Ohio State’s offense came out of the Oregon loss looking every bit as broken as the final score suggested. The Buckeyes were beaten 41-28, and the numbers that usually flatter this unit only tell part of the story.
The ground game was a mess. Ohio State entered the night averaging 170.8 rushing yards per game, then managed only 54 against Oregon.
That dropped the season average to 147.7 yards per game, which ranks 77th nationally. The passing game held up better, at least on paper.
The Buckeyes came in averaging 313.3 passing yards per game, and Luke Fahey threw for 360 in the defeat. That pushed the season mark to 320.2 yards per game, good for eighth in the FBS.
The overall production still took a hit. Ohio State had been averaging 486 total yards per game, but it finished with 413 against Oregon, lowering that season average to 467.9 and dropping it to 14th in the nation.
The scoring average also slipped. The Buckeyes had been putting up 36.6 points per game before the loss, then scored only 28, bringing that number down to 35.7 and 21st in college football.
But the bigger issue, as the performance showed, goes beyond the raw totals. The offense has too often looked like it’s working against itself, and the latest version of that problem was on display again. The complaints start with the structure: too many tight ends, not enough of the receivers who are supposed to stress defenses, and a scheme that looks more interested in NFL-style layering than in putting Ohio State’s best weapons on the field together.
That frustration has been tied to Ryan Day’s explanation for some of the offense’s self-inflicted problems. It was an issue against USC, and Day made it clear afterward that he intended to keep leaning into it.
The same stubbornness has shown up in the way the Buckeyes handle tempo, too. When the game calls for urgency, the offense has not responded with much speed, just as it didn’t against USC or in the Cotton Bowl last year.
And then there’s Jeremiah Smith, the player Ohio State should be built around. Instead, the offense too often treats him like an afterthought.
The Buckeyes went through a stretch of more than half the game clock without targeting him at all. During that span, Oregon scored 38 points and Ohio State scored none.
Outside of that stretch, Ohio State scored 28 and Oregon scored three.
When Smith was involved, the offense looked far more dangerous. He finished with seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown.
On the season, he now has 69 catches for 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns. The problem is not whether he can produce.
It’s that the staff keeps taking too long to get him the ball.
The game also supplied a pile of ugly offensive markers. Ohio State’s 54 rushing yards against Oregon and 45 against Miami are its lowest rushing outputs since 35 yards against Michigan State in 2011.
For the first time since 2003-2004, the Buckeyes have had two games in consecutive seasons in which they rushed for 53 yards or fewer as a team. That had never happened in the last thirty years within a 10-game span until now.
The broader slide is hard to ignore, too. Ohio State is 6-5 and half of Nick Marsh’s foot from being 5-6 in its last 11 games.
This is the first time the Buckeyes have had three regular-season losses with a full-time head coach since 2004. It’s also the first time they have given up 38 unanswered points since 1999 against Wisconsin, when they also led 14-0 before a collapse.
The most glaring coaching failure, though, was the long stretch in which Smith wasn’t targeted. That gap lasted 32:37 of game clock, from late in the first quarter until the final play of the third quarter. For an offense with this much talent, that kind of sequence is hard to explain away.
And if recent history is any guide, Ohio State fans shouldn’t expect much to change. The same issues showed up after the Big Ten Championship game and the Cotton Bowl last year, and the same tendencies were still there against Oregon. The staff has already shown it is willing to keep going down this road, even when the results are this ugly.
In Other News...
Ohio State Fans Have A New Reason To Worry About Legend Bey
Legend Bey arrived at Ohio State with some buzz, but his first season has not gone the way many Buckeyes fans hoped. The freshman running back has seen limited playing time, and his path has already been complicated by a suspension early in fall camp. Even with the season moving along, Bey has not been able to carve out much of a role in a backfield that has been difficult to crack.
Bey added another layer of uncertainty this week by posting a cryptic message on social media, which naturally sparked concern about where things stand. Nothing official has been announced, and there is no confirmation that he is entering the transfer portal, but the timing of the post is enough to make people around the program pay attention. For a player still trying to find his footing, and for a fan base watching the running back room closely, it is the kind of development that raises more questions than answers. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Makes Another Special Teams Change After Costly Problems Persist
Ohio State has moved on from special teams coordinator Robby Discher after the 2026 season, another sign that the Buckeyes are still searching for answers in a phase of the game that never quite stabilized. Discher was hired in January with the expectation that he would help clean up a unit that had become a recurring concern, but the same issues kept surfacing, from kickoff and punt return troubles to penalties and miscues in important moments.
Head coach Ryan Day has already acknowledged the problems and made clear the responsibility does not rest with Discher alone, which suggests this is as much about broader accountability as it is about one staffing change. For a program with Ohio States standards, special teams has become too familiar a source of frustration, and the latest move only adds to the sense that more adjustments could still be coming. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Day Owns Ohio State Collapse As Pressure Builds Fast
Ohio States latest setback was the kind that lingers, because it began with control and ended with a collapse. The Buckeyes jumped out to a 14-0 lead against Oregon, then watched the Ducks reel off 38 unanswered points as the offense stalled and the game slipped away, leaving Ohio State at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play.
Ryan Day did not try to soften the aftermath. He acknowledged the teams problems on offense, where the Buckeyes have struggled to find consistent production on the ground and through the air, and said coaching changes, play calling and personnel adjustments are all under consideration. With the season moving deeper into November, the pressure around the program is only getting louder, and the next steps now matter as much as the loss itself. [Read more 🡒]