Ohio State vs Texas Recap

Ryan Day's decisions continue to cost Ohio State: Late-game calls lead to collapse again in loss to Texas A good read from By Chris Hummer AUSTIN, Texas — Stuffed into a small room in the bowels of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, dozens of reporters listened as Ohio State coach Ryan Day attempted to explain the almost unimaginable: How the No. 1 team in the country blew a 20-point fourth-quarter lead in a 24-23 loss to No. 4 Texas . "I can't really sit here and tell you exactly why that happened," Day said. "We all have to take accountability, and we have to get this thing fixed. As Day spoke, a "Texas Fight" chant broke out on the other side of the door as Longhorns fans jubilantly departed the stadium after one of Texas' biggest victories in years. Teams were 0-223 against AP No. 1 teams since 2003 when trailing by 17-plus points before Saturday. Texas, with three straight-fourth quarter touchdown drives and three straight fourth-quarter stops, secured the unlikeliest of wins. It's a potential launch pad for a Texas team seeking its first national title since 2005. The Book of Manning: Arch rewrites his Texas legacy with epic comeback against Ohio State Brandon Marcello The Book of Manning: Arch rewrites his Texas legacy with epic comeback against Ohio State For Ohio State, losers of three of its last four dating back to the 2025 campaign, it's another confounding loss in a game that slipped away. Day's record a conundrum Day doesn't lose often in Columbus. He's 83-13 as Ohio State's coach. But of those 13 losses, six of them involved the Buckeyes squandering a second-half lead. As weird as it is to say a national championship coach has a troubled history of closing games out – Day does. Even the 2024 national title provided a scare. The Buckeyes were up 31-7 in the third quarter and had to endure a 15-point barrage from Notre Dame before putting the game away. Consider this: Since Day's first full season as a head coach in 2019, the Buckeyes have played in 14 games decided by seven points or fewer. The Buckeyes are just 6-8 in those contests. For all of Day's success, his teams have developed a troubling tendency to get conservative when games tighten, especially against elite competition. You could point to the amount of drop-eight coverage the Buckeyes played, which Texas picked apart in the fourth quarter after Arch Manning struggled against it early. There was a punt on 4th-and-5 from Texas' 39 yard line while up 20-3 that netted Ohio State all of 26 yards. The late-game decision that doomed the Buckeyes More than anything, however, it's Day's decision to not let Texas score. The Longhorns reached the one-yard-line with 1:23 remaining on an Arch Manning strike to Emmett Mosley. Ohio State had just one timeout left. Instead of letting Texas cross the goal line and go ahead by one and leave time remaining for a comeback, Day, with a defense that had been on the field in 90-plus degree weather for basically an entire half and was getting picked apart in the run game, opted to play straight up defense. It took two more attempts, but Texas punched it in. Ohio State had just 25 seconds on the clock and no timeouts to attempt a comeback. After Texas scored, Manning told Mosley it was better he came up short of the end zone in that situation. Asked about the decision not to let Texas score, Day said he considered it but wanted to play defense for two plays and go for the win. "It didn't work out," Day said. Anatomy of a comeback: Breaking down Texas' stunning 20-point rally to take down Ohio State Austin Nivison Anatomy of a comeback: Breaking down Texas' stunning 20-point rally to take down Ohio State A lot didn't for Ohio State in the second half. Buckeyes QB Julian Sayin posted the third-highest completion percentage in college football history last season at 77%. He completed 13-of-17 passes in the first half against Texas. He would hit only 5 of 16 in the second, including a bad miss on a would-be touchdown pass to Devin McCune midway through the third quarter that forced Ohio State to settle for a field goal. The best player in the sport, Jeremiah Smith, dropped a key pass on third down – against tough coverage from cornerback Bo Mascoe – that could have prevented a three-and-out and stalled Texas' momentum. There were two second-half fumbles, both 50-50 balls, Texas recovered. Baylor transfer kicker Connor Hawkins missed a 45-yard field goal with less than five minutes remaining that would have put the game away – a familiar feeling for Ohio State, which has had kicker issues in key moments the last few seasons. There's the two fourth-and-long plays that Texas converted in the second half that led to touchdowns. There are the rushing struggles in a third straight game against top 10 competition. The Buckeyes averaged only three yards per carry against Texas, failing to close out the game on the ground. It's the third straight loss Ohio State averaged three yards per carry or fewer. "It's not just one thing," Day said postgame. "It's all of those things." Added center Carson Hinzman: "We really just beat ourselves." Season not over for Ohio State The end result is three losses in Ohio State's last four games and a concerning pattern in games the Buckeyes should be able to close. Ohio State isn't out of the playoff race with a September loss. Even a two-loss Buckeyes team with a schedule that includes Indiana, USC, Oregon and Michigan is good enough to get into the playoff. "Everything we want to do is still in front of us," Hinzman said. Yet it's hard not to look at the Buckeyes and Day a little differently after this loss. A national championship deservedly changed the perception around Day, a coach with elite results but who too often came up short despite every advantage. It didn't change the way his team finishes games against top competition. Saturday night was yet another reminder.

