The No. 1 team in the country, Ohio State, somehow managed to blow a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter on Saturday, falling 24-23 to No. 4 Texas in Austin. It’s a collapse that’s almost unimaginable in college football, and frankly, head coach Ryan Day stood in front of reporters afterwards looking just as lost as anyone.
The Collapse That Shook College Football
Think about this: since 2003, teams trailing an AP No. 1 squad by 17-plus points were 0-223. Zero for 223! Texas just shredded that stat, pulling off three straight fourth-quarter touchdown drives and matching them with three straight stops to secure the unlikeliest of wins. Longhorns fans were absolutely losing it after the game, and why wouldn’t they be? This could be the launch pad for their first national title run since 2005. For Ohio State, though, it’s just another confounding loss in a game that they had absolutely no business letting slip away. Day himself couldn’t even explain it: “I can’t really sit here and tell you exactly why that happened,” he admitted. “We all have to take accountability, and we have to get this thing fixed.” You think?
Day’s History of Late-Game Woes Is a Red Flag
Day’s overall record in Columbus, 83-13, looks incredible on paper. But dig a little deeper, and you find a really troubling trend: six of those 13 losses involved his Buckeyes squandering a second-half lead. It’s wild to say a national championship-winning coach has a problem closing out games, but the facts are stacking up against him. Remember the 2024 national title? They were up 31-7 in the third quarter against Notre Dame and still had to sweat through a 15-point barrage before finally putting it away. Since Day’s first full season in 2019, Ohio State has played 14 games decided by seven points or fewer, and they’ve only won six of them. That’s a 6-8 record in crunch time, folks. For all the success, his teams consistently get conservative when the stakes are highest, especially against top-tier competition.
Questionable Calls When It Mattered Most
The source of that conservatism? It’s right there in the game film. Ohio State played a ton of drop-eight coverage in the fourth quarter, which Texas, led by Arch Manning, dissected after struggling with it early. Then there was the punt on 4th-and-5 from Texas’s 39-yard line while up 20-3, which netted a pathetic 26 yards. But the real kicker, the decision that absolutely sealed their fate, was Day’s call not to let Texas score late. The Longhorns were at the one-yard line with just 1:23 left, and Ohio State had one timeout. Instead of letting Texas punch it in to go up by one, leaving time for a potential field goal comeback, Day apparently chose to stop them. The article cuts off there, but that’s the kind of call that leaves you scratching your head, wondering what was going on.
Ohio State has now lost three of its last four games going back to the 2025 season. This isn’t just a hiccup; it’s a full-blown pattern. They’ve got to find a way to finish games, or this season, despite all its early promise, is going to spiral out of control fast. Day needs to figure out what’s “broken” and get it fixed, or the calls for accountability are only going to get louder.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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