OHIO STATE NOTEBOOK: BUCKEYES “CAN'T LOSE ANY MORE GAMES” IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE GOALS, WYATT DAVIS NEARING ROLE AND RUN GAME DIFFERENCES
Isaiah Prince minced no words. He called himself a sore loser and said, even though Ohio State’s loss to Purdue happened nearly two weeks ago, he was still “pissed.”
He’s not alone. The entire team feels the pressure to rebound from the 29-point loss. Urban Meyer said he thinks he has seen a different level of anger from his team.
“I just look at work and are they coming out working their tails off,” Meyer said. “Anger, whatever, if that's what it takes to make you practice hard and those type of things. I just watch more how serious are you about your business and are we going to get better.”
He said it’s his job and the leaders of each of the nine units to address the team in response to the defeat.
The loss removed Ohio State’s safety net. If the Buckeyes lose again, they will effectively be eliminated from the College Football Playoff and, in all likelihood, eliminated from the pursuit of a Big Ten championship.
“There's always a sense of urgency, but if we want to still get to where we want to get to, we can't lose any more games,” said Terry McLaurin, one of the team’s captains. “That's a big emphasis in our part.”
In the two games leading up to the loss to the Boilermakers, Ohio State didn’t have its finest performances. But after three lackluster games, including the first loss of the season, McLaurin said the team isn’t able to focus on past games.
“Can't really dwell on the past, but I feel like we really took the bull by the horns in trying to hone in on the mistakes that we had and our points of emphasis,” McLaurin said. “We're hoping to see improvement on Saturday.”
An opponent like Nebraska puts less pressure on Ohio State. After suffering a defeat, the last thing a team wants to do is face a highly regarded opponent. Nebraska has won its past two games, but those are the only victories of the season thus far.
"I want to see the things we worked so hard on fixed,” Meyer said.
Everyone knows those areas. Run game, red-zone offense, penalties, tackling and big plays allowed. Now, it’s time to find out if Ohio State has managed to correct those areas of concern.
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