by Photo via Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images.
On Saturday night, the Ohio State football team lost a heartbreaker on the road at Oregon for their first defeat of the 2024 campaign. While the game was expected to be close, the consensus had the Buckeyes as the better team and they certainly had their fair share of chances to win. The loss drops Ohio State to 5-1 on the season while Oregon remains undefeated and could potentially jump to No. 1 in next week’s AP Poll. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the clash.
Late mistakes prove to be fatal.
Like we said, the Buckeyes had many opportunities to win the game, especially late. Down by a single point, the offense was driving down the field with under two minutes to go and looked as smooth as it had looked since the start of the second half. On the Oregon 28-yard line with 28 seconds remaining, quarterback Will Howard found freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith within the 20-yard line and it looked like the Buckeye offense was continuing to flow nicely, but a late flag declared an offensive pass interference penalty on Smith, negating the play and taking them out of field goal range with a 15-yard penalty.
While the penalty was both untimely and unfortunate, it was probably the right call as Smith shoved his defender away with two hands before catching the ball. To make matters worse, Head Coach Ryan Day and his staff didn’t seem to understand that the clock would continue to run and lost precious seconds in the process. It is a mistake that absolutely cannot happen and it cost the Buckeyes dearly. With only six seconds left and Ohio State still with a timeout in their pocket, Day decided to try and run a quick play to get into field goal range. Nobody was open and Howard tried to scramble and slide down before the clock ran out, but when his knee touched the grass there was no time remaining and the game ended with an Oregon victory. Looking back, Day’s inexplicable lack of understanding of the clock rules cost them this game and the amount of heat on his job security is set to increase exponentially because of it.
Defense flounders in key moments.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ crew proved last year that they’re the best in the country and were supposed to be even better this year, but they looked downright bad last night. Most notably, the secondary was absolutely incompetent in handling Oregon receivers Evan Stewart and Tez Johnson who combined for 224 yards. Denzel Burke, who is supposed to be the Buckeyes best cornerback, was badly beaten over the top multiple times in the first half and there were even calls for him to be benched despite his veteran status. In the second half, costly pass interference calls against fellow cornerbacks Davison Igbinosun and Jordan Hancock prolonged key Oregon drives as well. So far this year, only Caleb Downs (and perhaps Lathan Ransom as well) has been consistently strong. With the transfer portal being a very real thing, let’s not take him for granted.
Additionally, the defensive line absolutely wrecked last week’s game against Iowa, but was ineffectual yesterday. Jack Sawyer was nowhere to be found and J.T. Tuimoloau made a key mistake on Oregon’s final touchdown, tackling the running back instead of quarterback Dillon Gabriel who kept the ball and ran it for the touchdown. Defensive tackles Tyleik Williams and Ty Hamilton were no-shows as well and Gabriel was largely left unpressured for the duration of the game. There’s no other way to put it, this unit has got to look better if Ohio State wants to have any hope of salvaging their season.
What happened to the offense?
The Buckeye offense had a very strange night, as in the first half they looked very potent, with 21 points on the board going into the break. However, after a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half, they were utterly shut down by the Oregon defense the rest of the way. As we got later into the game, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly looked less and less confident in giving the keys to Howard to throw the ball down the field despite Howard playing a pretty solid game. Kelly seemed content to both ineffectively and consistently run the ball on first and second down, stalling Ohio State’s drives.
Perhaps it was the lack of pass-catchers outside of Smith and Emeka Egbuka? Together, the two combined for 19 catches for 193 yards and two touchdowns, while other Buckeyes only combined for nine total receptions. No, the weapons outside of the two star wideouts are not the problem, it’s the lack of scheme to target any of them. Chip Kelly: if you don’t feel confident in Howard throwing the ball downfield, why is he here? Cam Ward was available in the transfer portal in the spring and five-star Julian Sayin is waiting in the wings, but we have Howard now so let’s unleash his big arm. Please.
Back to the running game, outside of a 53-yard explosion from TreVeyon Henderson early on, the pairing of him and Judkins had arguably their worst game of the season. The yards don’t look horrendous, but late in the game, there was absolutely nowhere to go. Judkins especially was a nonfactor all game long.
Weird occurrences highlight early drives.
There’s no doubt about it, the beginning of the game had some weird and wacky things occur. On their first drive, Howard threw a very nice pass to tight end Will Kacmarek, but Kacmarek bobbled the ball, resulting in an Oregon interception. However, officials thought Kacmarek had control and it ended in a Buckeye first down. One drive later, Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon simply just ripped the ball out of Judkins arms for the first turnover of the game. Then, at the end of the first quarter, Oregon kicker Atticus Sappington badly missed a field goal that would’ve given the Ducks the lead.
After an Oregon touchdown later on, they attempted an onside kick and executed it brilliantly, kicking a laser off of a Buckeye and catching Ohio State unprepared. Finally to cap off a first half of utter strangeness, Oregon wide receiver Traeshon Holden spat in Igbinosun’s face and was subsequently ejected. The ejection was certainly deserved because who does that?!
On a different note, Ohio State took some serious injury blows to their offensive line. Left tackle Josh Simmons, who has been a breakout star this year, was carted off the field with what looked like a serious knee injury. Right guard Tegra Tshabola also got hurt early on but returned to the game. With Simmons potentially being out long term, it will be crucial to monitor Tshabola’s health over the coming weeks. Zen Michalski filled in at tackle in Simmons’ absence.
Looking forward, Ohio State’s season is not on life support with the expanded playoff, but they need to win out. They’ll have a bye next week before facing Nebraska at home. Looming in three weeks, though, is a road game at undefeated Penn State, a contest which should have the same feel as the game last night. If the Buckeyes can learn from their mistakes, the plane ride home could and should be a lot more pleasant.
