Will Howard wants loss at Oregon to fuel national championship run

Ohio State will honor its 2014 national championship team Saturday against Nebraska, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the program’s last national title.

That Buckeyes team lost a game in the first half of the season, too — in Week 2, actually, and it wasn’t nearly as close as the one-point defeat this year’s Ohio State squad suffered 10 days ago at Oregon: After all, Virginia Tech upset then-No. 8 Ohio State, 35-21, in Lane Stadium.

What followed that two-score defeat is baked into Ohio State lore. Quarterback J.T. Barrett put the Buckeyes in position to win a Big Ten title. Then, after Barrett went down with injury, Cardale Jones took the baton and got Ohio State to the finish line, with a large helping hand from running back Ezekiel Elliott and friends.

The Buckeyes didn’t lose again after their letdown in Lane.

This year’s group is hoping for the same kind of response to anguish in Autzen.

Autzen Stadium played host to the top-three showdown between Ohio State and Oregon in Week 7, which saw quarterback Will Howard slide a second too late before the Buckeyes could use their final timeout and attempt a game-winning field goal.

“I want to be able to look back and say this is the reason that we went on a run and won the national championship, and not the other way around,” Howard said Tuesday of the still-painful defeat.

“I think we’re trying to use this in the best way as a stepping stone. Everything is still in front of us. If nothing else, it gives us a little more extra motivation, because now we know what it feels like to lose a game and to walk off the field and have that feeling. I can guarantee none of us want to feel that again.”

Ohio State still can check off its three “Block O”-sized boxes: beat Michigan, win the Big Ten and win the national championship. There are other hurdles along the way, namely a No. 3 Penn State team that the Buckeyes will have to square off against on the road next week.

There’s a feel-good, made-for-cinema storyline out there for Ohio State, the kind Howard described Tuesday. It starts Saturday against Nebraska.

That’ll be the Buckeyes’ first in-game opportunity to respond, following their second and final off week of the regular season.

“I don’t think anybody was hurting more than Will Howard after the game,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said of the Oregon loss. “I thought that he played his heart out in the game and was a second short. When you have a bye week, you don’t just get over it the next day — that’s just not the way it works.

“It took a couple days, but he had a great energy today. He was in asking questions about some of the pass game with the offensive staff, bouncing around. He looks good. He had a really good practice on Sunday, so he’s ready to go play the second half of the season.”

While Howard slid too late in the game’s final seconds and dropped a critical third down snap in the third quarter at Oregon, he also threw for a season-high 326 yards and totaled three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) without a single turnover in the Big Ten thriller.

Howard, who started 27 games and won a Big 12 title in four years at Kansas State, said Tuesday that, although he feels like he played “solid” against the Ducks, the only stat that matters is the game outcome, and the Buckeyes didn’t win.

“That’s only thing that I’m looking at,” he said. “You could play the best game of your life, but if you don’t finish it the right way, then it’s really all for nothing.”

So, Howard isn’t satisfied with how he played at Oregon. Day explained Tuesday that, across all position groups, the off week included self scout and constant conversation about improvement.

“We talked about how we wanted to flush that game, but we’re not going to forget about it, and it’s going to be in the back of our head,” Howard said. “We’re going to use it. And I feel like this is kind of the point of the season where I’m almost glad it happened now and not at the end of the season. Some of those issues may have gotten swept under the rug if we win that game.

“They have to get addressed. And we’re really working at cleaning up every little thing that we can.”