Ohio State’s 30–18 loss at USC exposed problems that can no longer be explained away as the cost of changing quarterbacks. Luke Fahey gave the Buckeyes a credible performance in his first start, the running game finally produced, and Jeremiah Smith added another record. None of it was enough because Ohio State could not finish drives, surrendered explosive plays and committed 11 penalties. The path to Indianapolis and the College Football Playoff remains open, but there is no longer room for another Saturday like this one.
Ohio State left Los Angeles with a result that changed the tone of the season.
The 30–18 loss to USC was not a collapse like Texas, where the Buckeyes carried a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter. It was not a narrow defeat decided by one final possession or an unfortunate bounce. USC scored on its second offensive play, led by 11 at halftime and kept Ohio State out of the end zone until 2:12 remained. The Buckeyes moved the ball, controlled possession and produced 464 yards, but they spent most of Halloween night chasing a game they never fully threatened to take back.
That distinction matters because the easiest explanation entering the game was the quarterback change. Julian Sayin was unavailable, Luke Fahey was making his first collegiate start and the offense had spent two weeks rebuilding itself around a freshman. Fahey was not perfect, but he was also not the reason Ohio State lost. He threw for 260 yards without an interception, remained composed in a difficult environment and gave the Buckeyes enough competent quarterback play to win.
The failures were distributed throughout the roster. Ohio State settled for four field goals before finally reaching the end zone, committed 11 penalties, allowed two enormous receptions and failed to turn 39 minutes of possession into control of the scoreboard. A defense that had carried the team through several uneven offensive performances surrendered its highest point total of the season. An offense that gained more yards than USC could not convert movement into touchdowns.
Ohio State fell from No. 2 to No. 11 in the AP poll and will learn Tuesday night where the College Football Playoff committee places a 6–2 team with two road losses, a victory at Indiana and no remaining margin for error. The season is not over. The comfortable version of it is.
Here are five Monday Musings as Ohio State turns from USC toward Oregon.
1. Luke Fahey Gave Ohio State Something to Build Around
Fahey’s final line—21 completions on 38 attempts for 260 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions—does not fully capture the difficulty of his assignment. He made his first start more than 2,000 miles from Columbus, in a sold-out Coliseum, replacing a quarterback who had thrown 19 touchdown passes in seven games. USC knew Ohio State would try to simplify the picture for him and spent the night changing its pressure and coverage looks accordingly.
Fahey did not appear overwhelmed. He completed passes to seven players, connected with Chris Henry Jr. for 39 yards and continued working through the offense even after USC built a double-digit lead. He did not give the Trojans an interception or the kind of reckless decision that often defines a freshman’s first road start. His two sacks were also an improvement from the four Ohio State surrendered at Indiana.
There are obvious areas to develop. Fahey completed only 55.3 percent of his attempts, and Ohio State did not produce enough explosive passes to force USC out of its preferred structure. Some throws arrived late or lacked the placement needed to create yards after the catch. The offense also went scoreless in the third quarter, when one touchdown could have changed the emotional direction of the game.
Still, the central quarterback question has changed. Ohio State no longer needs to wonder whether Fahey can operate the offense without Sayin. It needs to determine how quickly the staff can expand what he is being asked to do. A plan built entirely around protection will eventually become predictable. Fahey showed enough poise to earn more responsibility against Oregon, especially on early downs when the defense cannot treat every snap as an obvious pass.
Sayin’s absence still lowers Ohio State’s offensive ceiling, but Saturday demonstrated that it does not have to eliminate the Buckeyes from the championship conversation. Fahey was not a placeholder. He looked like a quarterback Ohio State can win with if the rest of the team plays to its standard.
2. Four Hundred Sixty-Four Yards Should Produce More Than 18 Points
Ohio State ran 81 plays, gained 25 first downs, rushed for 204 yards and possessed the ball for 39:28. Those numbers ordinarily describe a team controlling a game. Against USC, they produced four field goals, one late touchdown and a 12-point loss.
That gap between movement and scoring is the most frustrating part of the performance. The Buckeyes reached the USC 1-yard line before halftime and still settled for a 23-yard field goal. They crossed midfield repeatedly but struggled whenever the field shortened and USC no longer had to defend as much vertical space. Ohio State finished three of four red-zone trips with points, but only one ended in a touchdown—and that score came with 2:12 remaining.
Connor Hawkins deserves credit for making all four of his field-goal attempts, including a 47-yarder. He prevented empty possessions and gave Ohio State a mathematical path into the fourth quarter. The problem was that the offense repeatedly treated three points as the conclusion of a successful drive rather than evidence that a larger opportunity had been left unfinished.
