CFB wrap-up: Takeaways from the Cotton Bowl

The Cotton Bowl had a tough act to follow after Notre Dame's thrilling win over Penn State on Thursday, but Ohio State and Texas were up to the task with an exciting College Football Playoff semifinal of their own Friday in Arlington.

The final score shows a two-touchdown victory for the Buckeyes, but the Longhorns were very much in the mix until a late defensive score sealed the deal.

Here are the top takeaways from Ohio State's victory.

Defensive line ate Texas' lunch

The theme of Ohio State's campaign has been its defense absolutely working the opposition, and the Cotton Bowl proved to be no different. The offense - mostly Jeremiah Smith - has stolen the headlines throughout the Buckeyes' romp through the playoff, but it's the defense that has consistently been the best in the country since the season kicked off.

Holding Tennessee's 15th-ranked offense to under 20 points in Round 1 was impressive, but the Duck hunt on Oregon in the quarterfinal was on another level. Ohio State sacked Dillon Gabriel an outrageous eight times en route to another blowout. That defense traveled to Texas and delivered once again.

Four sacks, four quarterback hurries, nine tackles for loss, and a goal-line stand capped by a strip-sack, scoop, and 83-yard touchdown that will forever live in program lore.

The Buckeyes were able to get after Quinn Ewers throughout the contest without blitzing, moving the quarterback off his spot repeatedly. That essentially took away any deep passing threat with the line unable to keep Ewers upright for any length of time. Even when Texas moved the ball late in the fourth, the nation's best red-zone defense flexed its muscles.

A run for no gain, a run for a loss of 7, and an incomplete pass is how you turn first-and-goal on the 1-yard line to fourth-and-goal from the 8. That set the table for Jack Sawyer's moment of brilliance.

Other dudes delivered on offense

We've gushed about Smith for the opening two rounds, and with good reason given his outrageous line of 13 catches for 290 yards and four touchdowns. However, the Longhorns' game plan was clearly to neutralize Smith and make the other Buckeyes beat them. The first part of that was a smashing success, with Smith grabbing just one ball. The problem is that the drop-off from Smith to the rest of the offense just isn't that significant, with five-star prospects and high-profile transfers littering the depth chart.

TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins combined for 175 total yards and scored all three offensive touchdowns. Carnell Tate took full advantage of the attention on Smith, grabbing a season-high seven catches for 87 yards.

That depth - as well as the combo of Chip Kelly's play-calling and Will Howard's decision-making - delivered time and again on the most important drive of the game. With the score tied in the fourth quarter, Ohio State went 88 yards in 13 plays and took almost eight minutes off the clock. Howard, Judkins, and Emeka Egbuka did the heavy lifting to put the Buckeyes up for good.

Smith gives the Buckeyes an extra gear that no other team has. However, Friday reminded us that the attention needed to shut down the star freshman comes at a cost.

Texas stood tall in 3rd

Ohio State is the best third-quarter team in the nation - leading the entire FBS in both offense and defense. Texas? Not so much. The Longhorns are 65th in the country in scoring in that period and haven't won a third quarter since Oct. 12 versus Oklahoma.

The offense went for 90 yards with a sparkling 4-for-4 conversion rate on third down. That was a big improvement from the one third-down conversion in the opening half. The defense intercepted Howard once, stopped the Buckeyes on both their third-down attempts, and held them to only 11 yards rushing.

That third-quarter push not only kept the Buckeyes from running away after the one-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to end the first half gave them all the momentum, but it put Texas in position to potentially pull off the upset in the fourth.

CFP semis were electric

Sure, there were some duds in the early rounds of the 12-team playoff, but there's no question the semifinals delivered electric finishes on consecutive nights. Both the Orange and Cotton Bowl saw heavyweights figuring each other out early before exploding in the second half for some highly entertaining football.

All four teams in the semifinals were in the top eight of The Associated Press' preseason poll and widely considered to be among the nation's best throughout the season.

There are a few tweaks that would be beneficial to the CFP format moving forward - notably a change to how the first-round byes are handed out. However, it's tough to see the first year in the new bracket-style system as anything but a resounding success.