s offense had to run the ball and the defense had to grind it out and make big plays, which is the opposite of a signature Day win. His teams pass the ball. A major storyline for months this offseason was just how lethal Ohio State’s passing game was going to be with the connection between C.J. Stroud, a Heisman Trophy finalist last year, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, probably the country’s best wide receiver.
[How Jaxon Smith-Njigba became the next great Ohio State receiver]
But that’s not how this game was won. And Ohio State’s coaching staff couldn’t have been more excited about it.
“A lot of people questioned our toughness this offseason and for us to win the way we did, I couldn’t be any prouder,” Day said.
“Who said it had to be a track meet?” Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson yelled in the tunnel after the game. “We can get down and dirty!”
No. 2 Ohio State outlasts No. 5 Notre Dame
RJ Young breaks down Ohio State’s 21-10 victory over Notre Dame. C.J. Stroud was huge for the Buckeyes, completing 24 of 34 passes for 223 yards.
Ohio State’s original game plan derailed early when Smith-Njigba was shaken up in the first quarter. He was knocked out of bounds after a catch, which forced him to miss the next few series. He tried to come back in the second quarter, but was favoring his left side. He also tried jogging on the sideline under the supervision of an athletic trainer, but was in and out of the injury tent.
Ohio State needed to win without him.
“Yeah, it was a struggle early on,” said Day, who expects Smith-Njigba to be back sometime this week. “When we lost Jaxon, we got a little bit out of rhythm, couldn’t convert on third down, a lot off schedule with a couple penalties that we’ve got to clean up.
“But you know, early games, we’re a little bit clunky. And again, losing Jaxon kind of threw us off a little bit, and we had to respond.”
Ohio State has a plethora of receivers at Stroud’s disposal, like Emeka Egbuka, who had nine catches for 90 yards, and Marvin Harrison Jr., who had five catches for 56 yards. Stroud also has Xavier Johnson, a former walk-on turned scholarship player, whose 24-yard touchdown with 17 seconds left in the third quarter put the Buckeyes up 14-10. But Smith-Njigba has a shot at winning the Biletnikoff Award, so the vibe is off when he’s not playing.
Plan B was committing to the run, which Ohio State did in the fourth quarter. TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams combined for 175 yards and a touchdown. And on a 14-play, 95-yard touchdown drive that clinched victory, Ohio State ran the ball 10 times, seven by Williams, who racked up 49 of his total 84 yards right then. He also had a catch.
[Heisman Watch: How the preseason top 10 performed in Week 1]
It’s worth wondering how the game might have unfolded had Ohio State committed to the run earlier. If Day hadn’t waited until the fourth quarter, maybe the Buckeyes would have put Notre Dame away sooner.
“We have to be able to win that way, we do,” Day said. “We have to find ways to win like that. Because there’s going to be games certainly in the Big Ten like that, and Notre Dame is kind of built like some of the Big Ten teams we play. And so for teams that want to run the ball and eat up the clock and keep the offense off the field, we have to run the ball in those moments. And we did. We had to do that. And that was something that we spent a lot of time in the offseason saying, we have to be able to win ugly on offense and stop the run on defense. And that’s what happened.
“They all count the same. When you have that versatility, it’s going to pay off down the road. So this is a huge start for us. We have a lot to improve on, a lot to build on, but I’m proud of our team.”
Stroud went 24 of 34 for 223 yards and two touchdowns and made some huge plays down the stretch. Many of those were scrambles on the run where it looked like he was about to go out of bounds, but instead completed a 12-yard pass to Williams here and a nine-yard pass to Harrison Jr. there.
“I think you can see who C.J. wants to be,” Day said. “He could want to go out there and have all these yards and everything like that. It’s not important to him. What’s important is winning, and he’s a winner.”
[RJ Young’s Top 25 after Week 1]
Notre Dame was a formidable opponent that likely surprised everybody outside of South Bend. It held Ohio State to 99 passing yards in the first half and one touchdown before the final three drives. For a good chunk of the game, the Fighting Irish were more dominant in the trenches, which is an area Ohio State has strived to be better.
