Buckeyes Resigned to Their Fate After the Second CFP Rankings Revealed

It was the second round of College Football Playoff rankings, and for the Ohio State Buckeyes, they were resigned to their fate after their second straight blowout loss.

The Buckeyes put out a stinker of a football game, truly one of the worst that has ever been played by an Ohio State team inside of Ohio Stadium. They were beaten 41-28 by the Oregon Ducks, but it wasn't even that close. The Buckeyes put up two touchdowns in garbage time that shrank the lead.

That performance came on the back of an equally embarrassing performance out west at USC when they were easily dominated by the Trojans 30-18.

Last week, in the first edition of the rankings, the Buckeyes slotted in at the No. 12 spot, on the outside of the 12-team playoff bracket. This week, they are firmly outside the rankings. They slotted in at No. 20, dropping 8 spots after the Oregon game.

Two things are true with this ranking. The first is that they are not dead. Had they fallen further than 20th, or even outside the Top-25, then their season would be down the drain. The second is that the path back to the playoffs is not in their hands. 

They will need to win out and then have both Oregon and USC lose, as those two teams are slotted ahead of them at No. 16 and No. 18, respectively. 

The Buckeyes have their work cut out for them to simply go 3-0 on their own. The first challenge on their schedule is a home game against the Northwestern Wildcats, who are as frisky a team as they have been in the past decade. The second test will be a trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, to face the Cornhuskers, who are always tough to play on the road. 

The final and likely toughest test for the Buckeyes is obviously The Game against the Michigan Wolverines. They are having a complete disaster of a season, but you throw the records out when that game pops up on the calendar, no matter how bad either one or both of these teams are.

Ohio State has done this to themselves by, frankly, being pretty bad this year. Yes, they have three losses, but they should have four, and in their wins against significantly inferior competition, it wasn't always clean.

This is one of the worst football teams that Ryan Day has ever had, and they are in a bit of a free fall at this point in the season.

The Buckeyes land at No. 20 with three tough games left. We will see how they respond.