Ohio State football: CFP still possible as long as defense not hot mess

The Ohio State football program took a brutal loss at home in front of a 100,000 fans, as Oregon’s defense was able to do just about anything it wanted to against the Buckeyes.

Fortunately, a berth in the College Football Playoff is still possible for the Bucks, as long as the Ohio State football program can win the Big Ten title.

Defensive lineman Garret Haskell shed some optimism on Ohio State’s lot in the CFP landscape after the 35-28 loss to the Ducks, referencing how the team’s goal is to get Indianapolis to play for the Big Ten championship.

Buck Nutes will also point out 2014, in which an underdog Virginia Tech squad came into Ohio Stadium and handed the Buckeyes a non-conference loss in the second game of the season.

That team, of course, went on to rebound splendidly and ended the season with a win over Oregon in the national title game.

Alas, a 2017 loss to Baker Mayfield and the Oklahoma Sooners set the start of that season back, too. That defeat didn’t do Ohio State in though, as a loss to Iowa is what eventually kept the Buckeyes out of national title game contention.

Ohio State football: The defense collapsed

If the Buckeyes are going to have any kind of future of playing in the CFP, Ryan Day and defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs better shore things up in a hurry, because what we saw against Oregon was not championship level football.

Brutus will be having nightmares starring Oregon’s C.J. Verdell, who had 23 touches for 195 yards and three scores! Of those yards, 161 came on the ground.

And he’s not the only one who will be giving Brutus cold sweats. Quarterback Anthony Brown ran for 65 yards on 10 carries, while Travis Dye added another 43 on eight attempts. He scored a crucial touchdown in the third quarter, which kept the Ducks up by two scores.

Coombs is catching a lot of heat from Buckeye fans across the Twittersphere, and it’s hard to defend the Cincinnati prep coaching legend. Oregon was running the the spread-read option–nothing out of the ordinary. Ohio State just couldn’t stop it.

For what it’s worth, Coombs’ group got the necessary stops required to give the offense a chance in the fourth quarter.

Fortunately, there will be no losing streaks for the Buckeyes, as creampuffs Tulsa, Akron Rutgers, Maryland and Indiana all await before Ohio State plays another meaningful game against Penn State on Halloween Eve.