I am so tired of Ryan Day's bull crap.
I have never been so embarrassed to be an Ohio State fan as I was at 11:09 PM on Saturday night. Except, of course, for the closing seconds of any of Ryan Day's other collapses and near-disasters. Another late lead disappears against another top opponent as the offense fails to get anything going in crunch time.
And what's the common thread? What's the secret sauce to cooking up stinker after stinker in every Ohio State game of consequence over the last 8 years? Ryan Day's calling card: the offense takes its foot off the gas in the second half. In particular, they fail to RUN THE TOUCHDOWN PLAY.
Don't believe me? Let's examine the facts.
On Saturday night in Austin, the Buckeyes took a 20-3 lead into half. Good lead but not insurmountable. Ryan, like he always does, blubbered some nonsense about a "four quarter game," like he knew the Buckeyes weren't going to come out of the half ready to bury Texas early. Even right after going after the Longhorns' throat just before half instead of settling for a 13-3 lead! The Buckeyes had been a veritable whirling dervish in the first half, racking up 20 points after reaching the red zone in all 5 first half drives. The second half? No touchdowns and just one lousy field goal, after failing to reach the red zone at all. You see what I mean? Consumed by fear! No killer instinct! No resolve to just say "screw it" and RUN THE TOUCHDOWN PLAY!
Let's look at what the Ohio State offense did on these eye-gouging drives.
Coming out of half, it was like Jim Tressel had descended from on high to put his down-to-the-wire white knuckling inhibitor back on the Buckeye O. Two straight runs to open the half before finally finding Jeremiah Smith to push the Buckeyes across midfield. And then, right back to killing the momentum with another run that only gained 3 yards. Sayin throws the ball away on second down (wasted play) and the Buckeyes fail to pick up all 7 yards they need on a mini-screen to Bo Jackson. How uncreative can you get? And then they PUNT. From plus territory! The Buckeyes were lucky Texas barely made it out of their own red zone after that and punted the ball right back to them, but the inevitable Day meltdown was beginning even if the scoreboard didn't show it.
Of course the only thing worse than punting is relying on the Ohio State kicking game (3-4 on FGs on Saturday by the way, good job costing us the game), which is what happened on the very next drive. All the Buckeyes did this whole drive was force the ball through the air! How predictable can this offense get with the game on the line? Another throwaway, a drop by Jeremiah, and FINALLY the Buckeyes hit a big play through the air to Smith down to the Texas 30. I mean, as big a play as you can expect from a second half Ryan Day offense, if it wasn't underthrown Smith might have scored. But that would have required Day to RUN THE TOUCHDOWN PLAY, which he must be contractually obligated not to do once the scoreboard ticks over to quarter 3. And of course that was as far as the Bucks got on this drive. Good luck finding the touchdown play here; on second down they caught the Longhorn defense completely flatfooted and tried to find McCuin running free for a TD. McCuin! Hello? Have you heard of throwing the ball to #4? Of course Sayin overthrew him and the Buckeyes settled for a field goal. The foot wasn't even off the gas now, it was slamming frantically on the brakes.
The incompetence just spiraled from there. The Buckeyes' two next drives were three-and-outs, with a combined three incomplete passes. For Woody's sake! We don't need yards and points here, we need TIME OFF THE CLOCK! In case you forgot, Texas scored the game winning touchdown with only 25 seconds left in the game. What does this game look like if Day has the slightest inkling of a clue about second half clock management?
That brings us to Ohio State's final drive. Their final real drive, anyway, let's not say anything about that 2-play abomination the Bucks trotted out with 25 seconds and no timeouts left. The Buckeyes reach field goal range again and what do they do? On third down, they throw for Smith in the end zone! Can you imagine everything that could have gone wrong? A turnover, a holding penalty, a sack to take them out of field goal range, and Day goes for the jugular? Forget the gas pedal, it's been ripped out of the car at this point and we're running it with Fred Flintstone's feet.
I don't think the problem is fixable at this point. We've had Ryan Day for 7 years now and he has one measly National Championship to show for it among the innumerable big game chokes and multiple 2-loss seasons. Even the 2024 Playoff run was almost undone by Day's excruciating second half turtling. Yeah, everyone fondly remembers the Oregon game that Ohio State won by 20 (helps to score 7 points after halftime to put the game away, maybe take some notes for the future, Ryan), but the Buckeyes had a monster lead in the second half against Notre Dame, too, and taking their foot off the gas damn near cost them that game as well!
It's been a couple of years, so you might not remember, but the Buckeyes put up all of 13 points in the second half after ripping off 21 before halftime. Why? You guessed it. Day refused to RUN THE TOUCHDOWN PLAY. Their sole second half touchdown (in the third quarter, of course) was built off of a 70 yard non-TD run by Quinshon Judkins (who got caught from behind like Tre Henderson never would have, way to know your personnel, Ryan). Then Ryan Tressel showed his ugly head over the next three drives to let Notre Dame right back in it. The Buckeyes get an absolute gift of field position after stopping a Fighting Irish fake punt? Better kick a field goal after missing a wide open Carnell Tate in the end zone on third down. The next drive barely broke into Irish territory before Egbuka fumbled after a big catch-and-run. And then the pièce de résistance: a pathetic five play drive, killed after Howard couldn't hit #4 running free on 3rd and 3. Four drives post-Quinshon. Zero touchdown plays. Someone must have knocked Day over the head and dialed up 3rd-and-Jeremiah to clinch the game late, because that play looked nothing like the usual timid late-game fare served up by the Chokemaster in Chief.
Day has to go. Now. Maybe we can find someone with the courage to play for a win, like Dan Lanning or Steve Sarkisian.