Ultimately, Ohio State’s defense, a retooled group under new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, held the Irish to one touchdown and 253 total yards. They stopped the run, holding Notre Dame to 76 yards on 2.5 yards per carry.
“The story of the night was the defense,” Day said. “It turned around after what’s been said about them in the offseason, questioning their toughness.”
“We were called soft all last year and had to eat it,” added safety Lathan Ransom.
[Top plays from Week 1 in college football]
There was a lot of hype surrounding Ohio State this offseason. Day’s team is a favorite to win the national championship, and that trickled down into the atmosphere at the home opener. Noted famous Buckeyes fan LeBron James was walking the sidelines before kickoff, as was Jayson Tatum, Andre Iguodala, Justin Fields, Ezekiel Elliott, Joe Burrow, plus the entire 2002 Ohio State national championship team, which was honored during the game. It took awhile for the Buckeyes to settle in and click, and while they relished the environment, the pressure didn’t help.
“I mean, thinking about the game, we’re playing the No. 5 team in the country,” Stroud said. “It’s kind of weird being out there again, to be honest. It’s like, seeing the fans, dealing with all the outside noise and trying to lock in. At the end of the day, we got the win.”
The expectation at Ohio State is to win the national championship. This is a group that truly believes last year’s 11-2 season, in which it won the Rose Bowl, was a failure. The Buckeyes’ goals are to beat Michigan, win the Big Ten and win a national title. All of those things are still very much possible, but there is work to be done. This team is not quite on the same level as Alabama or Georgia just yet, but there is still time to get there.
“If we can continue to win games like that, then that’s how we’ll win games,” Day said. “And when you can win in different ways, it says a lot about your team and I think this game is going to pay dividends down the road.”
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages Thursday after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14.39 billion.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then possibly the Supreme Court.
Should the NFL end up paying damages, it could cost each of the 32 teams approximately $449.6 million.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The trial lasted three weeks and featured testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said.
During his closing remarks, Carmody showed an April, 2017, NFL memo that showed the league was exploring a world without “Sunday Ticket” in 2017, where cable channels would air Sunday afternoon out-of-market games not shown on Fox or CBS.
The jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching its decision.
Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 31, including the NFL’s request to have him rule in favor of the league because the judge determined the plaintiffs did not prove their case.
Payment of damages, any changes to the “Sunday Ticket” package and/or the ways the NFL carries its Sunday afternoon games would be stayed until all appeals have been concluded.
The league maintained it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs said that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
Other professional sports leagues were also keeping an eye on this case since they also offer out-of-market packages. A major difference though is that MLB, the NBA and the NHL market their packages on multiple distributors and share in the revenue per subscriber instead of receiving an outright rights fee.
DirecTV had “Sunday Ticket” from its inception in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year the case could proceed as a class action.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
The average high in Paris on Aug. 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). The rooms will also be equipped with fans.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said about the plans for the Olympics.
According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.
The Olympics mark the most important stop on the athletic careers of the 10,500-plus athletes who will descend on Paris, which has led some high-profile countries to undercut environmental efforts for the sake of comfort.
“It’s a high-performance environment,” Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strath Gordon explained to The Post.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers seemed determined to keep playing. And playing. And playing.
The teams opened their Eastern Conference final playoff series with Florida’s 3-2 victory in four overtimes early Friday, with the game ranking as the sixth-longest game in NHL history.
Matthew Tkachuk’s goal came at the 19:47 mark of the fourth OT to end this one, which marked the 15th four-overtime game in NHL history and the longest game in franchise history for each team.
The longest game in NHL history came on March 24, 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the sixth overtime on Mud Bruneteau’s goal at 116 minutes, 30 seconds of extra play.
Florida’s previous record for longest game was 104:31 in Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup final against Colorado. Carolina’s previous record was 114:47 for Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup final.
The only good news for the teams is they had an extended break before this series began. Carolina closed out New Jersey exactly a week earlier, while Florida eliminated Toronto a day later.
But this game ended roughly six hours after Thursday night’s puck drop, and the teams have a Game 2 in less than 48 hours.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
