Five Things: Miscues and Missed Opportunities Versus a Talented Oregon Squad Leads to Heartbreak in Eugene

An instant classic unfolded last night in Eugene, Oregon as the No. 3 Ducks outlasted the 2nd-ranked Buckeyes, 32-31, after Dan Lanning's squad scored on its final possession and Ryan Day's squad failed to do the same. 

Oregon left its share of points on the field with a missed field goal, a failed two-point try and a missed extra point among its miscues while Ohio State lost the turnover battle, failed to recover an onside kick, committed eight penalties and failed to effectively manage the clock on its last gasp drive. 

The loss was the program's third over the last eight games dating back to last season. Day now stands at 2-7 versus Top-5 teams and has lost four straight such contests. 

The Buckeyes led 28-22 midway through the third quarter and 31-29 with six minutes left in regulation but couldn't close the deal. 

Stud receiving duo Emeka Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith caught a combined 19 balls on 23 targets from Will Howard (more on him later) for 193 yards and two scores and TreVeyon Henderson ran for 87 yards on 10 carries. 

But the offense (while not perfect) couldn't overcome a big special teams play that didn't go the Buckeyes way and a defensive performance that included Denzel Burke's worst night in scarlet and gray. 

Ohio State also likely lost star left tackle Josh Simmons for the rest of the year to injury. 

What the Buckeyes didn't lose however is a shot at same goals they had at the beginning of the season: beat Michigan, win the Big Ten, win the College Football Playoff. Who knows if they'll reach those goals but the fact is none were lost last night. 

With that, let's get to Five Things from a painful defeat at the hands of a strong Oregon squad. 

DEFENSE DOESN'T HOLD UP

Heading into the season, the general expectation was Ohio State's defense would be the team's unquestioned strength. Against lesser competition across the first five games, the Silver Bullets put up gaudy stats, ranking near the top in scoring, total, rushing and pass defense among other metrics. 

Against the Ducks however, Jim Knowles' crew gave up 496 yards on 7.6 yards per play after allowing the first five opponents to generate an average of 202 yards per contest on 3.6 per play. 

Big plays doomed the Buckeyes as the Ducks registered 10 chunk plays (runs of 10+ yards, passes of 15+) for 320 yards and two touchdowns. Last week versus Iowa, they allowed four such plays for 108 yards. 

Entering yesterday's action, the Buckeyes ranked No. 1 nationally with just nine plays allowed of 20+ yards. Last night, Oregon had eight. 

Cornerback Denzel Burke turned in an abysmal performance (I'm sure he'll say the same). He let Evan Stewart behind him for a 69-yard completion two plays before Stewart beat him again, this time for a 10-yard touchdown grab. Later on a 3rd-and-9 snap, Tez Johnson got behind Burke for a 48-yard touchdown giving Oregon a 22-21 lead just before halftime. 

Evan Stewart making Denzel Burke look SILLY

The Oregon WR is putting on a CLINIC against one of the nations best CBs. pic.twitter.com/csCCxbuNJz

— NFL Rookie Watch (@NFLRookieWatxh) October 13, 2024

A 32-yard pass keyed a field goal drive giving Oregon it's first lead at 15-14, a 25-yard James Jordan run set up the Ducks' first touchdown of the night, a 27-yard touchdown run by quarterback Dillon Gabriel on 3rd-and-2 gave the Ducks a 29-28 lead early in the fourth quarter and a Terrance Ferguson 26-yard grab to the OSU 26 set up what became Oregon's game-winning field goal. 

Another disturbing trend in matchup games since Knowles' arrival saw OSU fail to generate much pressure on the quarterback. Gabriel didn't take a sack all night and the Buckeyes tallied a modest two tackles for loss in 65 plays. 

I'm sure this will piss off some of you who take it as an excuse it's not meant to be but part of the issue was Oregon's Will Stein is a legit offensive coordinator and he's got a lot of weapons at his disposal. I don't excuse how the defense played, particularly Burke and some of the guys up front but it's also okay to acknowledge Oregon is better than many of us thought and has no shortage of NFL-caliber players on its roster. 

