Am I the only person who thinks that Urban Meyers is a chump for running the score up with a 15 point lead, 20 seconds to play, and no Oregon time-outs, instead of doing the classy thing and taking a knee? I can see running up the score in the old days when the national champion was based upon the final subjective opinions and polls of the sportswriters and coaches, but it makes no sense to me under the current format.
You aren't the only one, but I respectfully disagree. Before that touchdown, the score was 35-20. Say Oregon penetrates the O line when Ohio State is trying to take a knee and Ohio State turns over the ball. (BTW, not a completely unrealistic situation given the four earlier turnovers by Ohio State including one caused by a bad snap.) Now it is a game again.
As a Buckeye, I wasn't 100% secure in our win UNTIL we scored that last touchdown. Oregon is THAT good. Anyone who follows them has seen them score in under 30 seconds.
In other words, scoring that last TD was a sign of respect for the ability of Oregon to score FAST.
BTW, Oregon STILL went down field after that play. They were trying to score, get a TD, on-side kick, score, repeat. Incidentally, I have seen the Cowboys score 21 points in under two minutes (obviously against a professional defense), so that is not an impossibility.
To repeat, the game was not 100% put away until that TD. And Urban Meyer's job was to put the game away...