Ohio State Football: Bad call, poor fundamentals doomed Buckeyes

The Ohio State football team would be playing for the National Championship if it weren’t for poor fundamentals and a bad call by a replay official.

For most of the game the Ohio State football team had the upper hand over Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. Three mistakes by Buckeyes and a bad decision on a replay allowed the Tigers to pull off a 29-23 victory.

I’ll get to the bad call later but first look at the mistakes by players that changed the game. Those mistakes were a result of poor fundamentals which should have been straightened up before the players ever donned the Scarlet and Gray.

First, let’s look at the dropped pass by J.K. Dobbins in the redzone. The RB was wide open and possibly could have scored if he had simply concentrated on catching the ball instead of what he was going to do afterward.

Certainly he has been drilled to catch the ball first before he turns upfield. It’s difficult to score when the ball is on the ground.

A touchdown instead of a field goal on that possession and the Buckeyes would have only been down by two points on their final drive instead of needing to score a touchdown.

Since J.K. had an outstanding game I’ll give him a pass here. However, the next two mistakes were simply egregious and I’ll begin with the targeting penalty by Shaun Wade.

If Wade had kept his head up when he sacked Trevor Lawrence more than likely he wouldn’t have been ejected for targeting. He should have learned to do so before he enrolled at Ohio State.

Fortunately I learned that lesson playing for Bob Hill, the best high school coach ever to walk the sidelines in SE Ohio. Coach Hill was firm but calm most of the time but if you dropped your head on a tackle practice stopped, and he wasn’t calm or quiet. He knew if a player wasn’t seeing what he was hitting it could result in a serious injury for the defender and / or ball carrier.

Now for the other mistake, a personal foul for roughing the punter. You always go after the football and not the punter, another lesson I learned decades ago in high school. I would certainly hope an Ohio State football player would know that’s what you are supposed to do.

As a sophomore scout team QB, upperclassmen beat the tar out of me when I ran the triple option. So when the starters were working on punting I wanted to pay them back by blocking punts.

I enjoyed ticking off the older guys but stayed away from hitting the punter because I didn’t want to get on coach Hill’s bad side. I’m positive the Buckeye who drilled the Clemson punter was schooled to go after the ball as well but took a poor path instead.

Now for the play that should not have been overturned.

Justyn Ross caught a pass and took two or three steps before Jeffrey Okudah stripped the ball which Jordan Fuller picked up and ran in for a score. After the replay it was determined it was an incomplete pass and the TD was wiped out.

I guess I’m not the only person who thought the call on the field should have stood. Here is what Big Ten supervisor of officials had to say about it per CBS Sports.

"“I haven’t talked to anybody who thought it was an incomplete pass,” said Carollo, who has more than 30 years of officiating experience. “To reverse it, it has to be really obvious.”"

Now let’s do the math. J.K. catches the ball, the Buckeyes score a touchdown and the play isn’t overturned. The Buckeyes score 34 points instead of 23.

If not for the penalties mentioned above Ohio State gets the ball back and Clemson only scores 15 points.  Instead, the Tigers scored two touchdowns after retaining possession. See, one bad call and poor fundamentals were the difference in the game.