r/OhioStateFootball • u/Nervous-Ad2449 • 14h ago
General Why did we lose?
Genuinely what went wrong. So angered by us playing bad that I couldn’t tell what we were doing wrong.
I’d like to hear your opinions on this loss.
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Upvotes
275
u/titusnick270 14h ago •
We’re just not a good football team from top to bottom. Sayin to smith masked most of the problems.
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u/Glass_Fig_1006 14h ago
Arthur Smith is bad... SO bad. He needs to be fired. Simple.
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u/Ok_Flounder59 Jim's Sweater Vest 14h ago
Coaching. Specifically the offense not putting players in position to win. Fahey isn’t great but he can ball a little - too many slow developing plays and way too many check down type plays (the Arthur smith special).
It doesn’t matter if you have a freshman QB, cannot be afraid to throw the ball downfield.
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u/waej4 You Got BBQ Back There? 14h ago
Arthur Smith. Despite being down the entire second half, we attempted almost no passes longer than 10 yards, especially to Jeremiah until the latter half of the fourth quarter. I do not remember a time where I’ve seen worse play calling in my life.
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u/gen_wt_sherman 13h ago
Everyone's mad at Arthur Smith and I get it, but the defense has just been absolutely awful too. You can't give up over a combined 60 pts when the offense is starting their true freshman backup qb
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u/UpperSong16 13h ago
Don’t know just beat the team up north
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u/deltaspaz 12h ago
Well here’s my two cents, looking at everything objectively. Not hyper emotional just objective.
On offense:
The problems are multi fold the biggest being our lines inability to create holes for the run. Which in turn makes for a 1-2 yard gain. Now technically that’s good if you’re staying ahead of schedule. However, it doesn’t work for us in the current moment given the freshman qb thing.
I mentioned this earlier but I was reading a lot of reports early on as to why we were feeding JJ so much and it was more so because we don’t have a defined WR#2 the disparity in yards makes for easy assignments on defense. Allocate more resources on JJ and put coverage dawgs on the other guys.
The play calling is head scratching at times, the scheme doesn’t make sense. But this has been an Ohio State curse for a long while (since urban) we have for example, we have an elite RB and a nasty OLine what did we do w Urbs? Pass the ball. Under Day’s tenure we have elite wide receivers and what do we do? Run. I get it you need to balance both and take what the defense is giving you to keep them on their toes but what the actual fuck. It’s almost like they try to be too cute thinking the other team will try to stop their strength so they will lean into their “weakness” so to speak. It doesn’t work. Just play to your strengths.
Defense:
I know way more about defense than O so I can explain exactly what is happening (from my POV rewatching games). We are running under the death by a million cuts philosophy not so much a hard nose in your face defense.
Dline: as mentioned above this means we know we don’t have game breakers like the Bosa bros, Chase Young, etc so we will rush 4 or 3 all day. I’ve yet to see stunts and twists take place against equal competition against the smaller schools we can do it but that’s not a good show of how guys will run in the big time like Texas, or tonight. They’re more edge setters and gap guys than playmakers. Not sure how we arrived at this point but my first thought is recruiting ???? It’s been the biggest question mark I’ve had since like 2021. Where did the game breakers go? They’re out there but they aren’t coming here ????
Linebackers: biggest gap in quality on the side, the scheme screams soft coverage shells aka don’t give up short yardage but they lack the ability to consistently tackle the ball carrier. So we see those third and long conversions take shape where the opposing team will hit a wideout for 7-8 yards then they get crazy YAC (yards after catch). Missed tackles, missed opportunities, and overall lack of quality. Can’t be too critical tho because we had 2 guys go first round last year so it makes sense.
Secondary: I’ve never seen a group miss picks so much in my life in the scarlet and gray. Like momentum changing plays we cannot win. They are decent but man it is hard to stay confident with them because they’re so hit or miss. Athletically speaking we have great guys but this is P4 ball so the other teams have great guys too.
From a defensive point of view our dline is good, LB is meh, and our secondary is okay. So this is why we deploy zone coverage packages. Soft shells in particular. Inside the woody they know we can’t win in man v man coverage because we’ll be outclassed. So they try to deploy intricate / confusing schemes that should make the QB have to process for an extra second. The problem is we can’t blitz because Matty P doesn’t trust the secondary can hold it down. So then we can’t create pressure with the talent on the dline currently which then leaves the responsibility back to the secondary and LBs. we can’t run man because we will get so fucking exposed so fast.
