Ryan Day after Oregon Loss: "We put it in the hands of a call."

Following the loss to Oregon Saturday night in Eugene, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with media to answer questions.

Day seems to not be pleased with some of the officiating from the game as evident by his comments below. Ohio State was flagged for offensive pass interference on a key pickup late in the game.

Here are his quotes below with the full video included at the bottom.

Opening Statement…

“We did a great job of getting down the field and continuing to fight, but the one play there…(defensive
back) is grabbing on Jeremiah Smith; Jeremiah is fighting there. They called that flag there and that cost
us, but it shouldn’t come down to one play. I’ve said that before. We want to leave no doubt. I felt like
we should have done that tonight and we did not. So, then we put it in the hands of a call, and you don’t
get it. That’s on us. We should never have let it come down to that. They took the explosive plays
tonight. We turned the ball over in the first half, and it cost us. We have to do a better job of handling
those situations. Overall, there were just too many explosive plays on the defensive side.”

On theme of loss…

“Well, obviously, we need to go back and figure out what the common theme was. There are a few
things we could probably point to. I mean, there (were) some long throws down the field where they got
behind us. There were some runs that split that weren’t fit correctly. There was more than just one
thing. There was a missed tackle on the pull there that Gabriel pulled, and that was a good play in the
game. I don’t think it was just one thing, but we have to play better.”

On first-quarter turnover…

“We hammer it home, we drill the heck out of it, and we talk about taking care of the football. To have
the ball, turn the ball over right there in plus territory…that was a huge play in the game. We worked
hard this week on returning the ball after a penalty on the 50-yard line. We knew they were going to do
something like that, and they hit it hard right into Caleb (Downs). That was well designed by them, but
that one hurt. We kept fighting, kept hanging in there. After all that, they were winning by one at
halftime. We felt like if we come out and play, if we just got lined up and communicated well and fit the
runs better…it kind of went back and forth. We couldn’t quite get the stops we needed to and couldn’t
finish it. We talked about leaving no doubt and not coming down to one play, but that’s what happened
here. We can sit and look at one play here, one play there, on a call, but we’re not going to do that.
We’re going to own it and we’re going to get it fixed.”

On mistakes tonight…

“We have to look at it all. The ball got by us twice, over the top. That is something that we preach a
lot…exploits and keeping it in front, making (them) work the ball down the field. It didn’t happen in this
game. It starts with coaching. We need to coach it better, demand it better and drill it better.”

On message after tonight’s loss…

“Address the issues. Like I said, the issues are there. Those issues came up in this game, and we have to
get those things fixed. The injury to Josh Simmons hurt. Zen (Michalski) did a good job of coming in and
competing. Tegra Tshabola went down there, so Austin (Siereveld) had to go in. I thought those guys
competed. I’ll get the update on Simmons, but it doesn’t look great in terms of him being able to come
back this season. That’s a big hit for us. I thought those guys came in and competed in the game, so we’ll
have to get all that identified and figure out what exactly happened to Tshabola and go back to work
next week.”

On specific performances in loss…

“You hate to point fingers, and I’m not going to do that. This is a team loss. The offense had a chance to
go in and finish it off at the end, that didn’t happen. It felt like we were in field goal range there. We
wanted to keep adding to the field goal because every time you add five yards, it increases it. You take a
little penalty like that. It’s heartbreaking but that’s football.”

On noise coming to Autzen Stadium…

“When you go on the road, you’re going to play in great environments. We had a couple penalties in
there, some of the young guys. Some false starts there that hurt, and that’s ultimately things that we
can’t accept. We have to do a better job there. I thought our guys kept fighting. They kept swinging,
even down to the one-yard line at the end. I thought the defense got a big stop there to get the offense
a chance and 1:47. If they score that touchdown, it’s a two-score game. Their game is pretty much in
hand. So, defense did get a stop there to give the offense a chance. When it comes down to offense,
defense, stats, all that, what’s the number one thing? The number one thing is to win the game and that
didn’t happen tonight. In terms of message with the team, it’s halfway through the season. It hurts. We
should have won the game. Give Oregon credit, they played well but there were just too many things
that we could have done better in this game but we didn’t. We have a lot of football ahead of us. We
have to go get those things fixed.”

On Will Howard’s performance…

“He’s tough. He competed all the way to the end. I give him credit and he was fighting all the way to the
end. We were trying to get three guys into the boundary on the last play to get that ball completed.
Somebody flashed in his face, and he scrambled. He’ll be hard on himself but he was competing all the
way to the end. Made some big time throws to give us a chance to be in field-goal range. He threw a
good ball to Jeremiah (Smith), but there was contact with Jeremiah. On the next play, there was contact
to (Emeka) Egbuka. We’re not going to go back with those other things. It doesn’t matter at this point. It
shouldn’t come down to that, but I do like the way Will (Howard) played. I thought he competed and
was tough in the game.”