Paul Finebaum didn’t leave much room for interpretation after Ohio State’s latest collapse.
The ESPN analyst said Sunday that the Buckeyes’ playoff path is finished after they blew a 14-0 lead and lost 41-28 to Oregon, their second straight double-digit defeat. Ohio State fell to 6-3, and for the first time since 2011, it has three losses in a season.
“Ohio State’s chances of winning it all? Gone.
Making the playoff? Gone.
They are dead, dead and buried,” Finebaum told ESPN anchor Randy Scott.
That was a dramatic reversal from Wednesday, when Finebaum argued the two-loss Buckeyes had been “completely robbed” after the first College Football Playoff rankings slotted them at No. 12, eight spots behind Indiana, a team Ohio State beat in Bloomington.
The Buckeyes entered the season at No. 1 in both the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll, and Finebaum said that’s where his thinking began.
“You remember they started the season No. 1.
A lot of us thought they might win it all. They’re not going to win it all,” Finebaum said.
Ohio State’s season has been unraveling for weeks. The Buckeyes lost 24-23 at Texas in Week 2, then dropped a 30-18 game at USC on Oct. 31 in true freshman quarterback Luke Fahey’s first start. Julian Sayin, the starter, remains out indefinitely with an injury to his throwing arm.
But the Oregon loss hit differently for Finebaum because of who was on the other sideline.
“And they lost to a team that we had already buried,” he said.
Oregon began the year No. 2 before stumbling against Oklahoma State, UCLA and Illinois. After the upset in Stillwater, Finebaum said Dan Lanning’s season was “not far from” becoming a dumpster fire.
Saturday looked like Ohio State might steady itself early. Bo Jackson scored twice in the first quarter, and the Buckeyes were in position to protect a 14-point lead at home, where they had won 140 straight games when leading by at least that margin.
Instead, Oregon flipped the game with one of the most jarring sequences of the day. Teitum Tuioti, a linebacker, converted a fake punt with a 30-yard jump pass on fourth-and-9 from the Ducks’ 31 in the second quarter.
Oregon then ripped off 38 straight points. Fahey threw an interception with 1:06 left before halftime, and Jamari Johnson finished the half with a 2-yard touchdown run to send the Ducks to the break up 17-14.
The avalanche kept coming. Dierre Hill Jr. broke loose for a 48-yard touchdown early in the third quarter, and Ohio State failed to convert on downs on four straight second-half possessions. Fahey finished with 360 passing yards, though more than half of that total came in the fourth quarter after the outcome was already settled.
“Not someplace we thought we’d be,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “Beyond disappointed.”
Day said he told his team it has to “weather this storm,” and he added that accountability begins with the coaching staff.
Finebaum did point to one silver lining in what’s left of Ohio State’s schedule.
“The only good news for Ohio State: They get to play Michigan later in the season, which had an even more deadly appearance yesterday against Michigan State,” Finebaum said.
Michigan dropped to 5-4 after Michigan State forced four turnovers and won 15-6 in Ann Arbor behind five field goals.
Ohio State, now 4-2 in Big Ten play, finishes with Northwestern, a trip to Nebraska and Michigan. Even if the Buckeyes win all three, Finebaum warned last week that they had no margin left for error, and the path to an at-large playoff bid or a Big Ten title game spot looks steep.
The next step comes Saturday, when Ohio State hosts Northwestern at Ohio Stadium.
In Other News...
Ohio States Oregon Collapse Exposed A Problem Buckeyes Fans Feared
Ohio States loss to Oregon in Columbus had the feel of a game that started with promise and then slipped away in plain sight. The Buckeyes came out strong, but the rest of the afternoon turned into a reminder that early momentum only matters if it can be sustained, and this one quickly exposed some of the same concerns fans have been carrying for a while. Jeremiah Smith was not used nearly enough, and the offense never seemed to fully settle into a rhythm as the game changed around it.
Luke Faheys performance only added to the unease, while the defense looked far removed from the unit Ohio State expected to lean on in a matchup like this. The bigger frustration, though, was the lack of clear adjustment as Oregon kept finding answers and the Buckeyes did not. For a team with playoff ambitions, a home collapse like this does more than count as one bad result - it raises the kind of questions that can linger well beyond a single Saturday. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremiah Smiths Frustration Just Raised A Bigger Ohio State Concern
Jeremiah Smiths frustration was hard to miss in Ohio States loss to Oregon, a defeat that left the Buckeyes staring at a tougher path to the playoff. Even in a game that slipped away 41-28, Smith still produced, finishing with seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown, which only underscored how much Ohio State leaned on him when the offense needed a spark.
The bigger concern now is what his visible irritation might say about the state of the Buckeyes season and how they handle the fallout from a damaging setback. One analyst even raised the possibility that Smith might not play again this year, though that remains unconfirmed, and for a team trying to steady itself after the Oregon loss, any uncertainty around its top playmaker only adds to the pressure. [Read more 🡒]
Urban Meyer Just Added Fuel To Indianas CFP Debate
Urban Meyer gave the College Football Playoff debate a fresh jolt by questioning how the committee is sorting Ohio State and Indiana. The former Buckeyes coach pointed to the Buckeyes head-to-head win over Indiana and said he did not understand why No. 12 Ohio State sits eight spots behind No. 4 Indiana, especially when the discussion turns to how teams are being judged beyond the loss column.
Meyer also took aim at the committees handling of nonconference scheduling, arguing that Ohio States ranking does not match what it has shown on the field. Indianas case is strong in its own right at 8-1, with wins over Michigan and Nebraska, but Meyer noted the Hoosiers have not beaten a ranked opponent, leaving the playoff conversation with a familiar tension: rsum versus result, and a gap in the rankings that still needs explaining. [Read more 🡒]