The three biggest issues with the Ohio State football team
By Ryan Stano
3. The Ohio State football team must make fewer mental mistakes
Ohio State could have overcome all of those previous issues if it wasn't for this one. The Buckeyes simply made too many mental errors. Those errors manifested themselves sin a multitude of ways and cost the team in extreme ways, none more than on the final drive.
The Buckeyes were called for four false start penalties. They simply could not keep themselves from moving early. I had a bold prediction that they would not have a single one of these penalties. I could not have been more wrong about that. This team was not mentally prepared for that environment.
No bigger mental mistake was made than what happened on the final drive of the game. Will Howard scrambled ahead to get some extra yards to get a closer field goal. The only issue is that he didn't slide fast enough to leave a second on the clock for the timeout to set it up. Time ran out and the game ended.
All of these mental mistakes fall at the feet of Ryan Day. He's proven over and over that he doesn't have his teams prepared to play in big games. It's a pattern that doesn't seem to be getting better. It's up to the head coach to make sure his team won't make these mental errors.
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Unless these issues get corrected, the Buckeyes aren't going to be able to win a national championship. They might not even win a conference championship.