Ryan Day lost his 13th game as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday night. With a few exceptions, they all feel the same. The Buckeyes have the most talent in college football on a yearly basis. That's why they don't lose to bad teams. They don't get blown out either. But the list of excruciating losses against the best teams in college football continues to get longer.
Ohio State blew a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter as they lost to Texas on Saturday night in Austin. It was their largest blown lead in the Ryan Day era, and their largest blown lead under any head coach since 2011 at Nebraska. It isn't the worst loss of Day's tenure in Columbus, because they have blown leads of 16 and 14 points in the College Football Playoff, and of course the struggles with Michigan, but these kinds of games are starting to feel entirely too familiar.
This loss to Texas didn't have anything we haven't seen before. They struggled to score in the red zone. Ohio State got into the Texas red zone on each of their first five drives and scored just two touchdowns. Similar to the playoff loss to Clemson and the Big Ten Championship loss to Indiana.
They missed an important field goal. Similar to the playoff loss to Georgia, Michigan games in 2023 and '24, the Big Ten Championship loss to Indiana, and the playoff loss to Miami. The offense shut down in the second half. Similar to Michigan losses in 2022 and '24.
The defense couldn't get a key stop when they absolutely needed it. Similar to basically every big loss other than the Indiana game. Ryan Day had bad clock management. Similar to the Georgia loss and the 2024 losses to Oregon and Michigan.
Winning a national championship in a superconference and a 12-team playoff is not something that I am going to downplay. What Ohio State accomplished in 2024 is storybook stuff. That said, Ohio State has cost itself too many opportunities with its performance in close games.
Ryan Day's two wins over Michigan and three of his four playoff wins were all games that Ohio State controlled throughout. They have a few close wins. They won at Notre Dame on what was basically a walk-off touchdown. They won a battle against Texas in the Cotton Bowl two years ago. Otherwise, they lose almost all of these close games that aren't against James Franklin's Penn State.
Ohio State hasn't faced much adversity in the regular season in recent years. This loss to Texas changes that. They still have five ranked opponents on their schedule, including three incredibly difficult road games and three games against teams they have lost to over the last two years.
It's unrealistic to think they are just going to roll through these games and win them all by multiple scores. At some point, Ryan Day and his team are going to have to win close games against top competition. I know the standard is high, but it is the Ohio State standard, and it's what these guys are all paid to do.
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