Ohio State at Oregon looks to be set for primetime

Bucks vs. Ducks gets prime slot #GoBucks

One of the most anticipated games of the year will take place on October 12 when Ohio State heads west to Eugene, Oregon. And now it seems that we know what time kickoff will be when the Bucks take on the Ducks thanks to Joel Klatt.

Klatt was a guest on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and may have accidentally announced the game would be a primetime matchup with a 7:30 EST kickoff on NBC. Of course, that’s a 4:30 start time on the West Coast. Either way, the game is sure to be one of the most watched games of the season and the timeslot will only make it more accessible for a majority of fans.

The kickoff time has not been confirmed by either Ohio State or Oregon, but Klatt is typically a pretty reliable source. Buckeye fans have been begging for more night games ever since Fox started routinely putting OSU games in the noon time slot for its Big Noon Kickoff.

This may be the season to see a return of games under the lights. The Buckeyes are already slated for a 7:30 kickoff on September 7 when Western Michigan comes to town. If the Oregon game stays as thought, that gives Ohio State at least two games in primetime with the possibility of more later in the season.

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LOOK: Trollster that left rubber duck in middle of Ohio Stadium revealed

Despite the loss, we give kudos to this kid for the subtle trolling.

I have to admit, even with the Ohio State loss to Oregon on Saturday, there was some very high-level trolling after the game that went on right in the middle of Ohio Stadium, and we have to be real and applaud it.

We hesitated on doing anything with this, but you have to give credit where credit is due and take your medicine.

In case you missed it, someone left a tiny rubber duck in the middle of the OSU logo at midfield after the Ducks beat the Buckeyes 35-28 on Saturday. It was under the radar, subtle, yet savage. Some of the best drop-the-mic moments with these things are just that. You don’t have to be an over-the-top blowhard to get a message across, and that’s what this was.

The identity of that person has remained a mystery until now. That’s because FOX Sports’ Charlotte Wilder was able to track down the culprit, and it appears as though it was a young fella just happy his team won and wanted to leave a little message.

“So basically after the game, we were all pumped, all excited, and just super happy in general. Before the game, we went to a tailgate, and I don’t know, I guess as a little souvenir, they gave us little rubber ducks … I just got the idea somehow of putting the rubber duck in the middle of the field, not knowing it was going to go viral or anything, just kind of like a troll.”

Well done then young man. Consider all of the OSU fanbase and Buckeye Nation subtly trolled. No matter how you feel about the game, you have to applaud this effort.

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Snap counts, handing out grades for Ohio State’s loss to Oregon

We do what we must and sheepishly hand out grades for each unit and tell you the snap counts for Ohio State after the loss to Oregon.

After each Ohio State football game, we hand out grades and take a look at snap counts to reflect on what we watched after pouring back through game film. Last Saturday against Oregon was far from a banner day for the team, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

You win as a team and lose as a team though as they say though, and there is plenty of blame to go around in all phases of what we witnessed in a packed ‘Shoe this past weekend. It’s also interesting to see where the snap counts are starting to go with a couple of the position groups, so we’re taking a look at that as well.

Let’s get into it.

Ohio State Buckeyes top snap counts

Offense

C.J. Stroud 86 Paris Johnson, Jr. 86 Miyan Williams 48
Nicholas Petit-Frere 86 Garrett Wilson 85 TreVeyon Henderson 38
Luke Wypler 86 Jeremy Ruckert 82 Cade Stover 10
Dawand Jones 86 Chris Olave 81 Julian Fleming 5
Thayer Munford 86 Jaxon Smith-Njigba 80 Marvin Harrison, Jr. 1

Top Offensive PFF Grades

  1. C.J. Stroud 81.6
  2. Nicholas Petit-Frere 73.9
  3. Chris Olave 72.1
  4. Julian Fleming 70.6
  5. Jaxon Smith-Njigba 70.3

Defense

Denzel Burke 74 Haskell Garrett 55 Javontae Jean-Baptiste 33
Ronnie Hickman 67 Bryson Shaw 54 Antwaun Jackson 27
Teradja Mitchell 61 Tyreke Smith 51 Josh Proctor 21
Cameron Brown 58 Taron Vincent 49 Lejond Cavazos 19
Lathan Ransom 57 Tommy Eichenberg 38 J.T. Tuimoloau 12
Zach Harrison 55 Cody Simon 35 Ty Hamilton 12

Top Defensive PFF Grades

  1. K’Vaugh Pope 82.9
  2. Tyreke Smith 74.4
  3. Tyleik Williams 74.2
  4. Ty Hamilton 74.0
  5. Denzel Burke 73.0

NEXT … Handing out grades

Five things that went wrong against Oregon and whether they can be fixed

We look at five things that went wrong against Oregon and what it’ll take to fix them #GoBucks

Buckeye Nation is still reeling and licking its wounds from the loss to Oregon on Saturday. Many want to blame the defense, and there’s definitely plenty of reasons to throw stones at the silver bullets, but it goes deeper than that.

We decided to dissect some things that contributed to the loss on Saturday, highlight what went wrong, and then diagnose whether or not the issues we saw are fixable. There’s still enough talent on this team to where there’s a possibility of running the table, and frankly, that’s what it’s going to take in order to reach the program’s third straight College Football Playoff appearance.

So, here we go. Here are five glaring issues from Saturday and whether or not we feel good about the ability to improve in those areas.

NEXT … Missed assignments in the running game

Ryan Day talks loss to Oregon

Hear from head coach Ryan Day after the loss to Oregon.

