After rattling off 16 consecutive victories dating back to last season, including a national title and seven wins over ranked opponents, Ohio State has finally lost a football game.
The Buckeyes dropped a 13-10 contest to the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday in Indianapolis, as Curt Cignetti led his program to its first outright Big Ten Championship since 1967. Indiana’s 13 points were the fewest scored by the winner of the conference title game since its inception in 2011, and Ohio State’s 10 points were its fewest points scored all season.
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Indiana deserves a ton of credit for the victory. Fernando Mendoza was exceptional, making some huge plays when his team needed it most, and the Hoosiers’ defensive line wreaked havoc all night, sacking Julian Sayin five times. They were without a doubt the better team on the field.
That being said, Ohio State did not do itself any favors with its offensive game plan.
In a contest that mirrored last year’s lost to Michigan, even coming down to the exact same final score and including a missed sub-30-yard field goal, the Buckeyes far too often went away from their strengths in a dismal showing with the football in their hands.
While the scheme on offense was a problem throughout the game, two plays stand out as particularly heinous decisions, and ultimately led directly to the three-point loss.
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Facing third-and-1 from the Indiana 5-yard line near the end of the third quarter, Ohio State came out in 13 personnel with Jeremiah Smith on the field as the only wide receiver. On a designed passing play, Smith was the only player running a route, and when he was covered up, Sayin had to throw the ball away.
The Buckeyes elected to go for it on 4th-and-1, but Sayin’s knee was ruled short on the quarterback sneak attempt as Ohio State turned it over on downs.
With the little success Ohio State had running the ball, it was pretty obvious they weren’t going to run it here. The Buckeyes helped out Indiana by taking Carnell Tate off the field, and limited their own success by running a one-route concept on third-and-short. This poor play call on third down resulted in yet another scoreless red zone opportunity.
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Later in the game, Ohio State was in an almost identical situation.
Still trailing by three with less than three minutes remaining, it was third-and-1 from Indiana’s 8-yard line. This time, the Buckeyes came out with ZERO wide receivers on the field.
Julian Sayin faked a handoff and rolled out to his right, where Bo Jackson was well covered in the flat. His only other option on the play was tight end Bennett Christian, who was unable to haul in a tough contested catch as the pass over the middle fell incomplete.
Again, the Buckeyes basically gifted Indiana the stop by taking BOTH Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate off the field with the game on the line. This 14-personnel package resulted in the only potential receiving option being your fourth string tight end, which is an incredibly stupid thing to do when you have two future NFL superstar wide receivers on your roster.
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Instead of going for it, Ryan Day chose to take what he thought would be an automatic 27-yard field goal. Jayden Fielding had other plans, as he missed yet another easy kick in a critical situation, and that was all she wrote for Ohio State.
Those two plays turned out to be the difference in the game, but they were a microcosm of what was an overall disastrous offensive approach for the Buckeyes on Saturday.
The 13 and 14-personnel packages have not been successful for Ohio State all season. Time and time again they have tried to go heavy in short yardage, and it has virtually never worked. The offensive line has not been great in run protection this year, and adding several middling tight ends to the field while keeping your star players on the sideline did not magically make it any better.
Ohio State ran 57 offensive plays against the Hoosiers, and on only 21 of them were three wide receivers on the field. Curt Cignetti was probably doing backflips on the sideline every time he saw the Buckeyes willingly take Smith or Tate out of the game so they could trot out extra blockers.
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Tight ends coach Keenan Bailey was pounding his chest about these packages after the win over Michigan, and now a week later they were almost exclusively the reason why Ohio State lost. With offensive coordinator Brian Hartline taking the job at USF, maybe some other people were allotted too much say in this week’s play-calling.
There were other issues in the loss, of course.
The Buckeyes’ offensive line in general played its worst game of the season, especially Tegra Tshabola, who posted a 17.6 pass blocking grade per PFF. That did not help Sayin, who was very clearly confused by some of Indiana’s coverages. The defense, while overall great, was also a bit leaky, allowing a 51-yard pass on the Hoosiers’ go-ahead touchdown drive and a 33-yard pass to ice the game.
Ohio State was also never able to ‘turn up the gas’ as Day had alluded to earlier in the year. The Buckeyes intentionally played slow on offense all season to limit their reps and keep guys healthy, but when the time came to go fast on Saturday, they were never able to find that next gear.
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Ohio State got the ball with 2:47 left and all three timeouts at the end of the second quarter, and instead of playing aggressive basically ran out the clock and punted with 32 seconds left before the half. The Buckeyes’ final two drives of the game, which netted a total of zero points, ate up 6:58 and 7:57 of clock, giving them no time at the end for a possession to try and tie or take the lead.
It was an incredibly poor coaching job by Ohio State across the board, and by far the worst offensive performance we have seen since that loss to Michigan last season. The Buckeyes were a miserable 4-of-12 on third and fourth down, largely as a result of those mind numbing 13 and 14 personnel packages.
When the going got tough, Ohio State took its two best players off the field. Those short yardage and red zone issues that have plagued the team all season long did not suddenly vanish when they faced off against the best opponent they saw, and they elected to try and fix it with one hand tied behind their back.
The Buckeyes did not score a single point in the second half, and while the Indiana defense deserves a ton of credit, Ohio State did a heck of a job of beating itself.
They now have three weeks to regroup before the College Football Playoff, and ho
