NEW ORLEANS - Oh what a game it was if you were a Buckeyes fan.

The hits were hard, the trainers were busy and two heavyweights went slug for slug in the Sugar Bowl but the Buckeyes just had too much and scoring touchdowns on five straight drives really was the difference in this one as demons were exorcised and the Buckeyes are off to the College Football Playoff Championship.

And did we mention that the Buckeyes had to do it once again with a short roster?

Maybe not as short as the Michigan State and Northwestern games, but still without a couple of starters and key contributors.

How did the snaps break up? We take a look with help from our friends at PFF.com as we update the snap counts on our weekly Snap Count feature.

We knew this was going to be the Justin Fields show and it was, but we did not know that he was going to have to play in agonizing pain for much of the night after taking a hit from linebacker James Skalski. It knocked the Ohio State quarterback out of the game for a mandatory play but Fields, like a true warrior, came back the next play that he was allowed to return and threw a touchdown strike to Chris Olave.

Fields would throw for six touchdowns, an Ohio State bowl record and 385 passing yards and would also have 42 rushing yards for good measure.

Master Teague was not able to go in this game but Trey Sermon has had a two-game stretch that is just legendary in an Ohio State sense of things. If he is able to do something like that against Alabama, he will be in the same rare air as someone like Zeke Elliott, who did it in his last three games of the 2014 season in the postseason. Sermon went almost the whole way with 70 of 73 snaps played on offense. Next man up was Miyan Willams and another strong outing by him in a limited role.

Chris Olave is so important to this team and even when he is not being targeted, it makes everyone else around him that much better because Olave has to be accounted for. Olave had six grabs for 132 yards and two scores but with six touchdowns in the air, there was plenty to go around. The tight ends also were a focal point in the first half of the game and the three TDs by Luke Farrell and Jeremy Ruckert will be quite memorable.

The Buckeyes had to shift things around without Harry Miller in this game and Matt Jones played at a very high level getting the relief start for the Buckeyes. Wyatt Davis got dinged up but did not miss much of any time and true freshman phenom Paris Johnson saw his most action of the season but not at his familiar tackle position, but rather sliding inside at offensive guard when Jones had to come off the field for a handful of plays.

Defensive line was another position where the Buckeyes need to juggle some things with a couple of missing players but how well did guys like Tyreke Smith play down the stretch in this one? Jonathon Cooper saw a lot of action with 56 snaps and the Buckeyes needed every bit of his lofty contribution in the game. Five linemen saw 30 or more snaps in this game as Larry Johnson did not have the luxury of rotating as many players in during this game but it worked and people will be talking about the group effort of this line for a long time.

There were unfounded rumors before the game that Baron Browning was not going to be able to go, but he did and saw about half of the defensive snaps while Pete Werner went the whole way. Linebacker Tuf Borland ended up with the defensive MVP award as a lot of players were worthy of being singled out. The Buckeyes held the Tigers to just 44 rushing yards in this one, something that most people did not see coming. Oh, and we have to talk about Justin Hilliard because he is playing so well down the stretch.

Most people would have felt that Ohio State yielding 400 passing yards to Clemson would mean a bad outing and the end of the season, but that was not the case, not by a long shot. Three players, Shaun Wade, Sevyn Banks and Josh Proctor saw every defensive snap while Marcus Williamson would only miss one as it was a short rotation on the night in this unit.