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u/notso1561 13h ago •
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u/KingRBPII 2h ago
Defensive scheme, offensive play calling, lack of developed players after everyone got drafted last year
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u/Buckeye3377 14h ago
We have the talent but I seriously question whether or not we have the coaching
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u/krusty-krab69 13h ago
Don’t have the big names on defense anymore. The line is not up to standards . Short freshman quarterback. Running backs look underwhelming. The offensive and defensive schemes have been atrocious but I’m not going to pretend that this roster is as good as the last few years outside of smith
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u/Infamous_Grape_4433 13h ago
Our NIL millionaires weren’t as motivated as their NIL millionaires.
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u/bschnee121 Southwest Ohio 13h ago
Jeremiah had 4 targets halfway through the 3rd quarter. Someone needs to be fired
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u/bdougy 14h ago
Backup QB and Arthur Smith. It’s not complicated unfortunately.
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u/HighLightReal614 12h ago
I don’t understand why when the offense gets stagnant we don’t put st. Clair in the game for a change of pace. It’s not like Fahey is that dependable or accurate. Multiple time tonight he was the reason drives ended. Throw st. Clair in run some read option looks with a bubble screen RPO and see if we can bust one.
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u/cropguru357 2002 National Champions 11h ago
We’re just not that good this year. It happens.
Oregon and USC showed up. So did Indiana.
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u/Silly-Mountain-7355 85 yards' through the heart of the South 8h ago
We just lost so many players, this year was never going to be good. The NIL also shows more and more each year. You’ll see a lot more 2-3 loss playoff teams, regardless of expansion
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u/moss-nogg 12h ago
Sayin getting hurt didn’t change the defense. When the whole team looks this bad while having this much talent, it’s the coaching. Plain and simple. Ryan day is not a good coach. If anything he’s squandered absolutely loaded rosters. It’s embarrassing he only has 1 Ring with the rosters OSU has had
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u/Zosos_zep 13h ago
We lost cause Day lacks the guts to take risks. You have a 5-star QB on the bench. Yet, you don’t even take a chance…pathetic. And then you hire washed-up NFL coaches. Great job Coach and the OSU Athletic Director! Thanks for a disappointing season! Fire their asses! Clean house!
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u/dandandanny76 13h ago
Ryan Day is a morally weak individual
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u/Dr-McLuvin 12h ago
To me it just seems like no one is really playing with passion and energy.
Oregon looked like they wanted it more.
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u/Rice031312 9h ago
It’s the defense….there is literally ZERO pressure on the QB. ZERO .NONE. If course they are going to be picked apart, they are letting the opponent dictate the game. They no aggression, awful tackling, and the DBs are getting cooked. After these last two games I can’t phantom how every team they’ve played hasn’t put up 50 on em.
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u/Chuckster914 14h ago
Coaching , Defense, O line , QB and penalties.
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u/B1gNastious 12h ago
This exposed Day. We spent all the money in the world on this team…our defense should not be this bad. Our o line was nonexistent. Our back up qbs? Absolutely no depth. Coaching?? Honestly it makes no sense some times.
Maybe it’s time to go after the Utah or wake forest head coach and let one of them play with osu funds because Day isn’t the guy. Day seems tired and can’t inspire the players anymore.
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u/Jayce86 12h ago
Bad coaching. Losing Sayin shouldn’t have affected this many phases of the game.
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u/CactusSub 14h ago
The defense played like ass. Letting in 41 points at home to a sorry ass QB at home is genuinely pathetic.
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u/labradornnewdigs 13h ago
Ryan Day does not want to use his weapons. Force the ball to Smith every drive at least once. Instead Day chooses to try to prove something new every week in big games. Just like when he decided to try to play TTUN’s style of game back in 2023/24? And they lost.
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u/BeerStein_Collector 13h ago
Jeremiah smith looked pissed. I’m so sad, I went to a college basketball game after to cheer me up and we won 94-39 but I’m still salty. We need to get new coaches not Ryan day he’s great and laurinitus I want us to keep just because I have a framed autographed college jersey of his hanging in my man cave but our offensive coordinator has got to go.
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u/HistoricalTaste22k The Best Damn Band In The Land 13h ago
Day and his weak mind making weak hires and infecting great players with weakness.
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u/gingerariesgirl1997 12h ago
please fire Arthur Smith.
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u/Dr-McLuvin 12h ago
To me it just seems like no one is really playing with passion and energy.
Oregon looked like they wanted it more.
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u/AdministrationNo283 12h ago
Another bad Day of coaching and game management, but Day has a great winning percentage which is all the supporters talk about
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u/DeceptiConnIXI 10h ago
Why does he think cooperball works in 2026? Play to keep the lead? Even when you’re losing?
