Ryan Day and the Buckeyes' Offense Could Not Figure Out the Right Tempo Against USC

Ohio State struggled in many ways on Saturday night in their loss to the USC Trojans, but none more than the tempo at which they were playing, specifically in the second half. 

Day was asked about that exactly in the post-game press conference, and his response was fascinating at best. He said that the Buckeyes were going to use tempo had they come out of the half and gotten their first first down while they were trailing 20-9. 

I don't disagree with the strategy; however, I do disagree with the fact that they came out and ran the ball three straight times before punting it away. It was the most bizarre sequence of plays where they basically signalled to the entire world that they didn't have any faith in their young quarterback. 

The tempo discussion surfaced again in the fourth quarter when Ohio State got the football back, trailing by 15 points with just under 8 minutes to go in the game. 

Assuming that you can go the length of the football field in 2:30 seconds, that leaves just 3 drives remaining for the rest of the game. So instead of turning the tempo up to really push it down the field, they ran the patented 4-minute drill and were seemingly okay with taking their time. 

They went 80 yards over 13 plays taking 5:45 seconds off the clock. They followed it up by going for two to try to cut the USC lead to seven. They missed the two-point conversion, and trailing by nine and needing two scores, they had just 2 minutes left to go in the entire game.

It was a shocking mismanagement of the clock by Day, Smith, and the Buckeyes' offense.

The entire time, they showed very little urgency to move the football downfield, and as a result, they ran out of time to score again.

That game is going to go down in the history books as one of the worst losses that Ohio State has had under Ryan Day. They had two weeks to prepare for a team that was just embarrassed by the Wisconsin Badgers. Instead of putting a proper plan together, they spent the entire week doing a public charade of who was going to play quarterback. 

Yes, they were down their quarterback, but it wouldn't have mattered whether Julian Sayin was playing or not; the Buckeyes were thoroughly beaten by USC, and now their postseason hopes are on the line. 

They could have avoided all of it if they had managed the clock better.