It’s no secret that tight ends aren’t the most involved receivers in Ohio State’s passing game.
Even senior Jake Ballard, with 33 career catches entering the Rose Bowl, knows that his hands aren’t the ones most relied upon during games.
This made a good catch into a remarkable one when Ballard — not DeVier Posey or Dane Sanzenbacher, who combined for 17 catches in OSU’s 26-17 win — made his leaping, 24-yard catch on third-and-13.
The Buckeyes were holding a 19-17 lead with the clock ticking in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Terrelle Pryor rolled out, right into oncoming Oregon pressure, and flung a pass up for grabs. Ballard, at six-feet, six-inches, rose above a flock of Duck defenders to snare the football and fall to the ground for the critical first down.
“I jumped and I thought I jumped too early,” Ballard said. “Then I kept going up. So maybe the adrenaline helped me get a couple more inches.”
The momentous conversion placed the ball at the Oregon 31-yard line, setting up the Buckeyes for the game-clinching score when Pryor found Posey for a 17-yard touchdown just five plays later.
“I didn’t think anything else except, ‘I have to make this catch,'” Ballard said. “‘There is no other choice.'”