Ohio State has a close-game -- and close-game-urgency -- problem I keep coming back to tempo. It's probably a "me" thing at this point, but I can't get past it. In a world in which elite college football teams might play as many as 17 games in a season, Ohio State coach Ryan Day has made the decision to slow his offense down as much as humanly possible. And there's logic behind it: The difference between 60 and 80 snaps per game, over that many games, is over 300 snaps and, consequently, over 300 opportunities for injury or wear and tear. But there's a trade-off in that calculation: By shrinking games down into a much smaller number of plays and drives, you give yourself less of an opportunity to maximize your superiority. In the first half against Texas on Saturday night in Austin -- a shocking 24-23 comeback win from the Longhorns, if you somehow weren't paying attention -- the Buckeyes were rolling. Texas had some deer-in-headlights moments, losing a fumble on the game's first play and suffering a fluky interception on an open deep ball to Cam Coleman and a dropped touchdown pass from Ryan Wingo. Ohio State averaged 6.5 yards per play to the Horns' 3.1 and generated five red zone trips to Texas' one. Jeremiah Smith would finish the half with six catches for 110 yards. But until a failed fourth-down conversion attempt in the final minute of the half gave them a free scoring opportunity, the Buckeyes had possessed the ball just four times and led just 13-3. They were taking 28.5 seconds per snap, a faster tempo than last season but still very slow. Even when Smith scored with 10 seconds left in the half to make it 20-3, the score didn't quite reflect reality. Jeremiah Smith had a huge first half against Texas, but the Longhorns found answers in the second half. Alex Slitz/Getty Images The casual nature only increased to start the second half. Day elected to punt on fourth-and-4 from the Texas 39 on the Buckeyes' first drive after halftime; with the way Texas' offense was struggling, you can see the logic in wanting to make the Horns drive the length of the field, but when Smith is unstoppable and Julian Sayin is flying high (he was 12-for-16 for 192 yards in the first half), 4 yards is nothing. The Buckeyes could have essentially ended the game right there, but they took the passive approach instead. The cracks began to form from there, even if they were imperceptible at first. Sayin got hurried on three consecutive pass attempts on the Buckeyes' next drive, and while Smith reeled in an underthrown deep ball to set up a field goal and give them a 23-3 lead, Sayin would battle a damning period of inaccuracy, missing a wide open Devin McCuin for a likely touchdown on second down before the field goal and throwing behind Smith a couple of drives later. After a far-too-casual three-and-out late in the third quarter -- with a carry for backup Ja'Kobi Jackson and targets for McCuin and Phillip Bell instead of Smith -- Ohio State was still leaving the door open. The major fissure required some Texas bounces. Perhaps the Longhorns were due good fortune after the aforementioned fluky pick, but they got three incredibly lucky breaks on their first touchdown drive: First, Ryan Niblett muffed a punt, and the deflection hit Ohio State's Inky Jones in the chest, but he couldn't corral the ball, and Texas recovered. Then, on second-and-14 from the Texas 26, Devin Sanchez was called for an incredibly weak pass interference penalty. And after a clutch fourth-down pass from Arch Manning to Emaree Winston, Emmett Mosley V made his first catch of the evening but fumbled after a gain of 13. Safety Earl Little Jr. literally fell on the ball but couldn't actually secure it, and Cam Coleman did instead. Finally, after three great breaks, Manning hit Wingo to cut the deficit to 23-10. Once Texas got the burst of luck, the Horns played brilliantly. Ohio State went three-and-out, with Rutgers transfer Bo Mascoe breaking up a pass to Smith. Day burned a timeout before a crucial fourth-and-6 that Manning converted, and Hollywood Smothers scored to cap a 13-play drive and make it 23-17. Sayin made his best play of the second half in finding Nate Roberts for a big gain, but he couldn't connect with a well-covered (by Mascoe) Smith on a third-down end zone bomb, and Connor Hawkins shanked the ensuing field goal attempt. From there, everything felt preordained. Mosley, suddenly the go-to guy*, made a huge, 19-yard catch-and-run down to the Ohio State 1, and after the Buckeyes used both remaining timeouts, Texas scored on third-and-goal with 25 seconds left. The Horns did Ohio State a massive favor there -- the clock was