Ohio State stumbled against USC in Week 9, with Luke Fahey as its starting QB. It didn’t help that the Buckeyes kept on making unnecessary mistakes. The loss gave Michigan donor Dave Portnoy another reason to take a shot at his biggest rival. Never one to hold back when it comes to Ohio State, Portnoy wasted little time mocking the Buckeyes for what he saw as a team rolling over when the pressure was on.
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“I wasn’t going to leave the show with it; it wasn’t even on my mind,” Portnoy said on Barstool Sports on November 1. “I didn’t know where he was going, but I’ve said all along, give me the talent that Ohio State generally has, and I’ll win you 17 games a season. So I can roll out of bed with that talent that they have, and I can just roll through my schedule, but when the pressure is on and when they get in fistfights, this is a team under Ryan Day that historically rolls over and says, “Will you please pet my belly?”
“Like, Miss Peaches rolls over, four legs in the air, ‘Pet my belly, please, Daddy.’ That’s what Ohio State does in tough games. They got away with it in Indiana because of nothing they did. They tried their best to squander a double-digit lead, and if the receiver gets his foot in, they lose that game.”
The Buckeyes shot themselves in the foot against USC in an 18-30 loss. It was always going to be tough with Julian Sayin missing the game due to an injury. Moreover, Fahey had no starting experience heading into a crucial away trip. However, the QB still drove Ohio State to multiple red-zone trips.
But that’s where the Buckeyes couldn’t take advantage and had to settle for four field goals in the first half. In one of the drives, Ohio State was inches away from the end zone and had multiple chances to score a touchdown. But they failed and were pushed back due to a penalty.
The lack of discipline is something that can be held against the coaching staff. Ohio State was hit with 11 penalties, which prevented it from moving the chains. From a play-calling POV, it was clear that Ryan Day and Arthur Smith opted for a risk-averse option at the start.
“We didn’t want to panic and just start going into that (tempo) with a young quarterback,” Day said. “The game can just turn upside down really fast. The one series we went three-and-out was extremely frustrating.”
“Once we found ourselves in the two-score game late with seven minutes to go, we knew we had to move quickly—which we did. We moved a little bit more. We weren’t going like breakneck, two-minute like we were in the last drive there. But it was fast enough that we were efficiently moving it.”
The quarterback situation wasn’t Ohio State’s only concern against USC. The defense struggled just as badly. They let a 69-yard touchdown on just the second play of the game.
The Buckeyes were already in a difficult position. They needed to score quickly and find a way back into the game. They finally managed to score a touchdown, making the score 27-18. After the touchdown, Ohio State went for a 2-point conversion rather than going for a simple extra point. It would have made it 27-20 if successful, but the attempt failed, leaving Ohio State at 27-18.
Day’s decision unnecessarily complicated an already difficult situation. Instead of taking the guaranteed point and keeping Ohio State within one possession of tying the game, he gambled on a two-point conversion.
The Buckeyes are now 6-2 and will have to fix the problems because Sayin’s return this season seems like a blur, and if their QB can’t throw, even Jeremiah Smith will be useless to them.