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Ryan Day addresses Will Howard turnovers: 'It can't happen'

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater•11/05/24•

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Ohio State QB Will Howard
Dan Rainville | USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Will Howard had two turnovers in the opening half this past weekend at Penn State. While it didn’t cost them the game in the end, they’re also mistakes that are unacceptable to Ryan Day.

On Tuesday, Day addressed the pick-six and the fumble that became a touchback for Howard in Happy Valley. They’re both plays that he says they can’t allow as far as protecting the ball when Ohio State is on offense.

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“Well, it can’t happen. It can’t happen, you know,” Day said to the media this afternoon. “It just – we’ve got to take care of the football.”

Day could better justify what happened with the interception based on what Howard saw in coverage before Zion Tracy picked it off the slant meant for Jeremiah Smith for the 31-yard score to make it 10-0 early. However, the fumble that came out halfway through the second quarter and gave the ball back to the Nittany Lions was much worse in his opinion.

“You know, the first play? You know, he got fooled a little bit in terms of what he saw. So, unfortunately, sometimes like that, those things will happen,” explained Day. “But, yeah, we can’t fumble the ball inside the 10-yard line. Just can’t do it.”

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Thankfully for the Buckeyes, though, they were able to overcome both of them in the first half and still win at 20-13 in the top-five matchup.

“So, you know, we were – like he said, you know, we were fortunate in the game because of, you know, the play of so many guys down the stretch. It turned into a four-quarter game because of that, you know,” said Day. “We take care of the ball better and it doesn’t have to be that way. So, he knows that.”

Howard has done a decent job in protecting the football so far this fall. These gave him six turnovers in total on the season with five interceptions and this one lost fumble out of the end zone. He had fumbled five other time this year but they had recovered all of them back.

With this, Day is re-stressing the importance of ball security this week to try and keep the turnovers down over their final four games this month.

“We’re going to keep hammering that home this week – a huge emphasis on execution and taking care of the football,” said Day.