Two weeks later, the Rose Bowl result is even more baffling than it felt in real time.

— the nation’s No. 1 team, the lone unbeaten, the betting favorite to win the College Football Playoff.

Ohio State obliterated Oregon

With 8:47 remaining in the second quarter, the Buckeyes had run 25 plays and scored 31 points.

The Ducks had run 23 plays and scored zero points.

The game was over.

“Oregon walked into a Mike Tyson fight,” Chris Petersen, the Fox Sports analyst and former Boise State and Washington coach, told the Hotline earlier this week. “It was one of those, ‘What just happened?’ things.”

But just nine days after they looked untouchable against Oregon, the Buckeyes struggled to put away Texas, which needed two overtimes to beat Arizona State in the quarterfinals.

What happened in Pasadena on Jan. 1? Why were the Ducks so badly outclassed by an opponent they defeated in the middle of the season, a team that lost to Michigan and struggled against Texas?