Can we never "trust the kicker" ever again?

Dee-Liem said:

On the bright side, since ESPN is seriously running this thing, Ohio State drops to No. 2. Georgia will be No. 3.

They (ESPN) wants to avoid Georgia vs Alabama/Texas A&M in the quarterfinal (No. 3 plays Tulane/Ole Miss).

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Read that this morning.

Bama isn’t as loaded as they (ESPN) is making them out to be. TAMU would be a fun game and likely win as well.

Indiana could only manage a single TD with a heisman winning QB. And it took us shooting ourself in the foot in the red zone 4 times to win. I’m good with anyone they want to put in front of us. You thought the get-back against Oregon last year was nice - the lessons learned from this game will be even better.

The team is done running heisman campaigns, done worrying about recruiting hold-outs, done worrying about being perfect. They can just focus on the playoffs. This loss felt different.

Let me start with the positive as I see it:
no one has hurt the OSU defense yet. IU survived it, moved the chains when they had to and hit a couple of timely explosives but still only scored 13 points. I don't know what the blue print is for someone to really hurt this defense because we haven't seen anyone put it on tape yet. Maybe a team that could protect well enough to take deep shots on a little bit of a suspect secondary...just theoretical. Not sure anyone could really do it.

Now the offense, we had seen flashes of the kryptonite all year. IU just put it on tape for the rest of the playoff field.

OSU's fatal vulnerability is a weak IOL + QB processing under stress.

Consistent pressure+ good coverage + post snap rotation = blueprint for defensive success against the OSU offense.

ST;
Kicking under pressure just cannot go on the positive side of the ledger. Hasn't for years now.

Last night we saw IU beat OSU at it's own efficiency game. They won 3rd down battle in both phases (6/13 on offense, 4/12 on defense) and did just enough in the red zone to make OSU come away with two empty trips which is the same as 2 turnovers and they won the TO battle +2.

The two completely empty trips (vs IU at least kicking 2/3 FG's) was the ultimate fuel for the upset. You can't have that.

Day and his staff were outcoached by Cignetti and his. They were one step ahead of the OSU offense all night and broke every facet of the efficiency model OSU uses. The OSU adjustment to what IU was doing was too little, too late.

There are teams in the CFP field that fit the mold here (TT comes to mind quick) maybe some I am not thinking of yet.

Sky isn't falling but again, the way to beat this team was just just shown and it's flaws are foundational. You can't fix that IOL this late in the year.

1926Buckeyes said:

I feel bad for the kid. He clearly has trouble with the extreme angles down on the hashes, whether it’s how he’s setting up to kick or hitting the ball. Those kicks have to be automatic if you’re competing for titles and they’ve cost OSU multiple huge games now.

He’s looked better this year, especially his leg strength, but I’m not sure he’s ever going to fix whatever issue he has.

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Before last night he was perfect between 20-29 yards. It had to be a mental thing of attempting a field goal that, if he doesn't get it, will cost them the game. You could say that last year he made the game sealing field goal to win the Natty, but if he missed they still had the lead. Not as much pressure. You could say the same thing about Noah Ruggles during the Georgia game.

So, how soon can we get Daboll in here?

I know I’m out of touch. We win if played game at noon. tOSU spent all day thinking what could go wrong..while Indiana got juiced .

I had a crazy dream that we made it to the Big Ten Championship and had to face #2 Indiana… and they won! Hahahahaha..

Ha… ha.. oh boy.

RB coach and OL coach need to solve running game woes. Leave the TE coach out of it.

The loss sucked.

We have three stated goals .... Beat TCUN, Win the BIG, and win the Natty. If we had to screw the pooch on one of these goals they picked the right one. I do believe losing the way we did will absolutely help us win the next three. Three weeks to work on fixing our shit.

And tell Brian H to go ahead and book those tickets to Florida.

Now we get to see how the Disney Overlords plan on making our path to the Natty as difficult as possible.

Clarity said:

Lame duck coordinators are generally liabilities, whether it’s their own split attention or the HC muddying the water. Bring in Chip, even just as a ‘quality’ adviser,

Not even mad, extraordinary game by Indiana. I won’t lie, I haven’t been taking them entirely seriously. Won’t be so foolish going forward.

Beating any team twice is tough. If we see Indy in the playoffs, I expect (hope for) a very different experience.

What a great story Indiana is the last couple years.

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Agree with all of this but came in to say exactly what you said in the first paragraph. Hartline is probably doing his best but with one foot out the door, that's just not going to work. He's an adult and will understand it's best for both sides...Hartline gets a head start in recruiting and we can have a fully invested OC at the helm.

I certainly was taking IU serious and knew they were legit, but I did think the talent advantage would be too much for IU. It almost was despite poor game plans on both sides of the ball and missed field goals. Honestly we played poorly enough that I think we would have last by two scores or more. Credit to Indiana in having a better game plan and executing it though, we got beat and they were the better team last night.

Watched tOSU v Northwestern. Got kinda confused, thought Tilly was the #5, with Noel as the #4. Great combo under the boards. But Tilly must still be injured (?), because Noel played at the #5, and did well. Guess, tOSU went small, because the other big, Croatian(?), stayed on the pine, and Devin seemed to be hanging down low. Didn't see Taisman in at all. And that Diebs had shortened his bench for conference games. Am I missing something, or what?

Sucks to lose. Certainly had chances, but hats off to Indiana. That is a really good football team. In fact, and I haven't watched CFB as much as I used to, but, that was the best college football game I've seen in some time. Both teams demonstrated to me that these are the two best teams in CFB and it's not particularly close.

Room to grow from this one, for sure, but I don't think OSU should be hanging their heads.

If Bey is a minor, seems kinda appropriate, no?

S*** happens. Yeah, some (many) of the refs calls, or non-calls were bogus. IU holding was preposterous, to be certain. But we all knew that tOSU wasn't gonna get the zebras breaks anyway, no? Shouldn't have been that close, but it was. OK, am out of platitudes. Gotta suck it up and move on.

OK, so David slew Goliath. Day handled his presser with dignity and aplomb. As he should. Never get too high with victory, nor too low with defeat. Actually great time for introspection, which when all you're doing is winning, isn't done. Well, not too much. Some inadequacies were spotlighted, OL play, playcalling, execution, and don't forget a newbie quarterback running the show. tOSU has gotta suck it up and move forward. We'll see today, how badly the Committee judges us, and then mush on forward. Anyway, and always, Go Bucks!

Time for Evil Coach Day to return.

Not saying this is the reason Ohio State lost, but this ref crew needs to be investigated and at the very least blocked from representing the conference in a conference championship or the CFP.