COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State played only its third game outside of the top 10 in Ryan Day's eight-season tenure as coach on Saturday.
After the 11th-ranked Buckeyes 41-28 faceplant against Oregon, next week's game against Northwestern could mark the first time in 15 years that they aren't in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Ohio State was the nation's top-ranked team in the preseason, but finds itself at 6-3 and likely out of the College Football
Playoff picture.
“It's not someplace we thought we’d be, beyond disappointed,” Day said. “We understand what the expectations are. It’s like the first thing when you walk into the Woody (Hayes Center) when you join our program is you understand what the expectations are. I mean, your expectation is to win every game here. So to lose three games is unacceptable. I own that and that’s never going to change from my point of view.”
Day has three losses in a season for the first time. After a 16-game winning streak that began during the 2024 CFP title run and continued through the first 12 games of last year, they have gone 6-5, including losses to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game and Miami in the CFP quarterfinal at the Cotton Bowl.
Ohio State has dropped two straight regular-season games for the first time since 2011, when Luke Fickell was the interim coach after Jim Tressel resigned in May. But Saturday's loss brought back things not seen since the early days of the John Cooper era.
This is the first time since October 1992 that the Buckeyes have lost back-to-back games to unranked opponents.
The Oregon game had many similarities to last week's 30-18 defeat at Southern California. The biggest difference was in this one the Buckeyes jumped to a 14-0 lead, but couldn't sustain momentum.
The offense has struggled since quarterback Julian Sayin went down in the fourth quarter on Oct. 17 at Indiana. The running game has been inconsistent, which has put more pressure on freshman quarterback Luke Fahey.
Buckeye running backs had 31 yards in the first quarter, including two touchdown runs by Bo Jackson, but just 39 the rest of the game.
Fahey became the fourth OSU quarterback to have at least 50 pass attempts in a game, but he was 8 of 13 for 44 yards and sacked once during the first 20 minutes of the second half, when the Buckeyes turned it over on downs on four straight possessions and Oregon extended its lead to 38-14, causing most of the 103,551 fans at Ohio Stadium to exit.
Fahey finished 36 of 50 passing for 360 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Fahey's interception came late in the second quarter when Day decided to be aggressive instead of run out the clock and go into halftime with the lead. The Ducks turned the pick into Jamari Johnson's 2-yard TD on the final play of the second quarter to put them up 17-14.
“We're trying to figure out how to move the ball down the field with a freshman quarterback and how that all works is, but haven’t been able to get done,” Day said. “I think it all starts with the staff and then it goes to the players. So there needs to be accountability for all of it and then we go from there.”
The defense — which was a strength last season — has taken a step back by not generating enough turnovers or pressure. Matt Patricia's unit has surrendered at least 30 points in consecutive losses for the first time since 1988, Cooper's first season as coach.
Oregon scored 38 straight points, something that hasn't been done by an OSU opponent at the Horseshoe since Wisconsin had a run of 42 straight points in a 42-17 victory in 1999.
The Ducks had nine pass plays of at least 15 yards and four runs of at least 10 yards, including Dierre Hill Jr.'s 48-yard touchdown where he broke three tackles to make it 24-14.
Oregon also converted four of seven third-and-long plays of at least 9 yards to go.
“They were just able to make a play. I mean, good call, good throw, good catching or whatever it may be. We need to execute the way were supposed to on third-and-longs,” safety Jaylen McClain said.
Day has endured some rough patches as coach, including four straight losses to Michigan. The intensity will ramp up though as the Buckeyes seek to salvage something out of what is turning out to be a lost season.
“I told the team in the locker room that now we got to weather this storm. It’ll be a storm here, something that none of us are used to at Ohio State and we’re going to come together tomorrow. We’ll have a team meeting and we’ll figure out what’s next,” he said.
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