COLUMBUS, Ohio — It was not the result Buckeye fans had been hoping for — No. 2 Ohio State lost to No. 3 Oregon 32-31 in Saturday’s matchup.
Offensively, the Buckeyes were strong and scored enough points that they could have won, but the team could not stop the Ducks’ explosive plays and extra yards. The defense gave up nearly 500 yards of total offense.
The defense struggled with making tackles and ended the game with no sacks. They performed better in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to outpace Oregon.
Cornerback Denzel Burke, who has hopes of winning a national championship, has been impressive throughout the season, but Oregon kept going after him and finding success.
Quarterback Will Howard has proven that he’s capable of leading the Buckeyes through the stretch run, but he has to be able to lead them with a defense that isn’t giving up 32 points. Howard led the offense to a score on the first drive of the game, ending in a 1-yard touchdown rush.
He completed 28 of 35 passes for 326 yards and two passing touchdowns.
Emeka Egbuka scored his sixth touchdown and caught 10 passes for 93 yards. He surpassed Marvin Harrison Jr. on the all-time career pass receptions list with 164. He also surpassed Santonio Holmes and K.J. Hill on the all-time career receiving yards list with 2,383.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day is 1-7 against teams ranked in the top five. Because of the expanded College Football Playoff, the loss may not have the impact on the Buckeyes' postseason hopes as it might have had in previous seasons.
“We could sit here and look at one play here, one play there or complain about a call, but we’re not going to do that. We’re going to own it," Day said.
Left tackle Josh Simmons left the game in the first half with what appeared to be a lower leg injury. Day said the injury was serious and suggested Simmons wouldn't be back this season.
10TV’s Adam King said the guys were upset following the game, but tomorrow, the team is going to regroup, go to the bye week, revamp and take a look at what went wrong on defense.
Next week, the Buckeyes are off. Then, the team will take on Nebraska and Penn State. If all goes well for the rest of the season, the team very well could be facing Oregon again.
Day said Ohio State has some work to do during the time off.
“The issues are there,” he said. "Those issues came up in this game. We’ve got to get those things fixed.”
The Buckeyes are now 6-1 on the season and 2-1 in Big Ten Conference play.
You can watch the full game breakdown in the player below.