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If Ryan Day turns his anger inward, Ohio State can truly answer its critics: Nathan Baird’s observations
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Three observations from Ohio State football’s 17-14 victory at Notre Dame on Saturday night.
1. Would Ryan Day really have been that livid about the comments of an octogenarian with a Notre Dame allegiance if he didn’t feel there was some truth to the criticism?
Day apparently spent Friday and Saturday getting pretty worked up over Lou Holtz’s assertion that OSU loses big games because it isn’t tough enough. Day is correct to call those and similar comments uninformed. How do you draw a line from the 2019 Clemson loss to the 2020 Alabama loss to the Georgia loss last season?
Problem is, Day and his team spent much of the Notre Dame game reinforcing some of those inaccurate or downright lazy characterizations. It escaped with the win thanks to tremendous defense, Kyle McCord becoming Kyle McCool and execution when it mattered most. It didn’t hurt that Notre Dame’s defensive staff couldn’t count to 11 and didn’t know the rules that would have allowed them to correct the mistake.
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- Ryan Day blasts Lou Holtz in postgame interview for questioning Ohio State football’s toughness
- Ohio State rallies with thrilling last-second touchdown to beat Notre Dame 17-14
- Kyle McCord’s poise, Ohio State’s short-yardage success, show up just in time at Notre Dame
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If Marcus Freeman had sent out an 11th defender for the final play, and if that lineman had impeded Chip Trayanum enough to keep the nose of the football off the plane of the goal line, Day wouldn’t have had much to say about Holtz after the game. It would have made OSU 0-for-6 for the night on third or fourth-and-1 or goal line plays from the 1.
Toughness manifests in many ways. Marvin Harrison Jr. was tough Saturday night, missing no snaps after spraining his right ankle. With the injury heavily wrapped, he caught a pass on his first play back and played the rest of the night — even if mostly as a decoy.
Lathan Ransom is tough. He and Sonny Styles combined for a fourth-down stop of Sam Hartman in the third quarter that echoed across Michiana. He racked up 13 tackles with his right hand still needing extra protection. This is the same guy who broke a hand last season and blocked a punt with it later in the same game.
Kyle McCord is tough, as exhibited by his mental poise on the game-winning drive. He also got knocked around a bit in the process and bounced right back up.
You are welcome to tell Tommy “No Thumbs” Eichenberg that he’s soft. I hear they’ve made remarkable breakthroughs in bone knitting.
So the insinuation that a softness streak runs through the roster is, at best, ignorant.
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But the insinuation that Day’s staff has not prepared the offense to win short-yardage situations — physically and mentally — is indisputable. The issue stretches back to the first series of the second half of the Michigan loss. The one in 2021. It was happening when the line was overpopulated with future NFL Draft picks and it’s definitely happening now.
Day should spend the bye week forgetting about the partisan boasts of fading icons and focus on what any idiot can see.
2. When was the last time an Ohio State quarterback successfully led a go-ahead scoring drive when trailing at the end of the game?
C.J. Stroud had the ball in his hands against Georgia in last season’s Peach Bowl playoff semifinal but couldn’t quite finish the job. Couldn’t do it against Oregon the year before. Justin Fields’ lone opportunity, against Clemson in he Fiesta Bowl playoff semifinal in 2019, also came up short.
Back in 2018, Dwayne Haskins had to hit Binjamin Victor for a 3-yard touchdown catch with 40 seconds left to force overtime at Maryland in 2018. You have to go back to earlier that season, when Haskins to K.J. Hill with 2:03 to play gave OSU a 27-26 victory over Penn State.
Opportunities like the one Kyle McCord had at Notre Dame are rare, and the stakes are always massive. To step into that scenario for the first time and come through cannot be dismissed as routine.
Similarly, if OSU makes those scenarios routine, the variance will catch up eventually. No quarterback wins 100% of those do-or-die scenarios.
3. Ohio State’s streak of 20-plus point scoring performances was going to end eventually. Notre Dame stopped the run at 77 games.
Not a bad night for Jim Knowles’ defense to summon its best performance in two years. The unit did not sack Hartman, or victimize him for any takeaways. But it did bother and contain him. Notre Dame managed four plays of 20-plus yards, none longer than 28.
Right now this defense has become as good as any at keeping the ball in front of it. That is a crucial step forward from last season. The preseason assumption was that would be enough defensive progress to supoort the Buckeyes’ potentially elite offense.
Yet with questions lingering about that explosiveness and efficiency, this defense must keep evolving and improving. The next step would be a more direct link between a dormant pass rush and a burgeoning secondary.
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