LOS ANGELES — Here’s everything Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said after the Buckeyes’ 30-18 loss to USC.
On his team’s inability to rally around freshman quarterback Luke Fahey:
“It’s extremely frustrating to come into a game like this with a young quarterback and not play cleaner. Too many penalties. We found ourselves down in those red zone situations, and we weren’t able to execute very well or play clean. We get the one drive going and fumble on offense, turn that ball over. For Luke, he competed. It wasn’t perfect. We had some huge drops. We weren’t able to help him.
“I thought he competed his tail off. We’ll look at the film and recognize the things we have to improve on for him and what we can do to put him in a better situation. There were times that we ran the ball well, had over 200 yards rushing, but there were just too many mistakes overall. You can’t afford to do that. That’s, to me, the tale of the tape.”
On Ohio State’s defense missing tackles and allowing big plays:
“It’s gonna be three or four plays overall on defense. The second play of the game went for 69 yards. That’s almost a third of the offense. Then you had the long one to the tight end. That was ridiculous. We were going for the punch out there. We just gotta get him on the ground around the 40-yard line and live to see another snap. It’s those explosive plays that we really haven’t given up a lot of. When you look at the game, you realize that the turnover was huge. There were some special teams plays that flipped the field. And then the explosive plays they had on offense.
“We had some guys battling, and some other guys playing some new spots. That’s the game. Guys gotta step up. I thought we were practicing well. Coming off a bye week, I’m always concerned, but the attitude and effort were good. There were just way too many mistakes, and we all gotta recognize why that is and get it fixed. When you look at penalties, turnovers, drops, that’s what it comes down to. There were missed tackles as well.”
*Apologies for the audio; the interviews were held in a tent, and there was an echo.
On the absence of freshman defensive back Jay Timmons:
“It’s one of those injuries … we held him before for quite a while and really wanted to make sure he was back for that (Indiana) game. He probably could’ve played the week before, but we held him out. We know what an impact he makes. In a space like this, we knew he’d be important. But he retweaked in the Indiana game and was trying like heck to get back. It’s one of those injuries where you put him back out there, and it just resets it again. He made some progress late in the week, but it wasn’t enough for our doctors and trainers to feel like it was the right thing to do for him. So the decision was made … I just refer to the doctors on it all. There’s no question that he’s dying to get back on the field. He wants to play every game. I listen to the doctors, and it’s whatever they say.”
On Ohio State’s false start penalties (there were three):
“I think having a new quarterback in there did affect some of it. We did do some silent count. We did some clap. It’s no excuse. There were other things where the penalties had nothing to do with the fact that Luke was in the game as opposed to Julian. We’re not going to use that as an excuse.”
On why the offense didn’t play with more tempo in the second when OSU was down multiple scores:
“Once we were down by two scores, we knew we were back in that game and had to go. We didn’t want to panic and just start and have the game turn upside down really fast. The one series where we had three-and-out was extremely frustrating. We weren’t able to get a couple of first downs. We thought if we did, we would pick up the pace as we went, but we needed to get the first down there and didn’t get it.
“Once we found ourselves in a two-score game with seven minutes to go, we had to move quickly, and we did. We weren’t going breakneck, two-minute like we were on the last drive there, but it was fast enough that we were able to move efficiently and score a touchdown on it. We were able to make that happen with a young quarterback, so that part was a positive. But in the end, it wasn’t good enough.”
More on the big plays allowed by the defense:
“I thought the guys played hard. I thought the look in their eye was good. I’ll get on the film and confirm it. They were playing with energy. When you have a young quarterback on offense, and they're sputtering and now scoring touchdowns, sometimes you can feel one side of the ball start to get frustrated. I didn’t feel that at all. I thought they continued to work, and they were trying to get off the field. They got some stops.
“(USC) has some real skill guys in space. There are two major plays that really hurt us. I thought the plan was sound in what we did. Not having Jay had an impact. There’s no question. But, at the end of the day, as a team, we weren’t able to play well enough to support a young freshman who just had his start on the road.”
The fact that he thinks the tempo was fast enough in the 2nd half is awfully concerning.
The answer to Bill's question about tempo is either a blatant lie, just the fog of the game because when your down two scores with 8 minutes left a nearly 6 minute drive, even one ending in a TD, CANNOT be the tempo you were planning for. That's just wrong. There are no two ways about it.