Gameplan

Welcome back to The Call Sheet!

For months, college football fans talked about October 12th, and when it finally arrived, it delivered. Eight games involving a ranked team went down to the wire, four of which went into overtime.

I originally planned to discuss some of Penn State’s creativity and the scoring plays of the winner of the Ohio State-Oregon matchup. Yet, the way the Buckeyes ended that game completely changed my focus. Today, I’ll take a small step away from scheme and play design to discuss game management, or the lack thereof, for Ohio State.

TLDR:

• Cover 1

  • How Ohio State Threw Away A Win

Cover 1

How Ohio State Threw Away A Win

Saturday night’s top-5 matchup between #2 Ohio State and #3 Oregon was an instant classic. The Ducks ultimately won the hard-fought battle 32-31, but the Buckeyes had a legitimate opportunity to take the lead with less than thirty seconds left in regulation.

After Oregon kicked a field goal to go up by one, Ohio State started its final drive from the 25 with 1:47 remaining. The Buckeyes strung a couple of decent plays together to reach the 46, where they faced a 2nd & 1.

Will Howard completed a pass to Emeka Egbuka for 26 yards, which brought the Buckeyes to Oregon’s 28 with only 0:34 left in the game. Against Cover 1, throwing the ball to a receiver running a flag route was perfect, but ultimately, this would be the last smart decision Ohio State made.

With thirty-four seconds remaining in regulation and a timeout in hand, Ohio State dialed up a pass even though they had already made it into field goal range. The decision utterly dumbfounded me, and I immediately had this text exchange with a former coaching colleague as the ball fell incomplete:

Oregon still had all three timeouts and would likely have begun using them if Ohio State had chosen to run the ball and set up for a field goal. The absolute worst-case scenario obviously would have been fumbling the ball away; however, with two veteran running backs, that’s unlikely. I would have liked to have seen the Buckeyes run the ball three straight times, kick a go-ahead field goal, and hand possession back over to Oregon (who would have been out of timeouts) with no more than 0:18 left in the game.

But what transpired was horrific.

On second down, Ohio State threw the ball AGAIN. While it initially appeared to be a 9-yard gain, it resulted in a 15-yard offensive pass interference against Jeremiah Smith, who pushed an Oregon corner to create separation. What’s worse is that Smith was tackled in bounds on the play, which meant the clock began running before Ohio State snapped the ball on 2nd & 25 from the 43. The situation now heavily favored the Ducks, who were not forced to use a timeout to preserve time. Instead, Ohio State was left scrambling to get back in field goal range.

The game would come to a close on a 3rd & 20 play after Will Howard held onto the ball for too long. While he gained twelve yards, the clock ran out as he slid, and the Buckeyes could not call a timeout to attempt a game-winning kick.

This final sequence for Ohio State was a disasterclass on game management. The Buckeyes were running the ball decently well all night (4.3 yards per carry), so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they could have converted a first down after reaching Oregon’s 28 and running the ball three straight times. Had that been the case, the Buckeyes would have been kicking a game-winning field goal as time expired.

This loss falls solely on Ryan Day and Chip Kelly. They managed the game horribly once they entered field goal range. Whether it was hubris or something in the gameplan, they can’t repeat that mistake if they intend to win the Big Ten.

If you’re new, you can catch up on previous posts here. Thank you all for spending a little bit of your day with me. See you next week!