Look how close Ohio State came to losing to Maryland (a few times)

The QB missing an open receiver in the end zone on the decisive two-point try was the tip of the spear.

Ohio State has survived, for now. The No. 10 Buckeyes won 52-51 at Maryland on Saturday in overtime, despite facing three different two-touchdown deficits and letting the Terps ring up 8.6 yards per play against them. Both the Bucks and their head coach looked like they were laboring badly throughout the game, but their Playoff hopes are still intact.

The play everyone will talk about, fairly, is the last one.

Ohio State got the ball first in overtime and scored a touchdown. Maryland answered by scoring its own TD in two plays. Then Matt Canada, the Terps’ interim coach, decided to go for the win right then and there. The two-pointer that could’ve won the game didn’t, because Tyrrell Pigrome’s pass to an open Jeshaun Jones fell incomplete.

Pigrome messed up. Jones was standing with nobody that close to him in the end zone, and the quarterback’s pass flew past him, uncatchable off to Jones’ left.

ESPN’s commentators and a lot of people who watched the play live (including me) immediately remarked that Maryland must’ve had a great play design here. That might have been true, but it’s not that the Terps did anything schematically brilliant. Pigrome had the option to pitch a shovel pass to a trailing running back, who’d started the play to his left, but that back probably would’ve gotten tackled short by a charging linebacker.

The reason the play was open was that Ohio State’s defensive backs screwed up, too. Maryland had three receivers lined up to the right side of the formation. Two of them ran to the flat, but all three Buckeye DBs in that area followed those two guys.

That left Jones wide open, only with a linebacker between him and Pigrome:

The throw wasn’t as easy as it looked on live television. Tuf Borland was sort of close to being in the way. But Pigrome had room to find Jones, especially with Borland flowing toward the sideline as he chased the quarterback. Ohio State was incredibly fortunate that Pigrome didn’t make a better throw. If he had, Maryland would’ve won, and the reason would’ve been that Ohio State’s defense didn’t communicate at the goal line.

The last play was an avatar for the rest of the game. Both teams got breaks, but consider everything Ohio State messed up before winning.

• It gave up two 75-plus-yard touchdown runs to Maryland’s Anthony McFarland in the first six minutes of the game. McFarland finished with 21 runs for 298 yards.
• It committed three turnovers (two ugly fumbles — one which came inside the Maryland 5-yard line — and a pick six) and let Maryland recover a pooch kickoff at the OSU 29 and had a turnover on downs in the Terps’ territory in the first quarter.
• It gave up a 15-yard fake punt completion in the fourth quarter, en route to a Maryland TD.
• It gave up a go-ahead touchdown in the final two minutes after Maryland fumbled around the 1 on third-and-goal, only for another Terp to fall on the ball in the end zone.

The last one wasn’t exactly a mess-up, but it’s a thing that happened. At other moments, Maryland left points on the field when:

• Pigrome overthrew an open Jones in the end zone in the first half, after the Ohio State cornerback trailing Jones had slipped and fallen.
• Pigrome took a 6-yard sack in the second quarter, moving Maryland back from the Ohio State 26 to the 32. On the next play, Maryland’s Joseph Petrino missed a 49-yard field goal that hooked just a bit too far to the left. Without the sack, it likely would’ve gone through.
• Pigrome took a 14-yard sack in the last seconds of regulation, after Maryland had reached the Ohio State 38 in a tie game. The Terps were just on the edge of field goal range, but the sack backed them well out of it. Pigrome got sacked again on the next play to bring up overtime.

The Terps finished averaging 8.6 yards per play.

At different points, Ohio State trailed 17-3, 24-10, 31-17, and — in the final minute of regulation — 45-38.

The Buckeyes didn’t lead until they scored on the first series of overtime. Maryland scored a touchdown two snaps later. As it turned out, Ohio State played from ahead for two plays (and a two-point try) in a game that had 156 offensive plays.

It was the opposite of pretty. Ohio State looks like it should get crushed against Michigan. But the Buckeyes should take solace for now in how amazing it is that they’re still ticking.