Just one year ago, the Ohio State Buckeyes were in a dogfight with the Texas Longhorns in the 2025 Cotton Bowl Classic.

The football game was a back-and-forth, defensive battle with both offenses struggling to get going. The Buckeyes used a 75-yard touchdown pass at the end of the first half to take a 14-7 lead at the break. 

The second half was a struggle until the Buckeyes put together a monster 13-play, 88-yard drive that lasted nearly eight minutes to take a 21-14 lead with just 7:01 to go in the fourth. The Longhorns had another punch left in them, and they gave it their best shot.

Quarterback Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns put together a 10-play, 58-yard drive that had them knocking on the door of the end zone. The Buckeyes bowed up and didn't allow the Longhorns in on their first three attempts. Then, on fourth down, Jack Sawyer made the play that will be remembered forever in Columbus. 

What happened on that play that allowed Sawyer to get home and make the play?

Ohio State ran a form of Cover 4 that they were protecting the goal line while using linebacker Cody Simon as the QB spy to protect against any run. Texas used a motion to start the play to identify man or zone. It was clearly zone coverage, and it indicated to Ewers to look at that side of the field. 

Texas's big mistake on this play was deciding to run their zone beater to the boundary and not to the field. They shrunk the field down before the ball was snapped and struggled to find the room. 

Ohio State called the perfect coverage.

The Buckeyes won the pass rush on all fronts. It's very easy to see that Jack Sawyer won his rep almost immediately, but he wasn't the only one. 

JT Tuimoloau hit a nasty move that pressed the interior of the pocket, and Ty Hamilton pushed the center into Ewers' lap, not allowing him to step up in the pocket.

On the back end, Texas was running what I call a "Stars" route, which is basically a one on one route that is aimed to win up the middle of the field. It is a really good concept in the red area because you often get a wide receiver on a middle linebacker. Well, instead of a middle linebacker, it was Caleb Downs. Advantage Buckeyes.

Downs' suffocated the route and killed Ewer's primary option.

While that was happening, up front, it was all Buckeyes. Sawyer won his rep off the snap and had a free runner at Ewers.  Because of the interior pressure, Ewers had nowhere to step up to; he ran out of time, and the rest is history.

Instead of crushing him, Sawyer hit him hard, but also got his hand on the football and knocked it free. He scooped it up and was off to the races. 

It was at this moment that Ryan Day knew his team was going to win the National Championship. In a tough regular season, his team came together and seemingly got every bounce to go their way in the playoffs. They killed their first two opponents and then grinded out a win against Texas before handling the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. 

It was a special day in Ohio State history, one that will not soon be forgotten by Buckeye fans everywhere.