Ohio State is licking its wounds after being beaten up by the Oregon Ducks on Saturday. The Buckeyes now have no room for error if they plan on still making their way into the College Football Playoff.

The Big Ten is obviously still up for grabs with Ohio State still 1-0 in the league, but without fixing the defensive woes we’ve seen the first couple of games, especially in stopping the run, that might evaporate as well.

Head coach Ryan Day met with the media after the game to face the music and was very disappointed in his team in several areas. Head on over to OhioStateBuckeyes.com and watch Day answer a lot of questions about the defense, but also credit Oregon.

Ohio State will now prepare to bounce back as it faces Tulsa next Saturday.

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WATCH: What Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal said about Ohio State after game

Credit to Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal begin gracious in victory vs. Ohio State here.

Ohio State dropped a game at home for the first time since 2017 when Oregon was able to outlast the Buckeyes on Saturday night. It was not a banner night for the defense, and despite the offense putting up over 600 yards of offense, the Buckeyes only put up 28 points.

Obviously, Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal was over the moon after one of the biggest wins in the history of the Ducks’ program as he sat down in front of the media to react to the win.

In case you missed any of Cristobal’s comments in his postgame presser about Ohio State after the game, he was very gracious and humble in defeat with some very complimentary things to say about the talent and competition level of OSU.

Watch below and hear Cristobal talk about how proud he is of his players, how talented Ohio State is, how much of a challenge it was to come to Columbus and win, and more. The video is courtesy of Max Torres of Ducks Digest.

Ohio State will now regroup and try to improve and keep things in perspective for the rest of the year. The Buckeyes will face Tulsa next Saturday at home.

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Ohio State loses to Oregon: 5 things we learned in defeat

There are not a lot of positives to take away from the loss to Oregon, but we honestly assess five takeaways from this one.

Well, it finally happened, the Ohio State football team lost its first regular-season game under Ryan Day. Most thought it might happen at least once this season considering Ohio State is breaking in a new quarterback and many new faces across the offense and defense, but I think we were all in denial a tad bit.

The Buckeyes lost to a very good Oregon Ducks football team by a score of 35-28 and were playing catchup all day. Oregon struggled with a pedestrian Fresno State team the week prior, but we know that this is a quality program that is going to be in the Pac-12 conference championship conversation. But even with that said, we still want to learn from each game, so here are five things that we reluctantly learned from this loss.

Next…You won’t like this one

Ohio State’s defensive woes, inability to finish on offense, lead to loss to Oregon

Welp. If there’s a silver lining, there’s still every goal still attainable. A lot of improvement needed though. #GoBucks

For the first time as the head coach of Ohio State, Ryan Day has lost a regular-season game. The Buckeyes sputtered and smoked their way to a 35-28 loss against the Oregon Ducks at home, and there is now a ton to work on.

Don’t blame freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud for the loss. He had one whale of a day, completing 35-of 54 passes for 484 yards and three touchdowns. The problem is that OSU’s DNA and way of winning games don’t usually have over 50 pass attempts included. The Buckeyes could never really get things cranking on the ground, especially in short-yardage situations. OSU went just 2 for 5 on fourth down conversions, many of them critical in the outcome.

For the second straight week, the defense couldn’t bottle up the running game. Oregon wracked up over 269 yards on the ground to just 128 yards for Ohio State. The linebackers and defensive backs were often out of position and not gap sound, especially in the first three quarters of the game.

It’s not often that a team puts up over 600 yards of offense and walks away from a game as the loser, but that’s exactly what happened to Ohio State in the ‘Shoe today. The Buckeyes simply did not play situational football like it needed to do in order to stay unbeaten. Mental mistakes and a lack of disciplined killed their chances.

Now it’s off to the drawing board to try and figure out a way to make a championship-caliber defense and to find a way to be a little tougher in meaningful, short-yardage opportunities.

Ohio State will take on Tulsa at home next Saturday.

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WATCH: Jaxon Smith-Njigba catches second touchdown of day against Oregon

A whale of a game going in Columbus!

There’s a barn burner going on in the Horseshoe and the Buckeyes are trying to claw their way back into a winning scenario against Oregon. The Ducks have been a step ahead of the scarlet and gray seemingly all game, but OSU has stayed in touch and is looking to find a way to win it at the end.

The latest play to cut the lead to seven points was Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s second touchdown catch of the day, a 15-yarder on fourth and six with the game in the balance.

It was Stroud’s fourth touchdown of the day through the air in one whale of a performance for the freshman. He’s torched the Oregon offense for over 400 yards so far.

There’s still a lot of work to do for the Buckeyes, but offensively it sure seems like the Buckeyes have it cooking.

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WATCH: C.J. Stroud throws 26-yard touchdown strike to Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Keeping it close! Gotta start playing on defense.

Ohio State is in one heck of a battle with the Oregon Ducks. The offense has sputtered so far and the defense is having an awfully hard time stopping the run.

Oregon went into halftime up 14-7, then came out in the third quarter and went straight down the field to stretch the lead out to 14 points. But then the Buckeyes came back to cut it to seven on a beautiful 26-yard pass play from C.J. Stroud to Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Watch as Stroud knows exactly where he’s going to go, waits for Smith-Njigba to come free in the slot, and hits him in stride for paydirt to keep the game close.

Scoring on offense is fine, but Ohio State is not going to win this game if it can’t start filling the gaps on defense and turning Oregon back in the running game.

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