McCord made a really, really bad play and gave the other team 7 points right from the jump, a hole OSU was trying to dig out of literally the rest of the game and came up just short.
McCord also missed some reads to kill drives throughout the rest of the game. He was a first-year starter, he either gets better as a second-year starter, or someone beats him and the QB position is better next year.
But, otherwise, the offense was moving the ball, scoring points, and playing well enough to win the rest of the game. The play calling on offense was effective outside of McCord’s play in limited situations (I’m specifically thinking of missing a wide open Fleming running a corner route to the end zone).
Day could have been more aggressive at the end of the first half, I get that, but if he fails to get a first down there, there was a real chance UM puts up more points before the half with a few passes.
Hindsight is 20/20 and getting that first down was not a given.
It’s amazing to me how quickly expectations change. How many people were saying this is a 3-4 loss team at the beginning of the year? More than a few. By that metric, Day far exceeded expectations.
Similarly, a microcosm of the instantly changing expectations was in the game, Ohio State was pinned at its own two-yard-line with almost no time left in the first half. Praying to get a first down and not giving up a safety or blocked punt in the end zone was the reasonable expectation there. Instead, McCord makes one of his better plays of the entire game and the expectation instantly flips to getting points before the half, and people thinking Day should be fired because he wasn’t aggressive enough.
I get it. Losing The Game absolutely breaks people’s brains, but there are, in fact, a lot of broken brains here.
It sucks, it absolutely sucks.
Michigan ducked an epic ass beating in 2020 like cowards. That would have made Day 2-0 against ttun.
Day made a horrible DC hire, UM started cheating, the weather was bad, OSU players were sick, and UM was pretty damn good in ‘21.
In ‘22, UM perfected the art of cheating and they had a good QB who has had OSU’s number, OSU’s secondary was decimated by injury, OSU was on its 4th string RB, lost its best player on offense for the season, and the DC was too aggressive.
In ‘23, UM had its best team of a generation, with the experienced QB who had OSU’s number, at home, against an OSU first-year starting QB, Knowles was not aggressive enough, the OSU LB had a robot arm and couldn’t tackle a TE in the open field, the OSU special teams were a mess which left points on the field and utterly failed to pin UM deep when they should have on every punt, the first year starting OSU QB made a game killing mistake early, and OSU still had a legit shot to win at the end of the game.
Call it excuses, whatever. That is what happened. A lot of bad things have lined up against Ohio State for the past four seasons, and talk of being soft, not “getting it,” or whatever is absolute horseshit, in my opinion.
Look at Urban Meyer, who “dominated” the series. OSU won by 5 in ‘12, was fortunate as shit to win in ‘13 with a two-point conversion interception, and again in ‘16 with a 4th down conversion by inches on the game-winning drive. Some bad luck in any of those games and Meyer’s record is practically 50-50, assuming the momentum isn’t completely different in the rest of the games.
Maybe it’s some kind of Ohio magic in there that gets those lucky bounces, but I don’t really think so. Those lucky bounces are about confidence and momentum as much as anything else. Meyer had it and OSU benefited from things going there way.
OSU and Day don’t have it right now, and the bad bounces have stacked up against them.
Next year is lined up exactly opposite to ‘23. UM’s team will be decimated and coming to Columbus with a first-year starting QB. Day HAS to get the momentum back next year, or the narrative changes and even I’ll admit that the only was to get it back would be to make a coaching change.
Day does need to make some moves this off-season. I’m not saying things are fine and Day/OSU just need to wait for UM to be bad.
First with an exclamation point is getting rid of Parker Fleming and adjusting how special teams are coached. Pinning UM deep instead of 35 yards punts to the 30 all day give the defense a much better chance to get stops.
I also think Day needs to make a move with LJ Sr. and DL coaching by moving to someone new who is more on board with Knowle’s overall scheme.
Part of Knowles being able to hit the right level of aggressiveness (too much in ‘22, too little in ‘23) is either 1) implementing the Jack position and the variability/aggressiveness that brings or 2) a coach that can strike a better between between maintaining gap responsibilities and getting after the QB, which LJ Sr. has not been able to do. The DEs being good against the run, which they have been all season, does not mean they have to be lackluster at getting after the QB. Maybe that’s not having the Jack, maybe that’s the coaching of technique and situational awareness. Either way, moving on from LJ Sr. seems like the move.
That’s my magnum opus on moving forward. Another test for Day will be getting the team ready for whatever bowl game they’re in. I look forward to seeing the future in that game.
Hope springs eternal, and I will always be optimistic for the next wave of talent at Ohio State and their chance to shine next season.
