What was more improbable, the way No. 4 Texas won that game, or the way No. 1 Ohio State lost it?
Consider this: Ohio State had 11 offensive possessions on Saturday night, totaling 63 plays. They reached Texas's side of the field in eight of them, aided by the fact that three drives started in Longhorn territory. In all, Ohio State ran 46 of their 63 plays -- nearly 75 percent! -- in Texas territory, reaching the Texas red zone on their first five chances and penetrating the Texas 30-yard line a whopping seven times. They also didn't turn the ball over, at least not in the game's first 59:59.
And scored 23 points. And lost the game.
Ohio State drive chart
-- 6 plays, 11 yards, field goal
-- 10 plays, 81 yards, touchdown
-- 10 plays, 36 yards, turnover on downs
-- 9 plays, 63 yards, field goal
-- 4 plays, 49 yards, touchdown
HALFTIME
-- 6 plays, 36 yards, punt
-- 7 plays, 43 yards, field goal
-- 3 plays, 1 yard, punt
-- 7 plays, 48 yards, missed field goal
-- 2 plays, minus-5 yards, interception
All of this is tangential to the fact that, in the first half alone, Texas fumbled the ball on its very first play, ended its second on an interception that Arch Manning, Cam Coleman and Ohio State safety Jaylen McClain could not have recreated with 1,000 tries and a $100 million reward, dropped a clear touchdown pass, and turned the ball over on downs at midfield with plenty of time on the clock to allow a back-breaking touchdown.
And somehow played worse to start the third quarter.
After doing all of that in the first two frames, Texas opened the third by going 4-and-out and 3-and-out. Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia had so utterly solved Steve Sarkisian's offense that Coleman and Ryan Wingo had essentially exited the game, and all that was left were check downs, in which Buckeye defenders teed off on whatever pour soul happened to catch the pass. People were booing. And then Texas couldn't be stopped.
Texas's first seven drives traveled 116 yards and produced three points. Their last three went 236 and were worth 21 points.
Texas drive chart
-- 1 play, minus-4 yards, fumble
-- 4 plays, 13 yards, interception
-- 3 plays, minus-4 yards, punt
-- 16 plays, 69 yards, field goal
-- 7 plays, 24 yards, turnover on downs
HALFTIME
-- 4 plays, 17 yards, punt
-- 3 plays, 1 yard, punt
-- 15 plays, 91 yards, touchdown
-- 13 plays, 72 yards, touchdown
-- 12 plays, 73 yards, touchdown
Heading into Saturday night, nearly every prediction foresaw a coin-flip game with the winner and the loser scoring generally somewhere between 21 and 27. Final score: Texas 24, Ohio State 23. We all saw this coming, and yet no one could have predicted this.
At the end of the day, it's a non-conference game played on Sept. 12 in a season that will stretch practically into February. Nearly a full season is still ahead for the winner and the loser. And yet. It's a program-validating win for Steve Sarkisian and Texas (after already having beaten Nick Saban's Alabama in Bryant Denny.) It's by no means an era-defining loss for Ryan Day, but it'll take a whole season and then some to wash the taste of this one out of his mouth.
We just saw the game of the year in college football, and considering we're only two weeks in, it might not even be the game of September.