During better moments…Quarterback Will Howard crashes into the end zone for the game’s first touchdown. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Dan Harker)
The Buckeyes made lots of mistakes on both sides of the football, and they will always believe Saturday’s loss to Oregon should never have come down to the final seconds. But it did!
Eugene, OR – One play.
Ryan Day hates that No. 2 Ohio State’s 32-31 loss to No. 3 Oregon on Saturday night at raucous Autzen Stadium came down to one play.
Jeremiah Smith hates it. Will Howard hates it. Everyone in every Ohio State constituency hates it because they can all point to other factors that put them in a position that one play mattered so much.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The Minster Bank proudly sponsors your favorite sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.
But no one could change it. Replay was not an option. The Buckeyes had to find another way, but time was too short.
And the play began with such promise.
Smith caught a nine-yard pass from Howard to the 19 to put the Buckeyes (5-1) into almost-sure field goal range for Jayden Fielding. The play was about to make Oregon (6-0) pay for scoring too soon.
Suddenly, all the mishaps of the night were about to be forgotten long enough to make the cross-country trip home. A winning field goal was imminent.
If not for another yellow flag on the green turf.
Smith’s two-handed push off against Oregon’s Nikko Reed was ruled offensive pass interference. The Buckeyes were pushed back to the 43 with 22 seconds left.
Panic might not have set in, but now the Buckeyes needed a break of their own.
Jeremiah Smith’s third quarter touchdown catch gave the Buckeyes a see-saw lead.
An incompletion and five-yard Oregon penalty moved the ball to the 38 with six seconds left. Then Howard wanted to throw to someone on the sideline, but the Ducks covered them all and he took off. He slid down at the 26 and tried to call timeout. But time had run out on the Buckeyes.
“We did a great job of getting down the field and continuing to fight, but on the one play the DB is grabbing on Jeremiah – Jeremiah is fighting there – they call the flag there, and that cost us,” Day said. “But it shouldn’t come down to one play. I’ve said that before, and we want to leave no doubt. I felt like we should have done that tonight. We did not. So then you put it in the hands of a call, and you don’t get it. And that’s on us.”
On the last play, Howard said he thought he went to the turf in time to get the timeout. If he had, Fielding would have had a 43-yard chance to win the game and change the lead for the eighth time.
The Arbogast family of dealerships proudly sponsor Buckeye sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.
“I hope it lights a little fire under us because I still got all the belief in the world this team,” Howard said. “I don’t think they necessarily beat us. I think we beat ourselves a little bit.”
This loss doesn’t derail a season the way it used to now that the playoff includes 12 teams. The road to a top four finish and first-round bye just got more difficult, but the season is far from over.
Quinshon Judkins came this close to a first half touchdown that could have changed the game’s end.
And this is the new and more exciting Big Ten. Ohio State goes west and loses by one in the matchup of the day. Earlier Penn State rallied in the second half to defeat USC 33-30 in overtime. Still, this loss will sting and the Buckeyes don’t get to feel something different for two weeks when they play Nebraska at home. Day is now 21-3 in Big Ten road games, and this is his first loss to a team other than Michigan.
“It sucks,” said Howard, who was 28 for 35 for 326 yards and two touchdowns. “You don’t want to lose a game like that.”
Pick anything you want to blame Ohio State’s latest big-game loss on. There’s plenty to go around.
The obvious culprits: lack of pressure on Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, cornerback Denzel Burke getting beat deep, lack of throwing the ball downfield and the chronic affliction of penalties cutting short possessions. Film study, of course, will reveal much more.
Eight penalties for 70 yards were particularly troublesome on a night when every possession counted and the crowd did everything in its power to affect the outcome.
False starts killed two possessions that had barely started. And another backed the Buckeyes out of the red zone and forced them to settle for Fielding’s 40-yard field goal for a 31-29 lead with six minutes left.
“It’s a discipline thing,” Howard said. “When you’re playing in an environment like this, you can’t be overcome by events.”