PAINFUL PENALTIES

A week after being flagged just once for 10 yards in the blowout of Iowa, the Buckeyes turned in season highs in penalties (8) and penalty yardage (70). 

On its possession after Oregon cut the lead to 7-6, Ohio State racked up three penalties. The first, a Josh Simmons false start, turned a 2nd-and-12 into 2nd-and-17. The second, another false start, this time on Gee Scott Jr., made a 3rd-and-11 a 3rd-and-16. On 4th-and-13, a delay of game backed the Buckeyes up five more yards and the ensuing 42-yard punt gave Oregon excellent field position at its own 41. The Ducks would go on to miss a field goal but that doesn't excuse such sloppy execution. 

On the touchdown pass Burke surrendered to make it 14-12 OSU, teammate Jordan Hancock was flagged for a facemask which allowed the Ducks to kick off from midfield. With field position now on his side, Lanning was emboldened to try a unique 'onside kick' where his kicker launched a low laser off an OSU defender that the Ducks recovered. They would kick a field goal on the ensuing drive to take a 15-14 lead. 

Now in the fourth quarter with Oregon up 29-28, Zen Michalski, filling in for Simmons, was whistled for a false start. The Buckeyes would overcome that one and move the chains but later in the possession right guard Tegra Tshabola committed a false start turning a 1st-and-10 at the Oregon 19 into a 1st-and-15 at the 24. OSU couldn't get back on schedule and settled for a 40-yard Jayden Fielding field goal to take a 31-29 lead. 

If the Buckeyes stay on schedule and maybe score a touchdown instead of a field goal, the Ducks would've needed a touchdown to win instead of the field goal they kicked with 1:47 left to take a 32-31 lead that ended up being the final score. 

The last OSU penalty was a killer - an offensive pass interference call on Jeremiah Smith during the final possession - but since that call was questionable at best, I refuse to pile on Smith for it. 

Another look at the OPI called against Jeremiah Smith pic.twitter.com/UPukzS6XcU

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 13, 2024

Instead of 3rd-and-short from the Ducks 21 - aka well within field goal range- Ohio State faced 2nd-and-25 from the Oregon 43. It would not recover from that crushing setback. 

WILL-ING AND ABLE 

In his first matchup game as a Buckeye, Will Howard turned in some huge plays as part of a 28-for-35, 326-yard, two touchdown toss night that also saw him run for a score. The 80% completion rate was his second-best mark of the season, it was his first 300-yard game as a Buckeye, and after three straight games with an interception, he didn't throw a pick versus the Ducks. 

Howard didn't have consecutive incompletions until his last two throws of the night. 

And while he played some really solid football for the game's first 58 minutes, Ohio State's offense didn't close the deal when it had the ball at it's own 25 with 1:47 left on the clock and one timeout in the bag, needing a field goal to win. 

Howard faced pressure and lost his footing on the first play of the fateful possession to set up 2nd-and-19. He responded with a 13-yard dot to Carnell Tate and an 8-yard completion to Egbuka to move the chains on 3rd-and-6. On 1st-and-10, Howard found Smith for nine yards and on 2nd-and-1, he scanned the field before throwing a teardrop over a defender into Egbuka's arms for a 26-yard gain to the Oregon 28 with the clock stopped at 34 seconds. A few things break differently from there and that could've been the play of the game.

After a 1st-and-10 incompletion to Smith on a throw that was late, Howard found Smith for what looked like a completion to Oregon's 21 but as already noted, Smith was flagged for offensive pass interference. The 15-yard OPI infraction moved OSU back to the 43 and the clock started running once the ball was set which seemed to surprise Howard and the rest of the offense, at least a little bit, as they lost about seven seconds. 

