The 14-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri isn't as important as how it happened and how it could affect next season for Ohio State.
Ohio State finished with only 106 yards passing and TreVeyon Henderson led the offense with seventy-two yards rushing.
Ohio State will open the 2024 season on August 31st at home against Akron.
For the first time in a long time, Ohio State may have more questions than answers during a long off-season.
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1) Devin Brown injured his ankle in the second quarter and after an aborted attempt to return, left the game for good.
As much as I would like to blame the loss of Brown for the Ohio State defeat, it's not so.
Brown completed four of six passes for only twenty yards at the time of his injury.
2) Ohio State scored their only points under Brown on a forty-four-yard field goal by Jayden Fielding in the first quarter.
Fielding would miss from forty-eight yards in the third quarter when his kick hit off the upright.
3) The offensive line play was brutal as Missouri sacked Ohio State quarterbacks four times and controlled the run game as the Buckeyes reluctance to throw allowed the Tigers to key on TreVeyon Henderson.
4) Jesse Mirco's punting season has been disappointing, to say the least, but Mirco was not a problem against Missouri, placing three punts inside the twenty, and hitting one of sixty-one yards.
5) The player of the game for Ohio State had to be defensive end Jack Sawyer, who sacked Missouri quarterback Brady Cook three times.
Sawyer hasn't announced his decision for the NFL Draft but his play last night may have made him a few dollars extra, should he decide to go pro.
6) Missouri didn't score their two touchdowns until the final quarter against an exhausted Ohio State defense, and it's hard to blame the defense for allowing those scores.
Missouri held the time of possession battle 34-26 but it seemed to be more than that as I watched the game in live action.
7) I did think Ohio State got hosed a bit on the first Missouri touchdown drive when Josh Proctor was called for a late hit on Missouri quarterback Brady Cook.
I thought Proctor hit Cook just as he was stepping out of bounds and it wasn't late.
8) Ohio State committed eight penalties on the evening and continued the struggles with special teams that will likely cause the demise in the coming days of special teams coach Parker Fleming.
Three of the eight came from the special teams, including a holding call on a punt that was fair caught.
9) Ryan Day was downright timid in his playcalling and while the offensive line didn't do their part in protection, Day didn't want to throw downfield often when Devin Brown was in the game, and he did next to none with Lincoln Kienholz.
If this game was so important to win, as was proclaimed before the game, and if it was a chance to measure the quarterbacks for 2024, why wouldn't you try to use as much of the offense as possible?
There were complications with Lincoln Kienholz in using the entire offense but that wouldn't apply to Devin Brown and I don't think the offense was too wide open even before Brown was hurt.
10) Ohio State has to be disappointed with the loss and changes are going to have to be made on the coaching staff and personnel.
Ohio State enters a pivotal season with four quality teams entering the Big Ten next season, the competition will be tougher so the Buckeyes will not be able to show up and win every game on talent alone.
Ryan Day's seat may be warm now, next season will either solve issues in the program or bring bigger problems to the forefront.
It's going to be a long offseason in Columbus.
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