sparcboxbuck said:

Exactly what I thought would happen.

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cincibuck said:

I thought the Bucks had it with the ball on the 28. i thought they’d run to get the ball where the kicker wanted it then take the TO and kick. Sad.

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Bestbuck36 said:

This week is bullshit!

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LordJeffBuck said:

Note, I did not say that Howard lost the game. However, he also did not win the game. For example: Joe Germaine in the 1997 Rose Bowl; Craig Krenzel with Holy Buckeye! and 4th-and-14; Troy Smith versus scUM (especially 2005); Braxton Miller to Devin Smith to beat Wisconsin in 2011; JT Barrett's 4th quarter heroics against Penn State in 2017; ditto for Dwayne Haskins in 2018; even the much-maligned Kyle McCord led an improbable game-winning drive against Notre Dame last season. I could name others, but you get the point.

Yes, the defense stunk, the special teams made a costly mistake, and coaching staff had issues with play calling and time management. But despite all that, the Buckeye offense had the ball down one at their own 25-yard line with 1:47 left on the clock, and Will Howard had the chance to make a statement. What did he do? First play of the drive he takes a sack which cost the Buckeyes a very valuable 9 yards and an even more valuable 26 seconds – the chance of scoring now becomes much more difficult. Howard battles back and gets the team into field goal range with 32 seconds left. At this point, Ohio State should win the game, but an unfortunate penalty and some clock shenanigans set Ohio State back to the Oregon 38-yard line with just 6 seconds to go – not Howard's fault, but wouldn't those lost 9 yards and 26 seconds look pretty good right now? With the game on the line, Howard now has only two options – a short pass and a time out to set up the potential game winning field goal, or try for Holy Buckeye 2.0. Of course he does neither and instead takes off running as soon as he feels the pressure, a move which runs out the clock and "loses" the game.

And lets not forget.... 3:37 left in the 3rd quarter and the Buckeye defense finally does its job and stops Oregon on 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line to preserve a 28-22 lead. Ohio State has all the momentum and another score might put the game away. The Buckeye offense methodically moves out to the Oregon 27-yard line where there now face 3rd-and-3. No third down is ever easy but this one is very makable. What does Howard do? He fumbles the snap, loses 10 yards, drive killed, momentum gone.

Did Will Howard lose the game? No. But he did not play like a champion in crunch time and that certainly contributed to the loss.

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RuGettinIt said:

And mostly because the Dline was aggressive and came at them the whole game.

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Steve19 said:

My concern was the porous Ohio State offensive line. I know they had two starters down but Oregon owned those guys most of the night when they wanted to.

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LordJeffBuck said:

Note, I did not say that Howard lost the game. However, he also did not win the game. For example: Joe Germaine in the 1997 Rose Bowl; Craig Krenzel with Holy Buckeye! and 4th-and-14; Troy Smith versus scUM (especially 2005); Braxton Miller to Devin Smith to beat Wisconsin in 2011; JT Barrett's 4th quarter heroics against Penn State in 2017; ditto for Dwayne Haskins in 2018; even the much-maligned Kyle McCord led an improbable game-winning drive against Notre Dame last season. I could name others, but you get the point.

Yes, the defense stunk, the special teams made a costly mistake, and coaching staff had issues with play calling and time management. But despite all that, the Buckeye offense had the ball down one at their own 25-yard line with 1:47 left on the clock, and Will Howard had the chance to make a statement. What did he do? First play of the drive he takes a sack which cost the Buckeyes a very valuable 9 yards and an even more valuable 26 seconds – the chance of scoring now becomes much more difficult. Howard battles back and gets the team into field goal range with 32 seconds left. At this point, Ohio State should win the game, but an unfortunate penalty and some clock shenanigans set Ohio State back to the Oregon 38-yard line with just 6 seconds to go – not Howard's fault, but wouldn't those lost 9 yards and 26 seconds look pretty good right now? With the game on the line, Howard now has only two options – a short pass and a time out to set up the potential game winning field goal, or try for Holy Buckeye 2.0. Of course he does neither and instead takes off running as soon as he feels the pressure, a move which runs out the clock and "loses" the game.

And lets not forget.... 3:37 left in the 3rd quarter and the Buckeye defense finally does its job and stops Oregon on 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line to preserve a 28-22 lead. Ohio State has all the momentum and another score might put the game away. The Buckeye offense methodically moves out to the Oregon 27-yard line where there now face 3rd-and-3. No third down is ever easy but this one is very makable. What does Howard do? He fumbles the snap, loses 10 yards, drive killed, momentum gone.

Did Will Howard lose the game? No. But he did not play like a champion in crunch time and that certainly contributed to the loss.

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jarv said:

LJ produced back to back NFL Defensive Rookie of the Years in 2020 and 2021 with Bosa and Young (who was a Heisman finalist and broke the school sack record). LJ has produced NFL linemen his entire career UNTIL the Kerry Coombs experiment disaster and then the hiring Knowles.

And we have heard rumblings over the years that Knowles and LJ have disagreements on the defense, to keep it lightly.

The lack of pressure is schematic and all on Knowles. He was terrified of Gabriel's scrambling ability so he trying to bring pressure from the outsides to contain him. Yet, the few times we brought pressure early in the 3rd directly in Gabriel's face it worked. Then we stopped.

Knowles relies on mis-direction before the snap. It's easy to stop a pass rush when you know there are only going to be 3 or 4 coming for the QB. Every. Single. Down.

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Clarity said:

Good news is this is not, at all, a harmful loss. By 1 on the road (and across the country) against #3? Meh.

Unfuck the gaping problems and plow forward. Beat the Weasels, win the Conference. Let the rest play out. Shruggles.

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RuGettinIt said:

Can’t put this game on Will in my opinion. He played well enough for the team to win. He didn’t turn the ball, over and made good decisions. Also was down his starting LT.

This game is on Knowles/Burke/and the defense. Lot’s of NIL money on that side of the ball and it shit the bed.

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jarv said:

LJ produced back to back NFL Defensive Rookie of the Years in 2020 and 2021 with Bosa and Young (who was a Heisman finalist and broke the school sack record). LJ has produced NFL linemen his entire career UNTIL the Kerry Coombs experiment disaster and then the hiring Knowles.

And we have heard rumblings over the years that Knowles and LJ have disagreements on the defense, to keep it lightly.

The lack of pressure is schematic and all on Knowles. He was terrified of Gabriel's scrambling ability so he trying to bring pressure from the outsides to contain him. Yet, the few times we brought pressure early in the 3rd directly in Gabriel's face it worked. Then we stopped.

Knowles relies on mis-direction before the snap. It's easy to stop a pass rush when you know there are only going to be 3 or 4 coming for the QB. Every. Single. Down.

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RuGettinIt said:

At some point you have to rip the bandaid off and move on from LJ. I would argue it should’ve been done at the end of last season. Yeah, you may lose some recruits but it needs to happen sooner rather than later.

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