After taking the lead, Oregon drove the field with the same precision it had been showing all night. Gabriel, who completed 23 of 34 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns, marched the Ducks to the two before the Buckeyes stopped them at the one on third-and-goal. Atticus Sappington made the 19-yard field goal that was the final difference.
“We can sit here and look at one play here, one play there, complain about a call, but we’re not going to do that,” Day said. “We’re going to own it, then we’re going to get it fixed.”
TreVeyon Henderson rips off a 53-yard run in the first half to set up a Buckeye score.
For anyone who thought Ohio State could win this game going away, Oregon proved otherwise in the first half. The Buckeyes led most of the half, but Oregon’s ability to match explosive plays and create turnovers put them ahead 22-21 at halftime.
Ohio State drove 75 yards through the Autzen noise for the fast start it craved. Tight end Will Kacmarek’s 32-yard reception that he fought for and Oregon thought was an interception was the game’s first explosive play. Howard scored from the 1 and the Buckeyes led 7-0.
The defense answered with a stop, but Quinshon Judkins fumbled to give Oregon a short field and a quick touchdown. Oregon’s Derrick Harmon somehow wrestled the ball away from Judkins. However, a botched hold on the extra-point try kept the score 7-6.
Oregon soon had a chance to take the lead but missed 44-yard field goal.
Logan Services, in Dayton, Cincinnati, an Columbus, is a proud sponsor of Ohio State sports on Press Pros.
Then Ohio State’s running game turned explosive with TreVeyon Henderson. He gained 17 and 53 yards on successive plays to the Oregon 4. Judkins scored from the 1 out of the robust T formation for a 14-6 lead.
Then Gabriel started seeing openings against Burke. He hit Evan Stewart for 69 yards to the 8, then Stewart beat Burke for a 10-yard touchdown to cut OSU’s lead to 14-12.
Howard in scramble mode…as the seconds tick away in the Buckeyes’ last-minute comeback bid.
A face mask penalty on the Stewart score allowed the Ducks to kick off from the 50. On what looked like a squib kick, a line drive hit a Buckeye 10 yards downfield. He tried to dodge the football, but it bounced back toward Oregon and the Ducks came out of the pile with the football.
But the Buckeyes held the Ducks to a go-ahead field goal with help from the Ducks. Instead of second-and-goal from the 10 after a run that lost two yards, the Ducks were sent back 15 yards when Oregon receiver Traeshon Holden was flagged and ejected for spitting on cornerback Davison Igbinosun.
Ohio State answered again. A 21-yard pass to Judkins set up a 15-yard TD strike from Howard to Emeka Egbuka for a 21-15 lead.
But Oregon would have the last quack of the first half. Tez Johnson muscled through a bump by Burke and beat him deep for a 48-yard touchdown and a 22-21 halftime lead. The Ducks outgained the Buckeyes 285-251 in the half.
VPP is your one-stop spot for business graphics and design. Email sales@vppind.com today.
Ohio State started the second half strong with a defensive stop and a six-play, 79-yard drive that ended with Howard’s six-yard touchdown pass to Smith for a 28-22 lead. But that was the Buckeyes’ last touchdown.
The Buckeyes’ top-ranked defense failed to put pressure on Gabriel more than a couple times, failed to stop chunk plays in the passing game and got gashed more than they had in total all season by running plays. The Ducks outgained the Bucks 496-467.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said his unit didn’t execute well enough, but he shouldered the blame.
“I didn’t think we were outstanding in any area – felt like we were always behind,” he said. “It was uncharacteristic, and we’re going to learn from it. We got to practice better. We got to coach better.
“Our players are certainly good enough to win that game. We talked about winning on defense, and we didn’t get the job done.”
Still, the Buckeyes had a chance at the end on the road against a top team in a hostile-as-they-come stadium.
But they let it come down to one play too many.
Wilson Health proudly sponsors your favorite area sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.