CINCINNATI, Ohio — It’s been a long two weeks since Ohio State suffered its first loss against Oregon in Eugene. But with a bye week right after, the Buckeyes have had a long time to think about the loss.
Will Howard hasn’t been able to stop replaying that game-ending play over the past two weeks.
“Do I look up a little early?" Howard said. "Do I get down a little quicker? Do I believe me like it's been it's been nagging at me and you know, I'm, I'm, I'm kicking myself in every way and but you know, at the same time, you can't let it affect the future at all.”
But the Buckeyes aren’t out of contention just yet, thanks to an expanded playoff and the strength of the Big Ten.
“Once all that settles, you realize that, you know, there's a lot of football ahead of us," Coach Ryan Day said. "And, you look ahead at, you know, what we got in the second half of the season and then right here in Nebraska. And so, you know, you quickly move on to that and realize that, you know, there's a lot of teams across the country that are taking a loss. And now we got to go adjust and play our best football here in the second half of the season.”
And teams across the country have taken a loss and rebounded- including Georgia, Clemson and Tennessee. But Day says loses can expose them to problems that need to be fixed as soon as possible.
“When you come from a loss you just start to put patches or Band-Aids on things," Day said. "And then all of a sudden, you know, you go to a loss gets ripped open and you just have a little bit more harder conversations. You make bigger decisions, and you just drive it harder.”
Howard says while taking a loss isn’t ideal, he’s glad they got it over with and hope to learn from it.
“I’m almost glad it happened now and not at the end of the season to where, you know, some of those issues that, you know, may have gotten swept under the rug," Howard said. "If, you know, if we win that game, they have to get addressed. And, you know, we're really working at, you know, cleaning up every little thing that we can. And, you know, I want I want to be able to look back and say, you know, this is the reason that we went on a run and won a national championship and not, you know, the other way around.”
While in years past, one loss could mean no chance at the college football playoff or the conference championship, the Buckeyes are glad they have a second chance at their goals.
“There's no way to go back and change the game," Howard said. "All we got to do is look forward and, you know, run the table, win out and see him again in Indy. And that's, you know, that's all we can hope for.”