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November 23, 2015NEO High School Football Playoff Week 3: Benedictine upset, Mogadore rolls
November 23, 2015Following Ohio State’s demoralizing loss against Michigan State, head coach Urban Meyer was understandably disappointed. Meyer pointed to the battle at the line — on both sides of the ball — as a reason why the Spartans prevailed in Columbus Saturday. The Buckeyes couldn’t get their offense going, especially on the ground. Michigan State, meanwhile, ran the ball 51 times for 203 yards.
“We lost the line of scrimmage,” Meyer said. “And obviously you start loading up the box in those kind of situations, and we were.”
On the offensive side, losing at the line was one of the main reasons why Ezekiel Elliott only had 12 carries, including just two in the second half. With the passing game also struggling — due to some combination of the rainy weather and the Spartans’ thunderous pass rush — one might expect the star running back to get more carries. But that’s not what happened on Saturday.
Quarterback J.T. Barrett finished with more carries than Elliott, 15 to 12. (Elliott voiced his displeasure with the play calling after the game.) Some of those were designed QB runs, while others were scrambles necessitated by Michigan State’s pressure. Neither player ran effectively. Barrett finished with 44 yards rushing (2.9 yards per carry) and Elliott had 33 (2.8 ypc). It was the first time in 16 games that Elliott finished under 100 rushing yards. Ohio State’s longest run of the day was just 10 yards.
“[There were] just so many people at the line of scrimmage; we couldn’t control it,” Meyer said.
Ohio State finished with just 132 total yards and five first downs. The Spartans dominated time of possession, holding the ball for nearly two-thirds of the game. Meyer said that the Buckeyes’ play calling was too conservative, and put the onus on himself to improve that.
“No I’m not content…[not with] a lot of plays anyway. So the finger will be pointed right here. And I have to do better. We didn’t…[we were] very conservative. Seemed like we were backed up a lot.”
On defense, Joey Bosa was whistled for three offside penalties. Perhaps the most crucial one came on a Michigan State fourth-and-8 early in the fourth quarter. Ohio State led, 14-7, having converted a fumble recovery into a 6-yard Jalin Marshall touchdown on the previous drive. Bosa’s penalty moved the ball up to the Buckeye 30-yard line, and the Spartans elected to go for it on fourth-and-3. They picked up the first down through an 11-yard run by quarterback Tyler O’Connor. Running back Gerald Holmes finished the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. Tie game.
“It’s a tough situation. You know, fourth-and-8 is much different than fourth-and-3,” said Meyer. “Especially [given] the situation, the weather, the conditions that we were playing in.”
Michigan State induced punts on the Buckeyes’ last two possessions, and won the game on a Michael Geiger 41-yard field goal as time expired.
The loss ends Ohio State’s FBS-leading 23-game winning streak and Big Ten record 30-game conference winning streak.1 There’s little time to pout, however, with a visit to That School Up North looming. How the Buckeyes react to a loss, Meyer says, will be a telling indicator of their collective character.
“You’ve got the rivalry coming up. It’s easy to lead when everything is going well, and you won a bunch of games in a row. That’s not how you judge a team. That’s not how you judge character. That’s not how you judge a leader. That’s how you judge a front runner. That’s how you judge when things are going well.
“We’ve just been hit right in the gut, and Zeke actually said a few words down there, and I love these guys and we’ll come back and do the best we can next week. We gotta get better.”
- Ohio State owns five of the Big Ten’s six longest conference winning streaks. [↩]
1 Comment
Meyer will take the blame for the horrible offensive play calling even if he didn’t have a hand in it the problem I see is with the players. Yes the play calling was terrible but for the most part I didn’t see many players step up and lead all season. Whether it was on the field or off the 2015 Buckeyes played like a team who had no real desire to defend their championship. It started before the season with Bosa and Marshall being suspended.
All I know is the season isn’t over. They supposedly have an important game this Saturday so lets see how this teams plays. If they don’t come out pissed wanting to tear Michigan a new one then we’ll have our answer.