If you didn't know this by now, the Ohio State Buckeyes football team lost their first game of the season this weekend. It came to them by the expense of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State rallied 17 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to upset the Ohio State Buckeyes 24-21. It comes to shock many fans out there, but the writing was on the wall for the past couple of weeks. In Addition to that, I am here to tell you that a loss was not the worst thing that could have happened to the Buckeyes. It does not even change what they have to do in order to make their second college football playoff.
Prior to the defeat this past weekend, the Buckeyes have been out of sink for the past few weeks. They were often not performing on their usual level. They have been starting games slow and rallying at the end just to win by enough. They have not looked the same since their convincing win against a very poor Rutgers team. There have been some issues that I think that has led to it. I think the team became very complacent. They felt that they could just walk into any stadium and the opposing team would just lay down for them. I also feel that Ohio State has been starting games very slow. That enables lesser competition to stay into ball games. The offensive line has not done a great job blocking for J.T. Barrett and that has limited their run game success. Poor special teams play has been a factor. As I said in the beginning, the writing was on the wall.
In the end, this all has equalled a loss at Penn State. Hats off to Penn State. They were down two touchdowns and Rallied back to win after blocking a field goal and a punt. They showed a lot of heart and ultimately wanted it more. I think there were some calls that may have not gone the Buckeyes way but thats the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. On the last drive before the game ending, there was a missed pass interference call. Fans are still angry about it, but in the end Ohio State should not have put themselves in the situation where they would need a "bail out" pass interference call. Call me a hater or whatever else, but that is the truth. They played the entire 2nd half "not to lose", when they should always be "Playing to win". If you take your foot off of the gas things like this tend to happen.
Luckily for Ohio State, this loss does not change much for them. All they have to is win out the rest of the season and win the Big 10 Championship. That includes beating that team up north. I think this can be easily done for the Buckeyes. They are playing far less superior teams the rest of the season. The team up north is also relatively unproven up to this point. I feel that they matchup between those two will be close, but I do not see the Buckeyes losing to them at home this season. That loss at Penn State will really light a fire on the entire teams tail. Much like during their 2014 National Championship campaign, they lost to a team that they should not have. It really lit a fire within the team and they managed to win the whole thing. So this is northing new for Urban Meyer. In fact, he has never won a National Championship by going undefeated.
I think Ohio State has a very good opportunity ahead of them to make the College Football Playoff. They just need to take care of business and they can punch their tickets. It is exciting to see how they rally from this weeks minor set back. I know that Urban Meyer will have his boys ready to go. In his book, Above the Line, he has quote that says " Work to get better everyday. Staying the same gets you nowhere". I think they need to follow that advice and they will be just fine.