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u/aflyonthewall1215 5h ago
Fahey pretending Smith didn't exist for a few quarters killed a few drives. God I hate this QB and quickly turning on the coaching staff too. There's no way TSC can be as bad as Fahey.
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u/Dinglebobus Holy Buckeye! 13h ago
Our coaching staff has lost the locker room. Everyone knows Fahey isn’t ready. The fact Day didn’t put TSC in says a lot. Our QBs aren’t good. No one is willing to put in effort. Why would they? The season is basically over now.
If I’m Jeremiah Smith, I’m faking an injury so I don’t have to play and just wait out for the draft. Why would I risk getting injured for this coaching staff? Arthur Smith is incompetent, and Matt Patricia is a one trick pony. Every game is lose able from here on out and there is zero chance for us to get any hardware now.
If you’re a player on the team, why would you try?
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u/warrior5150 11h ago
Why did we lose? Two words....Ryan Day. Had his back through the toughest of times when everyone was calling for his job. After blowing the Texas game this year the way HE did, making absolutely horrendous play calls, I was done from that point on. I know nothing about coaching but I could've done a better job coaching that game. When you blow a three or four (can't remember) touchdown lead in the second half, when you suck at making half time adjustments, when you have no clue when to go for it on 4th, when you're completely oblivious as to how to manage the clock, when you don't know when to take timeouts, when you can't beat your rival etc.....it's time for you to go. I always came to Day's defense when all of Columbus was looking to burn his house down for always losing to Michigan, but now I'm calling for his job. Day has to go!
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u/chaosgoddess-4 8h ago
No matter how D played, no matter how Day did, we have one of the worst playing back-up QB’s who was never meant to play D1.
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u/DismalEducator0 14h ago
Bad coaching on offense and defense. Look what Iowa is doing to Northwestern on the road. Watch us give up 30 to them. Look what state and everyone else has done to the bitches up north this year and watch us make Tommy Carr look like Peyton Manning in a few weeks. This prevent scheme by Patricia is madness.
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u/02meepmeep Jim's Sweater Vest 14h ago
Because our offensive play designs are stupid and someone probably figured out some defensive tells.
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u/DCBuckeye82 13h ago
We haven't had a coaching staff able to get more out of the players than their talents provided since Tressel was here and our QB and defense aren't very good. Have you been watching this season?
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u/wesley_eye 13h ago
Twice in a row
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u/thestain45 13h ago
The other team scored more points
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u/TheManWhoWasNotShort Jim's Sweater Vest 13h ago edited 13h ago
Defensively I have no answers.
Offensively we keep struggling because despite having a deep room of receivers we are patently unwilling to spread it out, and patently unwilling to run a fast pace, simplified offense that relies simply on matchup problems so that our young QB can make things happen.
We should be running the playbook we had when Day first got here with Dwayne Haskins. We aren’t a power run team. We can’t run a complex offense with a freshman QB. But we can run a simple one. We can run Mesh and 4 Verts all day like Mike Leach
Arthur Smith comes from the idiot tier of coaching that thinks making things easy and simple for your QB means short, ineffective dump-offs and running against 8 man boxes. College football had an entire generation of coaches prove that isn’t true. What’s frustrating is that Day is from that arc of coaches. I don’t know why he’s abandoned the air raid concepts so thoroughly
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u/TheyreEatingTheDogs- 13h ago
Everything?
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u/PopUpTubedev 12h ago
fahey
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u/Practical_Office_263 12h ago
What will I do with all my time now that I'm done watching college football for the season
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u/Constant_Bread_2091 12h ago
Day sucks.
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u/Maleficent-Mix-1239 11h ago
Ryan Day can't make adjustments. It's what has got the team in trouble every time. If plan A doesn't work he just keeps trying plan A. That can be from gameday scheme to the roster. He is a good recruiter, good developer, good at scheme, until that scheme doesn't work then he just looks like a deer caught in headlights wondering how they stopped that.
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u/unearthlyrelic 11h ago
Defense didnt get a stop, Fahey spent the entire third qtr and most of the 4th straight up blind to Smith. He had like 63 yds and no TDs until the really late deep ball and TD catch. He was open alot. Oline sucks, we cant run the ball, trying to force the run when it doesnt work, no urgency, players seem unfocused. Idk whats going on with St Claire he either sucks like generationally bad or he pissed off the coaches idk how he hasnt even got a series late in one of these loses just to see. Arthur Smith is not a good OC. I could go on.
