Ohio State football: Grading Buckeyes after Fiesta Bowl loss

Ohio State’s outstanding 2019 season arrived at an ending that was difficult to take for Buckeyes coaches, players and fans alike on Saturday night.

Second-ranked OSU’s national championship ambitions were dashed in a back-and-forth, 29-23 loss to No. 3 Clemson at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.

Instead of facing former teammate Joe Burrow and top-ranked LSU in the College Football Playoff final, the Buckeyes faced a long trip home after falling just short against Clemson, which earned its 29th consecutive victory and a shot at a second straight national title.

The loss ended an amazing season in Columbus as Ryan Day began his career as the Buckeyes head coach — or at least his first full season in command — with a 13-0 regular season including a Big Ten championship.

The future should be bright for the OSU football program, but for now it’s time to assess the ups and downs of Saturday’s defeat.

So here are 3 things I liked and 5 things I didn’t like from the Fiesta Bowl:

3 things I liked

Gutsy stars: Justin Fields entered this game with a left knee injury and played through any discomfort while wearing a knee brace. Running back J.K. Dobbins limped off a couple of times during the game and reappeared after missing some time with a heavily wrapped ankle. The two biggest stars on the Buckeyes offense fought through the pain and had productive numbers against the nation’s No. 1 defense.

Dobbins in particular had another terrific performance, rushing for 174 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries to break Eddie George’s single-season OSU rushing record. Dobbins finished with 2,046 rushing yards on the season. Fields passed for 320 yards and a touchdown (but two interceptions including one to end the game, though that one appeared not to be his fault).

Hill ties record, has good day: It did not take senior wide receiver KJ Hill long to tie Gary Williams’ long-standing school record for consecutive games with at least one catch. On OSU’s first offensive play, Fields found Hill for a 9-yard gain, marking the 48th consecutive game in which Hill had a catch. Williams set the mark from 1979-82. Hill had a team-leading 67 receiving yards on 6 catches on Saturday; he co-led OSU in catches along with Dobbins and Austin Mack.

Physical play from DBs: From the opening series, Ohio State secondary standouts Jeff Okudah, Shaun Wade, Damon Arnette, Jordan Fuller and the rest showed that they not only could hang with Clemson’s talented playmakers in coverage, but that they could make tackles and stuff short passes before they became long ones.

Okudah and Fuller had 5 tackles apiece and helped hold the Tigers to 148 passing yards through three quarters (the fourth quarter was a different story thanks to Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne). But the downside was that Wade sacked Lawrence in the first half. Why was that a downside? Well…

5 things I didn’t like

...that one play where the DB was too physical: Wade hit Lawrence with the crown of his helmet on that third-down sack in the second quarter. Wade was called for targeting, ejected from the game and called for a personal foul. Instead of being forced to punt, Clemson kept possession and drove down the field for its first touchdown of the game, on Etienne’s 8-yard run.

The Buckeyes led 16-0 before Wade’s penalty, but after that Clemson outscored OSU 29-7.

Those penalties: The call against Wade was not the only costly penalty OSU committed. Perhaps an even more damaging yellow flag fell on a Tigers punt from their own 15. Cameron Brown was flagged 15 yards for running into the kicker and Clemson retained possession. Two plays later, Lawrence hit Etienne on a short pass and the Tigers running back took it for a 53-yard touchdown to give Clemson its first lead at 21-16 in the third quarter.

Fumble controversy: Perhaps the biggest moment of controversy was the call/no call on the defensive touchdown that OSU appeared to score in the third quarter. Okudah forced Justyn Ross to fumble on a catch deep in OSU territory and Fuller scooped it up and returned it for a Buckeyes touchdown. But upon review, the officials ruled that it was an incomplete pass rather than a fumble.

The rules say that officials must have indisputable evidence that the initial call was wrong. It appeared to be, at best, a 50-50 call that probably should have remained however it was called in real time, either way.

Pass protection: This has been a recurring problem for the Buckeyes all season and it bit them again in the Fiesta Bowl. As excellent as the offensive linemen have been in the run game, they have had problems protecting Fields, allowing nearly 3 sacks per game coming in. Sure enough. Clemson sacked Fields 4 times, twice on third-down plays.

Red zone missed chances: The Wade call (which was correct if costly) and the reversed touchdown (see above) caused some furor on social media among Buckeyes fans and even some neutral observers. But once that feeling fades, the aspect of the game that Ryan Day and his assistant coaches will probably rue the most will be their failure to capitalize on early chances inside the red zone.

Ohio State was one of the most ruthless red-zone offenses in America all season, scoring 59 touchdowns on 72 attempts and only settling for field goals 5 times inside an opponent’s 20-yard line. But on Saturday the Buckeyes drove beyond the Clemson 20 three times in the first half — and all 3 times they came away with Blake Haubeil field goals. What could have easily been a 28-0 or at least 24-0 lead was only 16-0. That let Clemson stay in the game long enough to rally for victory.