What Ryan Day said after No. 2 Ohio State lost to No. 3 Oregon Football

EUGENE – No. 2 Ohio State lost 32-31 to No. 3 Oregon on Saturday night at Autzen Stadium.

Ryan Day recapped the Buckeyes’ (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) loss heading into next week.

Below is a transcript of Day’s postgame press conference.

RYAN DAY

Opening speech…

“We did a great job of taking the field and continuing to fight, but the only play there… (defensive back) is to grab Jeremiah Smith; Jeremiah fights there. They called the flag there and it cost us, but it shouldn’t come down to one play. I’ve said that before. We don’t want to leave any doubt. I felt like we should have done that tonight, but we didn’t. So we put it in the hands of a call, and you don’t get it. That’s up to us. We should never have let it happen. They made the explosive plays tonight. We turned the ball over in the first half and that cost us. We have to deal with such situations better. Overall, there were just too many explosive plays on defense.”

On the subject of loss…

“Obviously we have to go back and figure out what the common theme was. There are a few things we could probably point out. I mean, there were some long throws down the field where they ended up behind us. There were some split barrels that didn’t fit properly. There was more than one thing. There was a missed tackle there on the play that Gabriel made, and that was a good play. I don’t think it was just one thing, but we have to play better.”

Regarding sales in the first quarter…

“We hammer it to the point, we drill the whole thing out and we talk about taking care of the football. “To have the ball, you have to turn the ball over right there in plus territory… that was a big one Play in the game. We worked hard this week to return the ball from a penalty at the 50 yard line. We knew they were going to do something like that and they hit Caleb (Downs) hard. It was well planned by them, but it hurt. We kept fighting and persevered. At least they were winning by one at halftime. We felt like when we came out and played, if we just lined up and communicated well and the runs were passing better… it kind of went back and forth. We couldn’t quite get to the stops we needed and couldn’t finish it. We talked about leaving no doubt and not limiting ourselves to a single piece, but that’s exactly what happened here. We can sit there and watch a game here or there, on a call, but we’re not going to do that. We will own it and get it repaired.”

About mistakes tonight…

“We have to look at everything. The ball went over us twice. That’s something we preach a lot…exploitation and staying on top so (they) can move the ball down the field. That didn’t happen in this game. It starts with coaching. We need to train it better, challenge it better and coach it better.”

On message after tonight’s defeat…

“Tackling the problems. As I said, the problems are there. These issues have occurred in this game and we need to fix them. Josh Simmons’ injury hurt. Zen (Michalski) did a good job when he started. Tegra Tshabola went down there, so Austin (Siereveld) had to go in. I thought these guys were competitive. I’ll get the update on Simmons, but it doesn’t look good considering he can return this season. This is a great success for us. I thought these guys came in and took part in the game, so we have to identify everything and find out exactly what happened to Tshabola and get back to work next week.”

Regarding specific power losses…

“You hate pointing fingers and I won’t do that. This is a team defeat. At the end, the offense had a chance to come in and finish the ball, but that didn’t happen. It felt like we were within field goal range there. We wanted to continue to expand the field goal because every time you add five yards, it gets bigger. You get a small penalty like that. It’s heartbreaking, but that’s football.”

About the noise coming into Autzen Stadium…

“When you’re out and about, you’re going to be playing in great environments. We had a few penalties, some of the young players. There are a few false starts that hurt, and ultimately these are things we cannot accept. We have to do a better job there. I thought our guys kept fighting. They kept swinging, even to the one-yard line at the end. I thought the defense made a big stop here to give the offense a chance at 1:47. If they score that touchdown, it’s a two-score game. Your game is pretty much in your hands. The defense was stopped there to give the offense a chance. When it comes to offense, defense, stats, etc., what is most important? The most important thing is to win the game and that didn’t happen tonight. As far as the message to the team is concerned, the season is already half over. It hurts. We should have won the game. You have to give Oregon credit, they played well, but there were just too many things we could have done better in this game and we didn’t. We have a lot of football ahead of us. We need to get these things fixed.”

About Will Howard’s appearance…

“He’s tough. He fought until the end. I give him credit for fighting until the end. We tried to get three players to the edge of the field on the last play to finish the ball. Someone flashed into his face and he scrambled to his feet. He will be hard on himself, but he competed until the end. Made some big throws to give us a chance to be in field goal range. He threw a good ball to Jeremiah (Smith), but there was contact with Jeremiah. On the next play there was contact with (Emeka) Egbuka. We’re not going back with these other things. At this point it doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t come down to that, but I like the way Will (Howard) played. I thought he was competitive and strong in the game.”

— James Crepea covers that Oregon Ducks and Big Ten. Listen to this Ducks Confidential Podcast or subscribe Ducks Roundup Newsletter.