Ohio State football’s loss to Miami reveals a secret about Ryan Day’s 2025 offense — Jimmy Watkins

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Anytime now, Ohio State football.

You’re playing indoors. Your pair of first-round wide receivers are healthy. You trailed by 14 points within the first 19 minutes of the Cotton Bowl and by 10 points in the second half.

This seemed as good a time as any to unlock the famed final gear to your fantastic offense. Unless, as Wednesday’s 24-14loss to the Hurricanes suggested, such a gear never existed — or you couldn’t access it.

Either way, what the heck?

Hard to tell with this team sometimes, and particularly during this season. Entering New Year’s Eve, the 2025 Buckeyes had played just 13 offensive possessions from behind and just three of those in the second half. They hadn’t trailed by two possessions since the 2022 Cotton Bowl, which means this group never needed to floor the accelerator.

We just assumed they could because we assumed they were built for it.

Can you blame us?

C’mon: Redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin, who won the Shaun Alexander award for best first-year player, and steered this racecar smoothly all season. He led the nation in completion percentage and finished second among Big Ten passers in fewest interceptions (six).

Star receivers Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith didn’t enjoy the twin 1,000-yard seasons that Smith and Emeka Egbuka produced last season, but no one would nitpick their talent. The best defense against them was their play-caller – be it coach Ryan Day or offensive coordinator Brian Hartline –who tailored their strategies to support the nation’s best defense and slow-play their first-year starting QB instead of accentuate their best players.

Even the offensive line, which allowed five sacks during Wednesday’s loss, only allowed 0.85 sacks during the season, which ranked sixth in the country, which, as we now know, means they were rarely tested.

And this is where safety measures hurt the car.

The thing about the final gear is that it takes time to get there. And if you haven’t driven that fast for a while, you might need time to adjust.

Let’s say, in hypothetical football terms, that you have only playedthree second-half possessions from behind all season and, as a result, you aren’t used to protecting the quarterback in obvious passing situations. Logic follows that you would struggle to protect early against one of the best defensive fronts you’ve seen all season.

Unrelated: Three of the five sacks Sayin suffered came before halftime.

Let’s say your first-time starter never threw the ball more than 30 times in a game decided by 21 points or fewer during that same season. Logic follows that his conservative training might surface when adversity hit during an important game.

Unrelated: Sayin threw a pass behind the line of scrimmage on third-and-20 with 6:47 to play and the Buckeyes trailing by three points. Yes, he was running from the rush, but almost any downfield throw is a better decision in that moment, even if it is intercepted because it gives your team a chance.

Jump balls draw pass interference penalties. And your receivers — Jeremiah’s down there somewhere — can win them.

Teach enough tepid habits, however, and eventually they will hurt you, no matter your level of faith. Did you notice that this Ohio State team ranked second-worst among Day’s offenses in points per play (0.5, 14^th in the country)? Did that stat read real to you?

Or did you assume, until the final whistle, that Ohio State could still kick its offense into gear?

I know I did. Pretty sure I’m still waiting, actually.

Smith has to be down there somewhere. Ohio State doesn’t score 14 points in games like this.

Anytime now.

Read the original article on cleveland.com.