"That makes Ohio State extremely dangerous": CFB insider hails Ryan Day & Co. for overcoming Jeremiah Smith's imperfections

For his reaction comments on YouTube following Ohio State's win Friday night, On3's J.D. PicKell requested a thumbnail of Jeremiah Smith. The prediction was well warranted, especially after the freshman receiver's performance his last time out, a seven-catch, 187-yard performance in the Rose Bowl that included two touchdowns.

However, the Buckeyes defeated Texas 41-31 in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl on Friday despite Smith being hushed by the Longhorns.

"Jeremiah Smith, one catch, 3 yards," PicKell said, then paused for a moment and looked both ways on Saturday (Timestamp: 3:36). "Nothing's wrong with your YouTube video right now. One catch for 3 yards. He wasn't even really a factor in this game, and Ohio State still found a way to get it done.

"For them to be able to overcome all of those imperfections and to still win this football game — in a close fashion, now — that makes Ohio State extremely dangerous."

PicKell added that he believes the resilience is a product of the Buckeyes' earlier losses to Oregon and Michigan during the regular season. They looked nearly flawless in their initial two playoff wins — 42-17 and 41-21 counts over Tennessee and Oregon, respectively. The 28-14 triumph over a well-matched Texas crew should say even more about Ohio State's resolve.

"The reason why it should be so validating (for) a Buckeye today was just that, it wasn't pretty," PicKell said. "There was some warts. There's a part of this that was a little bit clunky and ugly and unorthodox. You kind of had to will your way through this one. If you rolled into that game against Notre Dame just scoring 40 against everybody and blowing the doors off everybody, I wonder how well that would serve you."

How Ohio State was tested against Texas

With their performance early on, it seemed the Buckeyes were going to repeat their previous showings. They went 64 yards in 10 plays to start their day on offense, a scoring march capped by Quinshon Judkins' 9-yard surge.

"You're kinda like, 'OK, this feels very familiar. This feels very, very reminiscent of the other two playoff games we've seen from this Buckeye outfit,'" PicKell said. "And, from there, man, they just struggled to totally put it into gear. And some of that — just so we're on the same page — is completely controllable and inflicted wounds from Ohio State."

The Buckeyes were penalized nine times for 75 yards, including an unsportsmanlike conduct infraction on TreVeyon Henderson on the team's second possession, which looked to be fruitful before the setback.

A battle-tested Ohio State will strive to finish off its impressive run against former Buckeyes linebacker and current Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman. The Fighting Irish haven't lost since Sept. 7, an upset home defeat to Northern Illinois.