Ohio State had one job on Saturday: beat a three-loss Oregon team at home and stay in the playoff picture. The Buckeyes played one good quarter, but gave away the rest of the game and lost 41-28 at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State led 14-0 after one quarter, held a 14-3 lead late in the first half, and went into the break trailing 17-14. By the third quarter, a lot of the 103,551 had stopped watching and started leaving the stadium, including Ohio State’s mascot
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They came in at No. 12 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, and CBS Sports’ model gave them 81.7% to make the field with a win and 35.7 with a loss. Ohio State is now 6-3 overall, 4-2 in the Big Ten and has its first three-loss season since 2011. The Buckeyes did this without quarterback Julian Sayin, who fractured his right elbow against Indiana on October 17. True freshman Luke Fahey made his second start a week after the 30-18 loss at USC.
“This is an Ohio State game with 12 minutes left. Good job, good effort,” Jack Miletti reported on X, posting pictures that showed the stadium being half-empty during the fourth quarter. “Steady stream of Ohio State fans leaving the Horseshoe with 6:37 left in the 3Q. Oregon leads, 31-14,” Bri Amaranthus reported on X.
In one of Ryan Day’s most embarrassing nights, Barstool Sports reported that Ohio State had allowed 38 unanswered points for the first time since 1999, when the Buckeyes suffered a similar collapse against Wisconsin. Ohio State owned the opening quarter. Fahey hit Jeremiah Smith for 32 yards and Devin McCuin for 41 on the second scoring drive, and Bo Jackson ran in touchdowns from 16 and 8 yards.
The Buckeyes had 174 yards in the first quarter. Then Oregon kicked a field goal, and with 3:06 left in the half, the Ducks lined up to punt deep in their own territory. Teitum Tuioti took the snap and threw to Matayo Uiagalelei for 30 yards, and the game turned.
Dierre Hill Jr. scored from nine yards out, Fahey threw an interception that Devin Jackson held with a foot in bounds, and Oregon scored on the final play of the half. Jamari Johnson took the snap in a three-lineman formation and sneaked it in. Oregon outgained Ohio State 178-17 in the second quarter.
The second half was worse. Hill ripped off a 48-yard touchdown through missed tackles. Dakorien Moore made a one-handed catch in the end zone to make it 31-14, and Brandon Smith took a screen pass 15 yards to make it 38-14. Dylan Raiola, starting for the injured Dante Moore, finished 25 of 40 for 257 yards and two touchdowns.
Hill had 75 yards on 13 carries and two scores. Fahey was 36 of 50 with one interception, but he threw behind McCuin on fourth-and-2, and Ohio State turned the ball over on downs on four straight second-half drives. Jeremiah Smith finished with seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown, but he went from late in the first quarter to the third quarter without a target.
Late in the third, he was seen yelling at the sideline. Ohio State’s defense gave up three plays of 40-plus yards in its last seven quarters after allowing none in the first seven games.
The fans had already shown how they felt. Day asked them before the game to rally around the quarterback. The boos started on Ohio State’s first drive of the second half, when a snap sailed over Fahey’s head. When the fourth-down throw missed McCuin, the boos were aimed at the sideline, and by the fourth quarter some fans were chanting for firings.
The 12-game home winning streak of Ohio State, the longest active run in the Big Ten, ended. It was also the first time Ohio State lost back-to-back regular-season games since 2011.
The rest of the schedule doesn’t help either. Northwestern comes to Columbus on November 14, then Nebraska on November 21, and Michigan closes the season at home November 28. Day said Sayin’s elbow is healing but “it’s not gonna be next week or next month,” so Fahey is the quarterback the rest of the way.
The fixes are not complicated: protect Fahey, get Smith involved early, and tackle. Oregon is 6-3, and 4-2 with Michigan, Michigan State and Washington left. Before this win, its playoff odds sat around five percent. The next rankings come out Tuesday, and the Ducks should move.
Ohio State has three games to decide what this season was. Day is now 1-3 against Oregon, and one more loss in the next three would turn a rough stretch into a real conversation about where the program stands.