The Ohio State Buckeyes suffered a big disappointment after losing to the Michigan State Spartans in the Big Ten Championship game and now Urban Meyer and his team are coming off of a loss for the first time in two years when they take on the Clemson Tigers in the BCS Discover Orange Bowl and the game will start up on TV on ESPN on schedule at 8 pm for the pregame and then 8:30 pm for the kickoff in Miami.
The game has two of the most talented quarterbacks in the nation with Tajh Boyd and Braxton Miller and those two players will be the main focus in the game and so will Buckeyes running back Carlos Hyde, who had a huge game against Michigan and a great season with over 1,400 yards rushing to lead the team. Hyde is the x factor in the game and he could end up being the biggest difference between the two teams and he comes in after having a solid game against MSU, while Miller rushed for 142 yards in that game and the Clemson defense will have to watch out for his scrambling ability.
Ohio State comes into the game 12-1 after losing out on their chance to play in the national title game against Michigan State after Connor Cook tossed for 304 yards and then the Spartans went on to win the Rose Bowl and now the Buckeyes have the chance to end on a high note after not losing in the regular season for two years. The team finished the year without a loss after making a great stop at the end of the Michigan game that could have ended their hopes, as the Wolverines had the chance to tie the game and went for two, but the Buckeyes picked off the pass and now they come into the game with one of the best offenses in the nation, ranking third in rushing yards per game with over 300 and third in points scored per game with close to 50. The defense has been very solid as well, ranking 20th in the nation with 21 points allowed per game.
The Buckeyes are now seventh in the nation heading into the game with Clemson at 12 and they got into the game with Florida State going to the national championship from the ACC and they are a very high scoring team as well and they had a clear shot to make it into the national championship earlier in the season, but they could not defeat FSU in their matchup and were blown out. The Buckeyes had a relatively easy schedule compared to teams in the SEC, as they played just two ranked teams in the regular season and both those ended up being their closest games, while the rest were blowouts and embarrassments, including a 56 point shutout of Purdue and and a 76 point shutout against Florida A&M and now they will face their toughest team apart from the Spartans in Clemson.
Clemson comes into the game after losing to South Carolina in their rivalry game to finish the season and the team comes in scoring over 40 points per game and allowing the same amount of points as the Buckeyes on defense and they have been very impressive passing the ball with Boyd, averaging nearly 330 yards per game. The team opened the season with a very tough win against Georgia by three points and after starting 6-0 they lost bad to Florida State and then fell to South Carolina in the final game and they come into the Orange Bowl after going 10-2 on the season and 1-2 against teams in the top 25 and now they will face one of the most talented offenses in the nation in Ohio State.
