In the greatest game of the season thus far, the Buckeyes and their coach stunned the Irish with a last-second touchdown.

With the football in his hands, Chip Trayanum was lying on the goal line, starting an Ohio State celebration that would culminate with Ryan Day angrily yelling about toughness, disrespect, and Lou Holtz on live television. Day said, launching a rallying cry for the wealthiest sports department in the country: “It’s Ohio versus the world!”

In the end, the play that turned the tide of the most important game of the season—a 17-14 victory for the No. 6 Buckeyes against the No. 9 Fighting Irish—was Ohio versus just 10 Notre Dame defenders. With a yard remaining and the game hanging in the balance, Trayanum’s touchdown run with one second remaining ran straight over a gap in the Notre Dame defense caused by a lost lineman. That one will be difficult for Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden and coach Marcus Freeman to accept, particularly if this result reverberates throughout the College Football Playoff competition.

This was a yard-here, yard-there kind of game, full of anxiety around small yards. It was the same type of game that Ohio State lost to Georgia in the CFP semifinals to close the previous season. This time, the last three yards went in favor of the Buckeyes, capping a 65-yard drive that made quarterback Kyle McCord, who had been questioned, an instant hero. In the end, it caused Day to launch into a tirade of disparaging remarks directed at an 86-year-old guy who hasn’t worked as a TV pundit or coach since 2015.

During an appearance on ESPN’s “Pat McAfee Show,” Holtz and Day clicked. Speaking about Day and the Buckeyes, the man who guided Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship said, “He has lost to Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan, and anybody who defeats them does so because they’re more physical than Ohio State.” I believe Notre Dame will use the same strategy.

Day has obviously had enough of hearing his team’s supposed lack of toughness. He denied any doubts about his squad’s tenacity, even though he admitted that his team gave up physically in the second half of their 2021 defeat to Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Ryan Day, the coach of the Buckeyes, praised his team’s tenacity following Saturday’s exciting victory over the Irish.

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With a tense voice, he remarked, “A lot of people took a lot of shots at this squad over the previous 48 hours,” during his postgame news conference. That really resonated with me. You believe that we lack toughness and physicality? You’re not correct.

“We will not put up with that. That isn’t even remotely accurate. I have no idea where the story originated. Tonight is the last of that. I’m not sure how [Holtz] gets away with saying stuff like that. I have more to say, but since I treat people with more respect than he does, I won’t say anything.

Ohio has always faced off against the rest of the globe, and that still remains. Put the movie on and observe what happens; a lot of people comment on someone’s lack of toughness.

The first-half stop of the Buckeyes at the Notre Dame 1-yard line will be captured on camera during this game. After executing the reverse of a tough, smash-mouth play and sending Emeka Egbuka on a jet sweep toward the sideline on a fourth-and-one, it will depict them being stopped at the Notre Dame 11 in the second half. Additionally, it will demonstrate how the Buckeyes barely managed to get the last yard against a 10-man defense that was missing a lineman; this may not be the clear-cut confirmation of his team’s physicality that Day believes it to be.

However, the movie will also see McCord and his colleagues coolly leading a 65-yard do-or-die drive that overturned a 14-10 deficit into one of the most thrilling wins imaginable. With just 10 points in the first 59 minutes and 58 seconds of the game, McCord, a first-year starter entrusted with succeeding recent Ohio State quarterback stars C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields, Dwayne Haskins, and J.T. Barrett, could not keep the Buckeyes from scoring their lowest-scoring game in seven years. But McCord came up big when Ohio State needed it most.

Trayanum praised Kyle as a “hound,” saying the squad was behind him as the starting quarterback.

During the last drive, McCord made three clutch throws to keep the drive rolling. From Ohio State’s own 35-yard line, on a third-and-10, he hit Egbuka on a seam route for 23 yards. He discovered Julian Fleming on a crossing path for precisely seven to shift the chains on a fourth-and-seven from the Notre Dame 39. Additionally, McCord saw Egbuka find a soft area in a soft zone coverage to bring the ball to the 1-yard line on a third-and-19 from the Irish 22.

McCord remarked, “At that point, you’re playing backyard football.” “Offering your player an opportunity to make a play.”

In the last minute of the game, McCord masterminded a 65-yard touchdown drive that won the game and defeated Notre Dame.

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With seven seconds remaining, McCord raced to spike the ball in order to stop the time on the following play. Star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. had a sprint-out throw on the following play, but McCord missed it. Harrison had a terrible night, being double-covered for the whole of the game and playing with an ankle ailment, collecting only three catches for 32 yards.

With barely three seconds remaining, there was only going to be one more play on third-and-goal. Day signaled for Trayanum to take over. Irish defenders struck him on all sides, but he managed to keep his knees off the ground long enough to advance the ball to the goal line.

“In the end, it’s either you get the yard or you don’t,” Trayanum said.

In this game, the Ohio State defense prevailed in a pair of one-yard contests and stopped Notre Dame’s opening possession, a fourth-and-one Sam Hartman scramble in the red zone. In the third quarter, Hartman attempted a fourth-and-one sneak, but the Buckeyes stopped him.

But after being staked to a 10-0 lead, the same defense also withered in the end, allowing two Irish touchdown drives. Those two drives totaled 96 yards, which appeared to give Notre Dame all the points it required to win the contest.

When the Irish regained possession of the ball with 4:12 left, however, they were unable to seal the deal. With 2:28 remaining on a second-and-15, Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, Gerad Parker, made a questionable screen throw call that almost resulted in an interception but fell incomplete, halting the clock and giving the team a much-needed timeout.

Nevertheless, if Notre Dame had won its previous defensive series, that last offensive series would have been meaningless. And that’s why fielding ten men was such an obvious mistake.

Irish coach Marcus Freeman stated, “We were attempting to get a fourth D-lineman on the field and I told him just stay off because we can’t afford a penalty.” “You mean I didn’t have any time-outs? Therefore, we were unable to pay a fine there. It’s on us, you know that much. We must improve.

In a goal-line scenario, every artificial turf blade counts, although Notre Dame would have only lost around eighteen inches if there had been a penalty. Taking the penalty there and bringing the 11th man into the field would have likely been the preferable course of action.

Rather, Ohio State gained the last yard. Notre Dame Stadium was left speechless and disheartened, as the team’s greatest triumph in recent memory vanished in an instant. Soon after the game, in a crowded, silent elevator that descended to the stadium exit, a Fighting Irish supporter muttered something that perfectly summed up the losing team’s evening: