The No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (6-2, 4-1) fell 30-18 to the USC Trojans (7-2, 4-2) in a game the Buckeyes seemed unprepared for after a bye week.
There weren’t many positives, but here is our report card for the Buckeyes as they shift the focus to Oregon.
A: Playing in a week
The only solace from this game is that you can wash it, forget about it, and move on to the next week.
Only seven (now six) days away from getting the chance to rewrite the narrative, and that is a blessing because the narrative is not good right now.
The Buckeyes now host Oregon, which is a game that has lost almost all of its juice from the preseason.
Ohio State has two losses, and a 10-2 regular season still puts them in the playoffs, even though it feels like the season is over. Just go beat a depleted Oregon team and get back on the right track.
If they lose that, the season is over.
B: Running game
Bo Jackson takes a lot of criticism, and he did have a terrible drop in this one, but he ran for 121 yards on 21 carries and had 150 total yards on offense. Particularly in the second half, he had some big runs that helped move the chains when the passing game struggled.
Isaiah West also played well, recording 65 yards on 13 carries. He had a bad fumble, but other than that, he played well.
In total, the Buckeyes ran for 204 yards on 43 carries.
B: Luke Fahey
Fahey wasn’t perfect, and he made some odd decisions late in the game, like throwing the ball into the stands on third and fourth downs and on the two-point conversion attempt, but overall, he was pretty good.
Fahey was 21-for-38 for 260 yards and a touchdown, never put the ball in harm’s way, and was on the wrong side of two bad drops, one by Bo Jackson and one by Chris Henry Jr. The Jackson drop was likely a touchdown.
If you told me before the game this was the Fahey performance we got, and the Buckeyes would run for 200 yards, I would have predicted a win.
F: Everything else
There were not many positive takeaways from that game.
The coaching was bad, every player made mistakes, execution was bad, and every bounce that could have gone the wrong way seemingly did. Sometimes it simply isn’t your night. But man, this one was ugly.
Not much else to say on that.
(Actually, Connor Hawkins was good too. Everything else was bad.)
