How it feels to be Jeremiah Smith…The Buckeyes have run out of ways to get star receiver Jeremiah Smith open against determined defenses. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Ohio State can again blame itself for its fourth loss in its past 10 games…this one a frustrating performance against USC…freshman quarterback Luke Fahey needed all the help he could get.
Los Angeles, CA – Ohio State highly succeeded at one thing Saturday night: beating itself.
The more alarming issue is that the Buckeyes – ranked No. 2 only because beating yourself has reached pandemic proportions in this rarest of college football seasons – are becoming experts at it.
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They blamed themselves after losses to Indiana and Miami at the end of last season.
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Same goes exponentially for the fourth-quarter meltdown loss at Texas in September.
The blame would have been on the Buckeyes, too, had they lost at Indiana two weeks ago.
And after Saturday night’s 30-18 frightful loss to unranked USC, the Buckeyes have lost four of five marquee games in the past 10 games they’ve played. That’s a new and resounding low for head coach Ryan Day.
Yes, every program suffers through lean times. But how do the Buckeyes stop a snowball that is accelerating downhill?
No one had an answer for it after the untimeliest of penalties, red-zone failures, a fumble, dropped passes and missed tackles – forgetting anything? – made the Buckeyes look like an average Big Ten team.
The Buckeyes (and Jermaine Mathews, above) were never in control of things during Saturday’s nationally televised loss to USC.
“There’s two different sides of it,” tight end Mason Williams said. “You got to look in the mirror and you got to know what did I do wrong today? How can I fix it? What did I do right? How can I enhance that? But there’s also the sign of sometimes things happen. You just need to push past them and just keep moving on. We need to see all three of those in this upcoming week.”
The Buckeyes need answers fast because the schedule doesn’t let up with home games against Oregon and Northwestern, a trip to Nebraska and Michigan at home.
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Maybe, when that stretch is complete, the answer will be that the Buckeyes are indeed an average Big Ten team. And average Big Ten teams don’t make the playoffs. They might be in the top 12 when the first playoff rankings are released this week, but it might not be by much.
“When you have two losses in college football, your backs are against the wall,” safety Jaylen McClain said. “We just gotta finish the season.”
Too many mistakes…this wide-open opportunity fell through the hands of running Bo Jackson during the first half of Saturday’s loss to Southern Cal.
The Buckeyes, of course, will believe they can and should win the final four games and make the playoffs. Williams already talked like it.
“Once we start getting these wins here coming up, everything that we have is still in front of us,” he said.
To do that, the Buckeyes will continue with freshman quarterback Luke Fahey as Julian Sayin’s replacement.
Fahey was never going to be the guy in his first start to make up for mistakes by others or his own mistakes. He completed 21 of 38 passes for 260 yards, moved the offense with the help of a robust running game, and missed a few open receivers.
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“I don’t think we could have expected anything better from Luke today,” said Williams, who caught two passes for 42 yards. “He went out there and he battled his butt off, and when you get a freshman starting quarterback in a big game like that, where you can get what you got out of him today, we got to be able to do our jobs, everyone on the field, and strive to make his job a little bit easier.”
Sayin hasn’t been close to his best in the aforementioned losses. He struggled two weeks ago at Indiana.
Some of Ohio State’s stats looked good, but football games often come down to key situations, and the Buckeyes couldn’t unlock any of them when they still had time to win.
They rushed for 204 yards on 43 attempts. Bo Jackson gained 121 yards on 21 carries and Isaiah West gained 65 on 13 carries. The Buckeyes outgained the Trojans 464 to 338.
But everyone knows why they lost?
Two long pass plays and a long punt return by USC helped create 21 points, 11 penalties cost the Buckeyes 71 yards in key situations, four red-zone trips – five if you count the drive that reached the 21 – resulted in three field goals and a late touchdown that only mattered because of Jeremiah Smith. His 10th reception was the 40th touchdown catch of his career and set the Big Ten career record.
“It’s extremely frustrating to come into a game like this with a young quarterback and not play well. We didn’t play well in those red zone circumstances.” – Ryan Day
“It’s extremely frustrating coming to a game like this with a young quarterback and not playing clean,” Day said. “We found ourselves in those red-zone situations and we just weren’t able to execute well.”
The first half was mistake-filled with missed opportunities. You could also call the list of mishaps a dark comedy of errors fit for a Halloween night.
The Buckeyes trailed 20-9 because they allowed big plays, committed the untimeliest of penalties and couldn’t score touchdowns. Fahey’s first start didn’t come close to being a relevant issue as the Trojans built what proved to be an insurmountable halftime lead.
A 69-yard screen pass and run from Jayden Maiava to Trent Mosely on the game’s second play was well executed by the Trojans. But where was the Ohio State defense as he sprinted untouched and unchallenged down the middle of the field?
“They made a good play, and it was just a little bit of lack of effort on our end,” McClain said. “It’s lack of focus, discipline, execution on our end. They didn’t do anything special. You just got to execute that.”
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For most of the half the Buckeyes were haunted by a familiar foe: running unsuccessfully in plus territory all the way into the red zone. They had 106 yards on 22 carries, but with a new quarterback, more explosive runs and runs to get first downs were needed.
Trailing 7-3, a false start on fourth-and-four in plus territory led to a punt that was returned 35 yards by Mosley, turning into 50 yards when he was hit out of bounds by Beau Atkinson.
The Buckeyes needed to run successfully in ‘plus’ situations, and couldn’t. They managed just 106 yards on 22 carries.
Soon it was 14-3 on Waymond Jordan’s nine-yard touchdown run.
Then the penalties really got in the way.
An illegal substitution penalty turned third-and-four into third-and-nine and a second field goal with 13:22 left in the half.
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Later, the defense put USC in third-and-18, but King Miller rushed for 21 yards when the defense didn’t look ready for the snap. A field goal and a 17-6 lead followed.
A holding penalty put the Buckeyes in second-and-26 at their 10. They punted after two running plays.
The Buckeyes got a break when Kenyatta Jackson Jr. forced a fumble and Earl Little Jr. recovered it. The Buckeyes drove to first-and-goal at the one. They thought Fahey had scored on a sneak from the three, but replay took the points off the board because his knee touched the ground too soon.
But they didn’t score. A run was stopped, then a false start penalty put it all on Fahey’s shoulders and he couldn’t complete a pass. Another field goal and the score was 17-9.
In the second half, West fumbled after a short reception to kill a drive.
Then two plays later, as if on cue, came the backbreaker that put the game out of a reach the Buckeyes, on this messy night, weren’t built to overcome.
Maiava capped his efficient (15 for 22) 222-yard night with a pass down the middle to Mark Bowman. McClain was in position to stop Bowman, but Bowman flashed hurdling moves that won’t be seen in the Coliseum again until the 2028 Olympics.
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Bowman hurdled McClain just across midfield, then broke away from Little Jr. who tried to rip the football loose. Bowman had room to run and reached the three for a 70-yard again before being knocked out of bounds. A one-yard touchdown followed, and with 6:11 left in the third quarter and USC up 27-9, the USC fans started making plans for rushing the field.
A good thing to be said about the Buckeyes’ performance was kicker Connor Hawkins. When the offense couldn’t finish a drive, he kicked field goals of 39, 34, 23 and 47 yards.
Otherwise, the Buckeyes played in a hauntingly familiar way.
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