ARLINGTON, Texas » It only hurt when Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott smiled.
Which he did a lot Monday night.
Elliott set an Ohio State postseason record with four touchdowns in the Buckeyes’ 42-20 thumping of Oregon in the inaugural College Football Playoff Championship Game.
"Oh, I definitely feel it now," Elliott sad after carrying the ball 36 times for 246 yards.
Small wonder since Elliott has been playing with a broken left wrist since early in fall camp, meaning he usually carries the ball one-handed. He underwent surgery to have a screw inserted to stabilize the situation and balked at undergoing a complete healing process that would have cost him the start of the Buckeyes’ season. He has been playing with it in a brace.
He said he will finally undergo additional surgery this month.
"It has kinda reached the point where it won’t get any better," Elliott said.
For four quarters Monday, the pain was all Oregon’s as Elliott averaged 6.8 yards per carry finding holes where there were none and then hitting a second gear in the open field.
"I mean that’s a tremendous player," Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said.
"I knew going into the game that we wanted to run the ball," Elliott said. "We knew that our O-line was bigger and more physical than their D-line and we just had to punch them in the mouth."
Elliott said the offensive line — which the running backs have nicknamed the "Slobs" — "came out and played their butts off, paving the way for me."
Elliott’s explosiveness took the pressure of fledgling quarterback Cardale Jones, a sophomore who was making his third start for the Buckeyes. "When you have him being as fast and physical as he is and then you trump that with a 200-whatever pound he is, 6-foot, 5-inch quarterback (Jones), those are pretty good hammers," Helfrich said.
And the Buckeyes beat the Ducks over the head with them all night.
While Elliott was running away from the Ducks, he also put some distance between himself and some all-time Buckeyes greats, Archie Griffin and Keith Byars, moving into second place on Ohio State’s all-time single-season rushing list with 1,878 yards.
In his last three games, including a 230-yard effort against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, he has rushed for 696 yards and eight touchdowns.
He was, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said, "a monster."
"He’s the most underrated back in America," Meyer said. "He’s one of the best post-contact yard guys I’ve ever been around. And, on top of that, he’s a great human being."
"All the great running backs that have come though Ohio State — Archie Griffin, Eddie George, Beanie Wells — just being able to accomplish something that all of them weren’t able to accomplish, it means the world to me. And, I’m happy that I was able to carry on that lineage."
Actually, Elliott said that if it had been up to his father, who attended Missouri, he would have been a Tiger. But Elliott said, "when I visited Ohio State I just knew that I belonged there."
Meyer said perhaps the best thing about Elliott, a sophomore, is that the Buckeyes get him back for at least one more year.
Then Meyer looked at Elliott, who sat on the same table in the postgame interview room, and said, "I can’t wait until we start back to work on … (well), I’ll give you a couple days off, Zeke, and we’re back at it, you and Cardale."
With that, Elliott smiled through the pain, again.
