Ryan Day states losing four straight to Michigan is 'not easy to accept'

The Ohio State Buckeyes were upset by the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday afternoon. With that, head coach Ryan Day suffered his fourth straight loss in The Game and is now back to the drawing board, looking for answers on how to beat Michigan.

After the game, Day admitted that the loss isn’t easy to accept in the moment. However, he doesn’t think that the issue had to do with the team’s preparation.

“Fresh off the game right now, and obviously extremely disappointed,” Ryan Day said. “And angry that we didn’t execute well enough. So, I’m not there right now, just fresh off the game. But, as you know this is not easy to accept, and, obviously have to take the ownership. I’m the one ultimately that makes the final decisions on things.”

Even amid injury and turnover issues along the offensive line, Ryan Day shared that he felt the Buckeyes were comfortable going into the game. Still, the Buckeyes’ offense stagnated, only scoring 10 points, and turning the ball over twice, while averaging just 4.3 yards per play.

“And, felt like we were in a really good place coming into this game. I felt like we were prepared to play well in this game,” Day said. “And, I think you could see maybe some of the stuff that happened in the offensive line and shuffling things around ended up really coming to a head today. Some of those guys have to look at the film and figure it out, but we just couldn’t seem to get through to the second level on some runs. And, led to some frustration.”

Despite the issues, Ryan Day was proud of his team’s effort. In particular, he cited the Jack Sawyer interception that ended a Michigan drive early and gave the Buckeyes a shot with the ball late.

“Then, again, I thought guys were into it even all the way to the end. It’s a great play by Jack on the goal line. Just unbelievable effort right there to give the offense a chance,” Day said. “But, go three and out, and it was fourth-and-1 in our red zone. I just felt like at that point, we had to punt it, because if you don’t get it there, the game’s probably, really in the balance. So, yeah, I don’t know much more to say about it.”

Even with the excellent defensive effort, Ohio State fell short and lost their fourth game in a row to Michigan. That loss also dropped the Buckeyes to 10-2 on the season and knocked them out of the Big Ten Championship Game.