running, and there were 17 seconds left on the play clock at the snap -- but it didn't matter. (* Manning's adaptability is his greatest strength at this point. Wingo and Coleman combined for just seven catches and 57 yards, but he found fortune throwing to tight ends and Mosley, so he kept right on doing it. Mosley finished with five catches for 65 yards, all during the three touchdown drives.) You can't point to any one thing and say, "This right here is why Ohio State lost." They were too casual early in the third quarter, Sayin performed poorly after taking a couple of shots, and Smith failed to reel in any of the last three targets thrown his way. (Two were well-covered, and one was a poor pass, and yet we still expect the best player in the country to grab them.) The defense was untouchable until a series of unlucky events, then it got fatigued and overpowered. Day, an accomplished timeout-burner, burned a timeout he could have used later. But one way or another, the Buckeyes have lost another close one. It's becoming a thing. In their past five games decided by 10 or fewer points, the Buckeyes have lost four. Mind you, they've also won 17 games in this span by an average of 38-10, and this span also includes their four-game CFP national title romp in 2024. But it also includes the hapless, anxious 13-10 loss to Michigan that forced them to win four games in the first place. The Buckeyes' casual, plodding brilliance works out great most of the time. But when they've needed urgency of late, it just hasn't shown up for them. They're projected favorites of double digits in each of their next four games, but in late-October Ohio State will embark on a run of three straight potentially close games, visiting Indiana and USC before hosting Oregon. They'll need to win at least two of those three to feel good about their CFP chances, but that might actually require them to execute in clutch moments for what seems like the first time in quite a while. Can they? No. 1 Ohio State sees 20-point lead evaporate in 4th quarter by: Jake Trotter AUSTIN, Texas -- Ohio State controlled the game for more than three quarters. Then they unraveled. Ohio State blew a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter Saturday night, as Texas stormed back with three straight touchdown drives to stun the Buckeyes 24-23. According to ESPN Research, Ohio State became the first AP No. 1 team since 2004 to lose after leading by at least 20 points in the fourth quarter. The Buckeyes had won 115 consecutive games when holding a 20-point lead, the sixth-longest active streak in the FBS before Saturday. "This one hurts," Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. "We had them on the ropes and didn't finish. Didn't play well enough in the fourth quarter -- that's the bottom line." Ohio State seemed headed for a third win over the Longhorns in three seasons. The Buckeyes led 23-3 and had possession after forcing Texas into a three-and-out midway through the third quarter. To that point, Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith had more receiving yards than Texas did total offense. But the Buckeyes couldn't capitalize, punting the ball back to Texas. The Longhorns then became the first FBS team in the past 15 years to close a win with three consecutive touchdown drives of 12 or more plays. Texas punched the final one into the end zone on third-and-goal to go ahead with 25 seconds remaining. Ohio State, meanwhile, gained 49 yards in the fourth quarter. Connor Hawkins also missed a 45-yard field goal that would have put the Buckeyes up by two scores with just over four minutes remaining. "When you look at not being able to get off the field on defense, when you're really not able to sustain any drives on offense, and then you miss the field goal -- all three phases didn't get it done in the fourth quarter," Day said. "We've got to own everything ... and certainly that starts with me." The fourth-quarter collapse spoiled Smith's 164-yard standout performance. He moved into second place in Ohio State history with 2,783 career receiving yards and needs 116 more to break Michael Jenkins' school record. But Smith didn't catch a pass in the fourth quarter. "Jeremiah played his heart out tonight, but we weren't efficient enough," Day said. "We never got ourselves in a rhythm in the second half like we should have." AP No. 1 teams were 197-0 when holding a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter over the past 22 years, according to ESPN Research. "It freaking hurts," center Carson Hinzman said. "But we've got a lot of football left. We can still do everything we planned on doing this year."