It was a disappointing loss for the Huskies as they fell 24-6 to Ohio State for their first home loss in over 3 years. Let’s get to what we learned!
Deflated
With 4:39 left in the second quarter, the Huskies lined up for a 45 yard field goal on 4th and 14. Punter Luke Dunne flipped the ball to kicker Grady Gross, who rolled out and attempted to find Decker Degraaf, who didn’t get off his block to look for the ball. This, I would assert, was the point in the game where the momentum turned firmly in Ohio State’s favor. Not that the Huskies didn’t have chances. The punt coverage team recovered a fumble with 5 minutes left in the first quarter, leading to a field goal. The defense then forced a punt on the next Ohio State drive. But the botched fake field goal just sucked all the air out of the Husky offense. After that, it seemed like Fisch was calling a very safe game, not gambling or taking any chances. There are reasons for that, I think. The run game couldn’t get going because Ohio State’s front four was so fast in getting off the edge that they were able to completely remove Jonah and Demond from the equation. The Ohio State defense was able to get to Demond for 6 sacks. But there were very little designed runs for Demond, like we saw in the first three games. Jonah Coleman was held to his lowest carry count of the year (13), and didn’t see the field for almost a quarter and a half. The biggest sore spot, for me at least was the red zone play calling. Jonah got 3 carries in the red zone. Yep, 3 whole carries! Only one play from within the red zone went for more than 3 yards! I understand that the defense was taking a lot of those calls away, but when you’re faced with a talent deficit like the one on Saturday, conventional football wisdom dictates that you need to lean on your best guys when you need points! The passivity in the red zone didn’t necessarily doom the Huskies entirely, but it certainly didn’t help!
Taking a Stand
Going in, the dynamic duo of Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate at receiver, combined with our shorthanded secondary, made me think that Julian Sayin was going to go to them constantly. That didn’t happen, with Sayin instead handing the ball off to Bo Jackson (not that one), and CJ Donaldson. It was an improvement to only give up 24 points to an offense full of dynamic weapons, and an impressive goal line stand in the first quarter meant that the Huskies were in the game for a lot longer than I thought they would. They played within themselves, but in the end, they got out-muscled by an offensive line feasting on a unit that was shorthanded with the injury to Zach Durfee.
However, penalties killed the Huskies, and most of them could be chalked up to nerves, but some of them were so egregious that we had Ohio State fans agreeing with us on Twitter when we called the refs out! That’s how you know the officiating was bad. I wonder who the crew was-
Oh. That makes sense.
The PAC 12 as we knew it may be dead, but you can’t outrun PAC 12 refs for long. There was the sideline interference, Coach Fisch’s unsportsmanlike conduct arguing the sideline interference, and the aforementioned egregious roughing call. Still though, you have to play through it, and the Huskies seemed like they were demoralized on both sides of the ball after that, exemplified by Jeremiah Smith sprinting untouched for the score from 18 yards out in the second quarter. Jonah Coleman said after the game that “It was self inflicted wounds at the end of the day, we had more penalties. You got to be disciplined.”
Schematically, it was a solid performance compared to last week, and it’s definitely something the unit can build on, but discipline is paramount in the big moments.
Measuring Success
In my mind, this was a “barometer game”. Where is this program in the Big Ten hierarchy? The answer, it would seem, is right in the middle of the pack. We can hang with the big boys, but we can’t beat them quite yet. More weapons are needed to really vault into the playoff contender conversation. The loss of Rashid Williams made a bigger impact than I thought, so a truly elite wide receiver across from Denzel Boston would’ve helped a ton. So too would an elite, game wrecking edge rusher. But as far as the talent disparity goes, I think this program is a year away, so success in the portal window is vital this winter to really inject this program with enough fuel to rocket into the upper echelon. However, some issues are schematic. Jedd’s red zone play calling needs to improve above all else, because your best dudes should get the ball around the goal line. I said last week that I had no issues with it, and those issues reared their ugly head in a big way. As the great Raymond Lucas Jr. said “A loss is representative of a measuring stick, showing just how far you need to go to get to conference championship status.” Talent will help, but let’s hope that the game-planning will round into form, and maybe we can steal a couple of these big games!
We have Maryland on the road at SECU Stadium at 12:30 PM on Saturday! Go Dawgs!