Back-to-back incompletions, the latter accompanied by an Oregon illegal substitution flag, set up 3rd-and-20 from the Ducks 38 with six seconds left. It was an extreme long shot for something good to happen at this point but Howard dropped back, felt a rush, and took off upfield for a 12-yard gain. He started his slide with arguably a second left but time ran out to end the game. 

I felt like he had Brandon Inniss open along the right sideline at the Ducks 32 and a completion would've allowed Inniss to step out of bounds and OSU to call a timeout to set up a 49-yard field goal try. He also had Smith open over the middle at the 29 and the Buckeyes might've been able to call a timeout and attempt a 46-yard field goal had he quickly hit Jeremiah in the numbers. 

WILL HOWARD DOESN'T GO DOWN AND OREGON WINS pic.twitter.com/hjUVwCzGPE

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 13, 2024

All that said, it's a hell of a lot easier to armchair quarterback than real-time quarterback but it was a tough finish for Howard especially after turning in such a gritty, productive effort to that point. 

ON THE MARGINS

Against a legit top-3 team on the road, avoiding mistakes and winning on the margins is typically required. Last night for the Buckeyes, they simply had too many things go wrong that were in their control. 

Losing the turnover battle on the road is often a risky proposition and that's what happened versus Oregon. Quinshon Judkins had the ball taken from him by Ducks interior defensive lineman Derrick Harmon on a run up the gut after left guard Donovan Jackson allowed his man to blow up the play before right guard Tegra Tshabola couldn't stay in front of Harmon. Harmon met Quinshon head on and simply overpowered Judkins' grip on the ball to take it away and give Oregon possession at the OSU 28. The Ducks scored to plays later to trail 7-6 early. 

Massive play from Oregons Derrick Harmon to work through the double team and rip the ball away. The Michigan State transfer is the top NFL draft prospect for the Ducks. pic.twitter.com/o88PXj4XSY

— Bobby Football (@Rob__Paul) October 13, 2024

The noted failure to cover an onside kick after a Hancock penalty let the Ducks kick off from the 50 paved the way for a field goal giving Oregon its first lead at 15-14 early in the second quarter. 

The last OSU possession had clock management issues just outlined in the previous Thing. Not to mention you could make an argument for running the ball after the 26-yard throw to Egbuka giving Ohio State the ball at the Oregon 28 with 34 seconds left. What happened after that was just crushing all-around. 

CB1 giving up 127 yards and two touchdowns on just three individual snaps just can't happen if you want to win a matchup game. PFF had him giving up eight catches for 179 on the the evening. 

I'm sure you can add to this list but you get the gist. Too many self-inflicted wounds and/or too many crucial plays didn't go in Ohio State's favor. 

DAY TIME

Immediate, emotional reactions after a tough loss often start with FIRE THE HEAD COACH and based on Ryan Day's history of struggling in top-5 matchups, I certainly understand the angst even if I'm not in that camp at the moment. 

The loss dropped Day to 2-7 versus top-5 opponents:

His teams have lost those games in different ways and for different reasons. Losing to Michigan amid its sign-stealing scheme comes with some complexity as many of the same fans who want to fire Day also think Michigan's cheating impacted the outcome of games. 

The 2019 Clemson loss felt like it could've gone the other way if not for a bad call and a broken route with just seconds left. The Georgia game was right there for the taking but a lack of execution on the last few snaps before and including the missed field goal spelled doom. 

And when things have gone bad Day has typically reacted whether via replacing coaches, addressing personnel concerns in the portal or on the trail, and finally giving up play calling duties to be a CEO. 

But here we are. Another matchup game loss with at least a half-dozen major What Ifs in its wake. 

A rational / realistic person isn't firing Day after last night but the pressure on him and his staff just ramped up another couple notches. As I stated in the intro, Ohio State still has all of its goals in play - a chance at a victory over Michigan, winning the Big Ten title, making the CFP and winning it too. 

But yeah, the margin for error diminished dramatically. 

The goal now is for the players and coaches to band together, address the issues that plagued them in last night's loss, and make a run.