A Letdown Joey Bosa Needs a Big Rivalry Game to Bounce Back
Saturday night’s loss to Michigan State was emotional for many Buckeyes, Joey Bosa chief among them. The Ohio State defensive end all but announced he was planning on leaving for the NFL after this season last week and wanted to go out on top in his last game at Ohio Stadium.
He also wanted to leave Buckeye Nation with memories of a good performance, but the Michigan State offensive line had other plans for him and his fellow defensive linemen.
“I looked somewhere and somebody said we couldn’t stop Joey Bosa or Adolphus Washington,” Spartans’ center Jack Allen said after the game. “I didn’t see them back there too much today, so…”
While Washington finished with seven total tackles and one tackle for a loss, Bosa, a possible first-overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, was held to just four total tackles and one quarterback hurry.
More importantly, he was not an impact player as he experienced his first loss, 17-14, in 23 games.
“Right after the game, watching that kick go in, I was telling everyone it just didn’t even feel real and I felt like I was in a dream and I was waiting for myself to wake up,” the defensive end said on Monday. “It took me about 20 or 30 minutes for it to set in and then I kind of broke down.
“Sunday definitely wasn’t fun to come in here and not be able to laugh and talk about our victory and get victory meal.”
Bosa has always been emotional and often hard on himself, but this was a new low for the junior, likely because of his direct impact on the defeat.
Three times during the game, Bosa was called offside and gifted MSU five yards at a time. The worst of these came on the Spartans’ first drive of the fourth quarter with OSU leading 14-7 where he jumped early on a fourth-and-eight to make it easier for Michigan State and backup quarterback Tyler O’Connor to convert.
Five plays later and MSU running back Gerald Holmes was in the endzone to tie game at 14.
This shouldn’t all be blamed on Bosa, as it was something the Spartans felt they would be able to do against an aggressive defensive line.
“That’s something that we prepped for during the week,” Allen said of changing the snap count. “We have different calls for when we’re going to hold the calls a little longer. You almost try to stay out of a rhythm sometime with your cadence and a couple of those I was holding it a little bit longer, but it worked out.”
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