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LGHL The worst loss in recent memory: Ohio State has a real problem yet again

The worst loss in recent memory: Ohio State has a real problem yet again
Caleb Houser
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Buckeyes fail to beat their rivals for the fourth year in a row in a game that should be forgotten.

Sick.

That’s the only single word that comes to mind if asking for a one-word reaction to how Buckeye Nation is feeling right now. For the fourth consecutive time, the Buckeyes fail to beat their rival in a game where once again they had the upper hand in several areas.

You could probably sum it up right there, but we need to take a deeper look at the issues at hand in Columbus. Hopefully this rant helps you release some emotions that are completely understandable.

The first reaction when seeing the score is wondering how on Earth this team with this much talent only scored 10 points. Just 10 points against a defense that has lost five games on the year. 10 points to a defense without their best cornerback. 10. points.

The first drive of the game the Buckeyes moved the ball down the field with ease thanks to the passing game, and that should have been the plan all day long considering the points just argued. Knowing full well Michigan is without their best defensive back, why would you not throw the ball twice the amount of times you keep it on the ground?

Having to settle for a field goal was issue No. 1 on the opening drive, and that is on the play-calling. Chip Kelly called the worst game possible and picked the worst time to do it. It honestly made me question if Ryan Day had taken over with how bad it looked.

To consistently ram your head into the same wall is just maddening. It would take about two seconds of thought to realize running the ball directly up the gut into the best interior defensive line in the country probably isn’t the best choice there, yet here we are watching it over and over to little success.

Don’t get me started on stretch runs into the boundary either. Ohio State’s infatuation with that specific ideology for several years running is beyond dumb. Running the ball to the short end of the field without a numbers advantage has never worked, and once again it reared its ugly head today.

In my 30-years of watching this team, I have never been so embarrassed. How can this program continue to play its worst game of the season in the most important one? It’s simple — It’s all on the coaching.

Seeing this offense play scared all day long is hard to wrap your mind around knowing the amount of talent at their disposal. The times they did push the ball down the field through the air it worked. Yes, in a huge moment Carnell Tate dropped a pass in the fourth quarter, but my biggest gripe with play-calling today is the consistent desire to run the ball on virtually every first down.

Then, again, whether needing two or three yards or even 10, Kelly would call for another run on second down that rarely went anywhere, setting up obvious passing situations on third downs. That is very hard for a quarterback to constantly overcome, and Will Howard was not able to rise to the occasion.

Another gripe: why does Ohio State have a bad kicker every single year? The last time a kicker in a Buckeye uniform was dependable feels like decades ago with Mike Nugent! Leaving six points on the board is sickening, and you have no excuse at Ohio State to continuously have this situation come up.

I don’t expect kickers to be perfect, but to miss not one, but two kicks inside of 40 yards is gross. Considering high school kickers regardless of wind make that range and in the biggest moments you miss two? Just cannot happen, especially as you watch Michigan — who brought in an elite kicker through the transfer portal — drill one with ease from 50-plus yards.

Additionally, seeing this team derail their last efforts of hope with the timeout blunder in the fourth quarter is all you need to look at if we’re being honest. How does that happen? It’s 3rd-and-2. If you can get a stop and force a field goal there you have a real shot, but instead you gift them five yards, a first down, and most of all lose your timeout and contribute to them bleeding the clock even more.

This team is flat out poorly coached in big moments far too often, and that’s where this conversation should end.

I’ll just keep this going...​


Ryan Day. It’s just time. I don’t see how three years of this let alone four is acceptable any more. Day is a great guy, but let’s just call it like it is right now. He cannot get the job done.

There’s maybe no one reason you can directly point to as the cause, but that is the issue. There’s too many recurring problems for a team with this much talent and resources to constantly be playing this poorly in the game that means the most.

You’ve been more talented. You’ve brought in different coaches. You have played down the rivalry and then made it the most important game ever, and it’s still the same result for the fourth year in a row.

He coaches different in this game compared to others, and it’s dead wrong. There’s never creativity. Never a moment where aggression and play calling go hand-in-hand. Once again, Michigan throws in a trick play, while it’s doesn’t work, it got them a pass interference call. I am not saying you need trick plays to win big games, but clearly the safe and conservative approach isn’t working either.

You have an advantage all over the field with your receivers against their secondary and you didn’t lean into it. Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate and the rest of the skill guys cannot be guarded. But no, continue to run into Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant. I will truly never understand that aspect to this game. If it’s this “toughness” mantra Day is trying to win against still, then just end it now.

Knowing how many guys came back for this single game and still had the same result tells me all I need to ever know. Day does not have what it takes to beat Michigan, and neither does this staff. Argue it all you want, but what have we seen to believe any different?

You can argue that players have to execute too, and I fully support that stance and agree, but coaches also have to put players in the best place for success. I do not see that being the case anytime the god-forsaken winged helmets are lined up across the field.

I do believe Day is a good football coach. I do. It’s not lost on me there are a ton of bright spots to look at in his tenure. But fair or not, fans know this game alone is how you are judged, and he’s so deep into the John Cooper era it’s scary.

We’ve been let down again. The defense played hard, and while they weren’t perfect, this game is on the offensive staff and that side of the ball. Even a win or two in the College Football Playoff will not take the sting off of this game. The anger we have felt for years continued again on Saturday, and it’s another long wait until you get another crack at them.