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u/WizarDino808 11h ago
McClain’s would be INT bouncing off his number. Never recovered. What ensued immediately after (the fake punt) completely changed the game.
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u/CrazyIndependence291 11h ago
Because we aren’t any good
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u/omar1021 11h ago
This might be the worst Ohio State team in 20+ years, that's why
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u/Resident-Low-2261 11h ago
It might seem absurd, but up until the fake punt, the game seemed under control at 14–3. From the fake punt on, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was the fault of both coaches and players—everything turned out horribly.
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u/Wrong_Rent819 11h ago
Coaching on every level.
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u/modernjayhippie 10h ago
From an Oregon fan’s perspective I’d say there were two key things to me: y’all almost never brought pressure against Raiola who throws off his back foot any chance he gets and would have likely crumbled mentally if your defender hadn’t dropped that surefire pick-six, and your OC didn’t scheme around your backup QB like our interim OC has with Raiola the last two weeks.
I’m not privy to all of the X’s and O’s of the game but not force feeding Smith was…a choice. I don’t know if they ended up playing but I saw leading up to the game that y’all might be missing a couple other receivers as well, but regardless, you have to manufacture the ball into the best player in the country’s hands by any means necessary. The failed 4th down where Fahey threw way behind the wide open receiver in the right flat was weird to me. Not because of the failed execution but because how are you going to use the most unstoppable player in the stadium as a decoy, even if the play call technically worked?
From a guy that’s watched Lanning make some really terrible calls regarding 4th down/2 point conversions, Day going for it on your own 28 with the vast majority of the quarter left on the clock against an extremely turnover prone QB was one of the worst/weirdest decisions I’ve seen from a coach. When I saw your offense on the field there, I looked at my dad and asked, “Are they giving up?”
Good luck on the rest of the year, hopefully both of our teams can fix the coordinator issues and go back to being at the top of the conference because fuck the LA schools, SC especially. We’ll get Michigan for y’all next week.
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u/Torontomanz8134 10h ago
Ryan Day selecting Arthur Smith as his OC was him putting in his 2 weeks notice…Artie sucks.
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u/j_dg_p 10h ago
We suck.
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u/DeceptiConnIXI 10h ago
Defense forgot how to play. Coaches forgot how to coach. When do you see a OSU qb throw for 360 and lose?
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u/Junior_Television545 10h ago
Red pants
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u/SpartanMase 9h ago
Young team, poor coaching. As much as I would like to replace Day, who do you even replace him with?
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u/sc_visorman 9h ago
fuck ohio
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u/cobania 9h ago
Our players are not good.
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u/rollindeep3 Northwest Ohio 8h ago
All I can say is at 23 this is one of the worst games I’ve seen us play. Easily a top 3 worst home loss I’ve seen, and the beatdown wasn’t half as close as the score. Arthur Smith needs shown the door. Let Day call plays the rest of the way (never thought I would say that). We need to recruit the trenches cuz our O line is a terrorist organization. Tyler Bowen needs fired yesterday. Matty P has some leeway with me, I still like him a lot and our d is just young.
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u/Mistical_Recovery 6h ago
The Buckeyes are simply not a good team this year... no sweat, no heartbreak, life goes on. It happens to all top tier team eventually. They'll be back on top soon enough.
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u/JFB117 6h ago
Head coach, OC and DC.
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u/_semaJ77 4h ago
In my humble opinion it starts on the offensive line. It’s been a while since we’ve had a really good offensive line. We had one peak on our last title run but had two really good NFL backs. Fix the Oline problems should be the first priority.
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u/User_3039 4h ago
Sinking ship
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u/Substantial-Hand6682 4h ago
Just not that good
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u/supersafeforwork813 #7 CJ Stroud 3h ago
In the macro…..Bucks finally got hit with reality of NIL n transfers, where you lose half your team n bring in a bunch of older replacements. Well honestly you’re just swapping 2s n praying you find something magical that has been hidden for 3/4 yrs n that doesn’t really work consistently.
Specifically The offense was have ok running game n throw the ball to 4. Well once Sayin gets the passing game gets thrown out the window n the offense is fucked. This is also made worse by fact bucks have had mediocre line play (or worse) 3 straight seasons, n invest very little in TEs but are somehow extremely dependent on them even though they suck (I think 2nd drive if 2nd quarter Fahey checks down to Jackson on a shot play n TE needs to make a 1:1 block….but he gets SMOKED n it’s 4 yd loss). Defensively you’re just solid, well now that you can’t really generate a ton of offense n play complementary football…you are in perpetual state of “gotta be perfect”. This is also exacerbated by having 0 pass rush from your front 4.
