Ryan Day criticizes Ohio State offense following first half performance

The Ohio State Buckeyes are only up 17-10 at halftime against Penn State and head coach Ryan Day let ESPN’s Holly Rowe know he wasn’t happy with his offense.

The Buckeyes’ only offensive touchdown of the first half was a 38-yard touchdown pass from quarterback C.J. Stroud to his receiver, Chris Olave.

Below is a clip of the catch.

CJ Stroud ➡️ Chris Olave 38 yard TD! #OhioState pic.twitter.com/F1W5RUpAAl

— ✯✯✯✯✯ (@FTBVids_YT) October 31, 2021

Day spoke to Rowe about his team’s only offensive touchdown of the first half. “It was well done,” he said. The protection was good, just enough to hang on. We have to run the ball better and stay on schedule.”

The Buckeyes got some points from some unexpected places, including one of their defensive lineman, Jerron Cage. Cage scooped up a fumble from Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford. Once he did, it was nothing but green grass in front of him and he rumbled 57-yards to paydirt.

Here’s a clip of the play below.

Everybody loves a big man TD 🙌

Scoop-and-score gives the Bucks six more! pic.twitter.com/nqd6WVAka9

— ESPN (@espn) October 31, 2021

Day loved the score from his big man. “It was great to get a defensive score. Any time that happens that’s a big deal that you could flip the scoreboard that way. So we got to come out of the locker room and play well,” he said.

Ohio State first half stats

The Nittany Lions outgained the Buckeyes 209-189 total yards of offense in the first half. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud completed 15 of his 24 pass attempts for 170 passing yards, while tossing one touchdown pass and no interceptions. Ohio State’s freshman phenom of a running back TreVeyon Henderson was stifled with nine rushing attempts for only six rushing yards in the first half. The Virginia native also only had one catch for seven receiving yards. Garrett Wilson was the leading receiver in the half for Ohio State, he pulled in six catches for 69 receiving yards on nine targets.