Ryan Day put his faith in a defense that hadn’t shown itself worthy of that belief in quite some time.
And now the Ohio State coach has one big “What if” that could hang over the rest of the Buckeyes’ season.
Day’s decision to attempt to stop No. 4 Texas from the one-yard line instead of letting them score in the final minute ultimately burned Ohio State in its shocking 24-23 road loss Saturday night.
Ohio State could have had the ball down one with anywhere from roughly 50-83 seconds to operate on offense and with a potential timeout, but the Buckeyes instead surrendered a rushing score on third down and began its next possession with zero timeouts and 25 seconds remaining.
“We talked about it,” Day said after falling to 1-1. “We decided that we were going to play defense on second down and when we got the stop there, we said, ‘Alright, we’re going to take our chances, put the ball down for one yard see if we can stop them for two downs to win the game.
“I considered it but I felt like at that point we were going to go play defense and see if we could get off the field. It didn’t work out.”
The Buckeyes led 23-3 entering the fourth quarter before they ultimately allowed three straight touchdown drives to Arch Manning in a loss that will knock the team off its No. 1 perch.
After Ohio State missed a field goal that would have made it a nine-point game, Manning drove the Longhorns to the Buckeyes’ one-yard line with1:23 remaining
Day had one timeout to use and could have burned it there and told his team to let Texas score, which would maximize the amount of time Ohio State had the ball on its next possession.
Bill Belichick employed this tactic during Super Bowl 2012 against the Giants, letting Ahmad Bradshaw score without pushback although New England did not win.
Ohio State stuffed Hollywood Smothers with 53 seconds remaining and Day used his final timeout, but his team continued to play defense and stopped Smothers again.
Smothers finally scored with 25 seconds remaining and the Buckeyes had no timeouts in a quest to navigate roughly 45 yards.
A holding penalty, five-yard pass and interception then sealed Ohio State’s loss.
“I think today we played well for three quarters and then didn’t play well enough in the fourth quarter,” Day said. “We stalled on some offensive drives, I felt we had them on the ropes and didn’t finish. We have to go back and figure out why that was. … This one hurts.”
