10 Observations: Buckeyes Fall Short at Oregon

Ohio State fell a point short at Oregon on Saturday night and there is no shortage of ‘what ifs’ floating around the program after the back-and-forth game featuring two of the nation’s best teams. There is a lot to unpack both in the short and long term from last night’s game and I’ll do my best in this edition of 10 Observations.

1. I usually do criticism first, positives last, but I feel its important to set some context to all of the criticism I’m about to dish out. Despite everything that happened last night, despite the concerns I still have about certain components of the program, Ohio State is still in control of its goals to start the season.

The Buckeyes still control their ability to beat Michigan, to make the Big Ten championship and win a conference title, and earn a first round playoff bye. None of that changed last night, but the margin for error went away.

2. I once again was encouraged by how the offensive line played. Was it perfect? No. But if you had told me before the game that Simmons and Tshabola would both go down in the first half, I would have thought the rest of the game would have been a total nightmare up front and it wasn’t. Ohio State was able to move the football pretty consistently on offense and I thought Zen Michalski did an admirable job in a tough spot. Long term though? Simmons’ potential loss for the season is far more concerning than the final score of the game.

3. I feel for Will Howard. For 58 minutes he played the exact game that Ohio State needed him to play. He was efficient, he was decisive, he took care of the football, and he led with confidence and calm in a chaotic environment and in a back-and-forth game.

4. The two-minute drill at the end of the game is going to stain that performance for many people. Starting the drive by falling down and not getting rid of the ball cost Ohio State more than 20 seconds of valuable time.

The play at the end can’t happen. Everyone watching knew the moment he tucked that ball to run, the game was over. It wasn’t realistic to survey, take off, and gain significant yardage and pop up and get a timeout in six seconds. Have to throw it away or get down right after picking up a yard or two and take your chances with a 53-55 yard field goal. Far from ideal, but have to at least give Fielding a chance there.

5. Taking your last timeout into the locker room is inexcusable. That falls mostly on Ryan Day. Day gave up playcalling to be better in these situations and that did not happen on Saturday night. There were several opportunities to use that timeout to save time, most notably the disaster that occurred after the Jeremiah Smith OPI.

6. I don’t know how, especially now with helmet communication, that could happen losing 10-15 seconds after Smith’s OPI. Day has to know the clock is going to run there. Howard has to know it too and both have to be communicating to get ready for the next snap there. Just a really, really bad mistake, especially with so much experience on that field. Compounding the mistake by not immediately calling a timeout once you realize what is happening is inexcusable. Continually having these late game management situations arise in big games has to stop.

7. Once again, the defense was not good enough in a big game. And it always seems to be the same questions in terms of situational awareness. This was the Georgia game all over again my opinion. Why are you in Cover 0 in the final two minutes of the first half on 3rd and long with a six-point lead?

And why are you going man across the board and not complementing that with extra pressure? The goal in man coverage is to force a quick throw. The best way to do that is to bring extra pressure and you have the bodies to do it since you’re in…yanno…man coverage. There was no connectivity between the coverages being called and what the front seven was doing and that goes entirely on Jim Knowles.

This is a pattern. I’ve been saying it for a while but I don’t think even the most fervent supporters can argue that at this point. I don’t blame anyone at this point who needs to see the defense carry it’s share of the water in a big game to believe it. Same old story. No turnovers, no forced punts in the final 28 minutes of the game. Not getting off the field on third down, even on a toss sweep on 3rd and 6. If your defense can’t force turnovers or punts, you’re never going to win this type of game and Jim Knowles’ defenses at Ohio State haven’t forced nearly enough of both in every single big game.

Something has to fundamentally change. Taking the blame after each loss and saying you just need to coach better is getting stale.

8. I’m not absolving the defensive line, though. I can’t really point to one thing the defensive front did well in this game. They didn’t get pressure, they didn’t stop the run, they didn’t create negative plays. I have, at times, felt the criticism of the defensive line has been a bit hyperbolic but a game like that is going to rightfully bring all of the old narratives out.

9. I loved the amount of rotating the Buckeyes did in the front four the first few weeks of the season. It felt like they reverted to old habits against Iowa. Then in the first half against Oregon, the rotation seemed to be back before going away from it again in the second half. Kayden McDonald and Caden Curry deserve more snaps, and I think you might even get better play out of your starters in the fourth quarter if you stop focusing too much on the situations and just trust in your rotations.

This team doesn’t have a Nick Bosa or a Chase Young. The gap between the 1s and 2s isn’t such that you simply have to ride with your starting four in every key situation.

10. Nightmare game for Denzel Burke that likely cost him quite a bit of money. He won’t get another chance at true redemption during the regular season so it will need to be an Oregon rematch in Indy or a big showdown in the playoffs against a team like Texas before the Buckeyes see another elite group of receivers.

It’s the worst situation for a coach to be in when one of your best players is struggling and there’s a fine line between benching someone and causing long term harm by crashing confidence and then doing what the team needs in the moment.

Trying to thread the needle there probably would have been the best response. Pull Burke out of the game, tell him immediately that he just needs to sit down and calm down and that he’s going back in the game. Things clearly snowballed on Denzel on Saturday and it impacted him in coverage, it impacted his tackling, and it even impacted him getting off blocks. Sometimes you just have to sit a guy down for a few minutes, talk to them, and get them calmed down.

Bonus: I said before the game there would likely be a rematch in Indy anyway. I would say last night’s game only validated that opinion for me. But all of the pressure to make a rematch happen is now on Ohio State.