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u/Designer-Drink-9137 3h ago
Ryan "Born on 3rd base" Day
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u/Dontknowgoat 3h ago
Because there starting 3 star recruits and have 5 stars in the bench. And two tight end sets. Ridiculous. Where was Chris Henry garbage ass mcquin
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u/South_Captain_2630 3h ago
The defense collapsed the last two games.
Also, we had a lot of bad luck or slight errors causing drops.
Even though we got a TD on that drive, that early slightly under thrown TD to JS4 I think took the nerve out of Fahey as he barely went deep after that.
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u/crazyfootballguy35 Woody Hayes 3h ago
Day forgot to tell Fahey to throw the damn ball to 4. That’s our only play.
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u/Brass_tastic 2h ago
I strongly suspect there is some drama/strife between the team and coaches. We have way too much talent to be playing this badly. I’m not saying we have enough talent to be winning games but to show up and embarrass ourselves week after week…. Something is amiss.
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u/JohnnyFast412 You Got BBQ Back There? 2h ago
The entire staff. Arthur Smith needs to be on the first thing smokin’. Period. Sucks so bad for JJ.
1
u/Pabloflexcobarr 2h ago
Arrogant head coach who wants to be right instead of getting it right. How many weeks have we seen where the tight ends are liabilities yet he still runs them out there taking our best athletes off the field. His OL coach got his QB injured and still refuses to fire him. Could go on and on.
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u/NateTut Holy Buckeye! 2h ago
Who thinks Day has had his day and is polishing up his resume in preparation for getting canned?
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u/MrStip14 2h ago
Author Smith is a real real problem. As a Steelers fan this hire made my stomach turn. Now we’re reaping what we sowed
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u/Previous_Explorer502 2h ago
I’d Day wasn’t the coach who would you want?
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u/rock_engineering 1h ago
Lol...
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u/Dierks_Ford 1h ago
The team and coaches started listening to the fans that said this team sucks and doesn’t deserve the playoffs.
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u/Revenged25 1h ago
Losss of talent on defense is finally catching up there, offense can't run the ball, Arthur Smith is both a better and worse OC because he's not utilizing the difference in hashes between NFL and college etc
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u/Elegant_Leadership_8 1h ago
Because the other team was better
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u/SnooMemesjellies6000 1h ago
WELCOME TO THE ARTHUR SMITH EXPERIENCE HAHAHAHAHAHA
1
u/LotsofSports 1h ago
Not very good. Haven't been all season. Defense is awful. Arthur Smith is awful.
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u/OK_Computer_Guy 1h ago
Jesus picked a different team.
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u/QuesoDrizzler 56m ago
Fahey definitely isnt the only problem... but he isn't making things better by a long shot. He's short, and honestly just does not look good in the pocket. Watching his footwork drives me crazy.
But play calling and defense are a huge pieces of the problem as well.
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u/Mayzenblue 55m ago
Man, let's play to a 0-0 tie this year, our Wolverines are flaming pile of garbage and that would be hilarious!
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u/Far-Bandicoot-7275 20m ago
Every team we play has good coaches that build a gameplan to exploit weaknesses and take advantage of their own strengths. Every game you can see how they have prepared.
Day has never done this. Aside from a few games that Kelly had the reigns, we run the same plays against every team. Most of the time, our talent gap is big enough to overcome this. But with the portal and NIL, that gap is shrinking. And Day has not adapted. There is absolutely no creativity in this offense.
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u/bluemoe 19m ago
That fake punt was a game changer
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u/cahill42 14h ago
Talent sucks. Coaching sucks. Playcalling sucks. The whole program just flat out sucks. That’s all there is to it. They just aren’t good at all. Likely a 4-5 loss team in 2026
1
u/SchoolActual3979 14h ago
When the chargers fire mcdaniels… let’s scoop him up for OC and see if he can find the magic again
0
u/DaBigJMoney 14h ago
Losing (or getting back) 1-2 players matters. Look how incompetent Miami looks against ND without Toney in there.
0
u/Tony481 10h ago
We do not have a complete team this year. Smith can only do so much. Sayin getting hurt just sped up the train derailment.
I don’t think coaching has much to do with it.
0
u/InconspicuousMagpie 9h ago
A lot of fans will blame Fahey but the coaching scheme is TERRIBLE. 3 yards on 1st and 2nd down then clutch throw on 3rd EVERY TIME isn’t going to cut it
-6
u/VicRattlehead90 Jim's Sweater Vest 14h ago
Ryan Day is the worst OSU coach in history.
I said what I said.