Ohio State never led and only was tied once (at 7-7) but never tossed in the towel and had two fourth-quarter chances to tie the game at 35 but were unable to do so.
C.J.Stroud threw for 484 yards and three touchdowns but his one interception ended the final scoring threat.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught two scoring passes with Garrett Wilson grabbing the other score with both players and Chris Olave all finishing with over one hundred receiving yards.
Ohio State falls to 1-1 (1-0 Big Ten) and will hope to get better with softer touches on the next two Saturdays at home against Tulsa and Akron.
Olentangy Offerings
1) The two people that Buckeye fans and media are talking about questioning their status are quarterback C.J. Stroud and defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs.
One of them deserves to be questioned, the other I am not so sure...
2) I don't understand the shouts to replace C.J.Stroud.
Stroud is playing his second game and none of the backups have more experience than Stroud and in the case of touted Quinn Ewers, have barely spent any time on campus let alone run the offense.
I get it, despite the almost 500 yards passing, Stroud did have his freshman moments and that's completely expected.
Why anyone would think that Stroud wouldn't have rough spots is poor thinking, especially considering the situation with covid but especially after not getting any playing time last season.
Are there things to be corrected for Stroud? Absolutely and his interception that ended Ohio State's last chance wasn't a good one, but good quarterbacks learn and improve as they develop.
C.J.Stroud isn't a worry of mine at this time.
3) The other concern that is receiving the most brickbats from Ohio State followers?
Defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs and on this one, I can understand their concerns.
Coombs has proven to be an excellent recruiter and top-notch secondary coach but could be over his head as a defensive coordinator.
When a coordinator has had success with a system, it can be difficult to move away from it but in college football, the game can evolve very quickly and what was once solid can become stale very quickly.
Ohio State never moved away from their base defense and struggled to make adjustments to what Oregon was running on offense and even though the players didn't make enough plays, it is the job of Coombs to help them succeed.
To this date, he has not.
4) One couldn't complain about the performances of the wideouts with Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the breakout star.
Smith-Njigba has been the talk of the summer camp and his performance against Oregon shows that talk was correct.
5) Oregon dominated the line of scrimmage in a similar manner as Minnesota had the previous week but the Ducks did this without the need to use extra offensive linemen.
Now, the next two opponents could line up the Great Wall of China and not run the football but now that someone can do that of decent talent, I'm thinking that this could be a problem.
6) Ohio State received even more bad news when safety Josh Proctor suffered a leg injury in the game that will keep him out for the remainder of the 2021 season.
Proctor was arguably the Buckeyes' best player in the secondary and his loss makes a questionable back seven even worse.
7) Oregon kept Ohio State off-balance with their play calling and much of that may have been due to offensive coordinator Joe Morehead.
Morehead was the offensive coordinator at Penn State in the few years that the OSU-PSU games were close recently and it was the Buckeye defensive scheme (basically) that was used then and now.
Morehead's familiarity against the OSU defense was a key factor in this upset win for Oregon.
8) The noted three receivers above one hundred yards in a game was the first time that he occurred in Ohio State History.
9) This loss could very well be the start of adjustments that needed to be made in the program and a needed jolt to shake things up a bit.
There are parallels to the loss to Virginia Tech in 2014 with a freshman quarterback, unproven defense, etc.
BUT
10) There may more parallels to 2018 when the Buckeyes used more of a pocket passer (Dwayne Haskins), scored points by the bundle, used a lousy defense to allow points by the bundle, played a lot of fun games to watch, and wasn't really a national title contender.
If I had to say right now, this feels like more 2018 than 2014, unless the heralded class of freshmen could somehow force their way into the defensive lineup and play up to expectations.
Sorry that this is up so late but I ran out of time and yet still wanted to get this posted for posterity.
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