Will Howard recalls what happened on final play as clock expired
Ohio State and Oregon‘s matchup was an instant classic that the Ducks found themselves on the winning side of on Saturday night in Autzen Stadium. Making a few more plays than the Buckeyes in a 32-31 win that now makes Oregon the No. 2 ranked team in the nation.
Mistakes are amplified in close games, and none was more magnified in Saturday’s matchup than the final play. When with one timeout remaining Ohio State quarterback Will Howard scrambled for 12 yards in an attempt to set up the Buckeyes for a field goal attempt but left no time on the clock.
“I thought I did, obviously didn’t,” Howard admitted after the game. “I worried about getting enough yards to make the field goal and get us into field goal range. But we gotta go back and look at it and figure out what we did wrong there and I gotta get down I guess. It’s all good, we gotta learn from it.”
There’s no question that the Buckeyes would not have been in a position to win without Howard, who posted his best game yet as a Buckeye completing 80% of his passes with 336 total yards and three total touchdowns on the day. But the late-game blunder clearly frustrated the Kansas State transfer and surely stings for Ohio State’s fanbase.
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“I don’t know man, it’s a b—-. It sucks,” Howard said. “A play like that, you don’t want to lose a game like that and I don’t know what we could have done better, I could have gotten down earlier, gave us a chance. It would’ve been a longer kick but we gotta go back and look at it and try to not let that happen again.”
After moving the ball to the Oregon 28-yard line on the final drive of the game, things went south for the Ohio State offense. Where an offensive pass interference by Jeremiah Smith would push the Buckeyes back to the 43-yard line and end up taking precious time off the clock.
Followed by two Ohio State incompletions and Howard’s run and slide as time expired. A play the Buckeyes will look to forget going into their bye week ahead of a matchup with Nebraska next Saturday.