I fully believe by then there has to be a change at the helm, because if not, why would I believe anything other than the same result?

Be better. End of story.

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LGHL LGHL Experts Predictions Podcast: 2024 Ohio State vs. M*ch*g*n edition

LGHL Experts Predictions Podcast: 2024 Ohio State vs. M*ch*g*n edition
Matt Tamanini
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


ohio_state_michigan_score_predictions.0.jpeg

Made with Google AI

And we only have to fire one person for their prediction!

Listen to the episode and subscribe:

Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio​



As is tradition here at the Land-Grant Podcast Network, for The Game, we have gathered together a handful of experts from our staff in order to give a full spectrum of predictions about what we think is going to happen in The Horseshoe this afternoon when the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes host the Corn and Blue from Ann Arbor. Some of these predictions come from episodes in our podcast feed from throughout the week, while others are completely original for this podcast.

If you can’t get enough of LGHL’s predictions for The Game, head over to our official predictions article, where we have even more LGHL staff members who go on the record with their score, MVP, and major storyline predictions for The Game.



Connect with Matt Tamanini
Online Portfolio:
authory.com/MattTamanini

Music by: epidemicsound.com​


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LGHL Ohio State fans surprisingly want a Big Ten title over beating TTUN

Ohio State fans surprisingly want a Big Ten title over beating TTUN
Matt Tamanini
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


Indiana v Ohio State

Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images

You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.

Throughout the
Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.



Today’s the day. For an entire year (or really three entire years), Buckeye Nation has been practically singularly focused on betting back in the win column against their archrivals the Mitten State Weasels. With a slot in the Big Ten Championship Game on the line, Ohio State first needs to win the matchup in Ohio Stadium today, but a lot of fans are looking for the home team to lay down a butt-kicking of epic proportions.

In our fan survey this week, we asked two questions, both with direct and tangential relations to The Game. First, we wanted to know what was most important to fans for the Buckeyes to accomplish over the next few weeks. While there is overlap in some of the outcomes, the question is about what’s most important to you. And, to be honest, I was surprised by the results.


For the second question, we asked what you thought the margin of victory would be in the matchup, and of course, who would win. So, check out the results down below, and if you want to add your two cents in to the discussion, feel free to do that in the comments below.


Question 1: What is most important to you over the next few weeks?​



I’m not sure what I expected the answer to be here, but I am pretty confident in saying that I did not anticipate winning the conference to be that big of a winner. Of the options, it is the most clinical and the least emotional. I thought, having lost three straight rivalry games, fans would be extra giddy to beat the Weasels this week. Or, at least, I figured Buckeye Nation would be eager for the team to avenge its one loss of the season by beating Oregon.

While beating the Ducks is baked into winning the Big Ten title, that’s not what fans said was most important. For me, I voted for beating the Corn and Blue, because I cannot imagine a world in which this Ohio State team loses to that Team Up North. If that were to happen, I might have to disengage with the world for the better part of the rest of my life.


Question 2: What will the margin of victory be in Saturday’s game against TTUN?​



When the FanDuel Sportsbook opened up betting on this year’s edition of The Game, it installed the No. 2 Buckeyes as a 21.5-point favorite, that number has dipped down in the last few days and OSU currently sits at -18.5. The gold standard college football analytics model SP+ projects Ohio State to win by a score of 36-10. So, no matter how anxious you are about this game (and deservedly so), it is not expected to be especially close.


While I am hoping that Ryan Day is finally able to #Hang100OnEm, even if it doesn’t get there, I did predict a massive blowout in our predictions article that went live earlier today. I think that with how salty the Buckeyes were following their win over Indiana and how little glimpses of the same animosity have trickled out since the Buckeyes will be out for blood.

You can check out all of our staff’s predictions here and listen to our in-depth thoughts on the game on our “Tailgate” podcast available now. While the consensus of Buckeye fans is not quite as overly confident as I am, roughly 88% are predicting a multi-score victory, so that is still pretty solid.



Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

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LGHL OHIO STATE GAMEDAY: It’s a bad day to be a Michigan Wolverine

OHIO STATE GAMEDAY: It’s a bad day to be a Michigan Wolverine
Gene Ross
via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here


COLLEGE FOOTBALL: NOV 23 Indiana at Ohio State

Photo by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Game has arrived.

Wake up, everyone. It’s Ohio State game day!

Ohio State has made it to the final game of the regular season with just one blemish — a one-point loss on the road to the No. 1 team in the country, Oregon. The last thing standing in the way of the Buckeyes and a trip to Indianapolis for a rematch against those same Ducks in the Big Ten title game is Michigan. Ryan Day has lost to his program’s hated rival for three years in a row, and needs to right the ship this time around against a 6-5 Wolverines squad.

Over the past week, our talented group of writers and podcasters have put together preview pieces, analytical breakdowns, and everything in-between.

If you missed out on any of the coverage, we have you... well, covered. Below, each type of story is categorized. If you’re looking for podcasts and previews we’ve done, you can find them; if you’re looking for the betting lines and non-football topics, they are there, too.

Enjoy the day everyone. As always, Go Bucks!


Podcasts​


Previews​


Sports Betting​


Mens Basketball​


Women’s Basketball​


Recruiting​


Ask LGHL/B1G Top 10​


Other Columns​


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