It's hard to put into words just how disappointing this loss to Oregon feels right now. Any hope of winning the national title is over. The College Football Playoff? Enter the Jim Mora 'playoffs' meme. The 41-28 defeat to Oregon has essentially ended the campaign for the Buckeyes, with Dan Lanning out-coaching Ryan Day, making things even worse.
Don't get it twisted, this was 100 percent a full-on collapse from the Buckeyes, who were up 14-3 late in the first half. However, Oregon scoring two touchdowns in the final 1:25 of the second quarter got this turnaround started, and there was no bouncing back from Ohio State. Day's halftime interview with CBS Sports likely gave the Ohio State faithful zero reason to believe he was going to have his guys ready to rock, too. Where was the passion? It sure was missing, like usual...
"Well, first off, we gotta just regroup here at halftime, come back out, and do a good job in the third quarter," Day said before both teams made their way to their locker rooms. "Certainly, with the fake punt, and then the turnover killed us, and then we weren't able to get some stops right there, so we gotta get back at halftime and regroup. We were playing good there for the majority of the first half, and then we just unraveled in the last 5-6 minutes there, so we gotta come back, regroup, and come out here and play in the third quarter. They're going to start with the ball, so we've got to do a good job."
Ohio State unraveling against Oregon is on head coach Ryan Day
I hate throwing Day under the bus a little bit, but come on, man. It felt like he was just totally caught off guard by Oregon's plays, and there were no in-game adjustments on either side of the ball. Did Ohio State simply forget that standout wideout Jeremiah Smith was on the field?
When you have a freshman quarterback playing, you've got to lean on your All-World receiver to step up. That wasn't the case against the Ducks. As for Day continuously saying he wanted his guys to regroup and step up in the third quarter, that didn't happen at all.
Ohio State is about to drop to 6-5 in their last 11 games.
— Brad Powers (@BradPowers7) November 7, 2026
No one is doing LESS with MORE than Ryan Day right now.
Early on in the third, Dierre Hill Jr. broke free for a 48-yard touchdown, with multiple missed tackles getting posted. Then, with 6:37 left in the third, Dakorien Moore reminded everyone why he was a 5-star prospect, hauling in a one-handed TD grab from Dylan Raiola that's going to live on SportsCenter for the next week.
It led to even more Ohio State fans shaking their heads in disgust at what was unfolding at The Shoe, and things didn't get much better the rest of the way. After this defeat, countless Buckeyes will be left wondering what could have been this season had Julian Sayin not suffered his serious injury.
Instead of Ohio State pushing for the natty, there's not much left to play for entering Week 11, which is something that should never be the case in Columbus. At the end of the day, this is all on Day, and serious Sayin injury or not, it's his job to make sure this team can overcome adversity when it hits Ohio State in the face. That hasn't been the case this fall, which is totally unacceptable.
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