This is where play calling, execution and discipline intersect. A penalty near the red zone is more damaging because there is less room to recover. A missed block does more than create second-and-long; it may remove the most useful portion of the play sheet. A conservative call can be understandable with a freshman quarterback, but repeatedly asking the defense to compensate for four-point losses eventually becomes unsustainable.
Ohio State outgained USC 464–338 and lost by 12. That should be the offensive staff’s most uncomfortable number this week. The Buckeyes do not need to create more empty yardage against Oregon. They need to turn the yardage they already know how to produce into touchdowns.
3. The Defense Cannot Live on Its Earlier Reputation
Ohio State’s defense entered the open week as the most dependable part of the team. It had held Indiana to 15 points, created the decisive fourth-quarter stop in Bloomington and repeatedly protected the offense from turnovers and stalled possessions. That trust was earned. USC exposed how quickly it can be lost.
The game began with Trent Mosley turning a short completion into a 69-yard touchdown on USC’s second snap. Later, Mark Bowman took a reception 70 yards after hurdling a defender and running through multiple tackle attempts. Those two plays accounted for 139 of USC’s 338 yards and supplied the field position behind 14 points. Remove them and the overall defensive totals look respectable. Football does not permit that removal.
The issue was not that USC methodically solved Matt Patricia’s defense. The Trojans possessed the ball for only 20:32, ran 50 plays and converted four of 10 third downs. The issue was that Ohio State allowed two isolated mistakes to become game-shaping explosions. The first created immediate belief inside the Coliseum. The second extended the lead to 27–9 just as the Buckeyes needed a defensive response.
Ohio State also failed to reproduce the pressure Wisconsin had generated against Jayden Maiava. The Badgers sacked him five times and intercepted him twice. The Buckeyes recorded one sack and did not force an interception. USC protected Maiava well enough for him to complete 15 passes for 222 yards, and his 9.7 yards per attempt reflected how damaging the successful throws became.
This does not mean the defense has suddenly become poor. It means the unit is no longer entitled to be described as championship caliber without demonstrating that level again. Tackling angles, leverage and communication must improve immediately because Oregon will arrive with enough speed to test the same vulnerabilities. The defense carried Ohio State through October. November will reveal whether that identity was permanent or temporary.
4. The Running Game Finally Arrived—Even If the Scoreboard Hid It
One of the few developments that should travel home from Los Angeles without qualification was the running game. Ohio State rushed 43 times for 204 yards, averaging 4.7 per attempt. Bo Jackson produced 121 yards on 21 carries, while Isaiah West added 65 yards on 13 attempts. Together, they gave Fahey the balance a first-time starter needed.
This was not inflated by one meaningless breakaway run. Jackson’s longest carry covered 28 yards, and West’s longest went for 18. The Buckeyes accumulated their total through repeated productive runs, better movement at the line of scrimmage and backs who consistently finished forward. After rushing for only 78 yards at Indiana, that improvement was significant.
The frustration is that none of Ohio State’s 43 rushing attempts reached the end zone. The Buckeyes could move between the 20s but could not convert their physical advantage into the short-yardage finish that changes a game. That is the next stage of the running game’s development. Two hundred yards are encouraging. A touchdown from the USC 1 would have been transformative.
The performance should still influence how Ohio State approaches Oregon. Fahey does not need the staff to hide him, but he does need an offense that can prevent defenses from attacking every passing situation. Jackson and West showed that Ohio State can divide the workload without losing effectiveness, and Fahey added 12 net rushing yards despite the two sacks. The Buckeyes now have evidence that a balanced offense is available to them.
They must resist allowing the final score to erase that progress. The correct lesson is not that running for 204 yards failed. It is that the rushing success must be connected to a better red-zone plan and cleaner execution.
5. Ohio State Can Still Reach Indianapolis, but Every Week Is Now an Elimination Game
The national reaction to the loss was severe. Ohio State fell nine positions to No. 11 in the AP poll, while USC returned at No. 18. The Buckeyes are now 6–2 overall with road losses to Texas and USC, and Tuesday’s first College Football Playoff rankings will reveal how heavily the committee values the win at Indiana against the inconsistency that followed it.
The important distinction is that Ohio State’s Big Ten path remains open. UCLA leads the conference at 5–0, Indiana is 5–1 and Ohio State is 4–1. If the Buckeyes win their remaining conference games against Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan, they will finish 8–1. Indiana can also finish 8–1, but Ohio State owns the head-to-head victory. USC already has two conference losses, and every other Big Ten team has at least two. Winning out would therefore put the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game.
That is the opportunity. The danger is that Ohio State has exhausted every reasonable form of protection around it. A third loss would likely end any at-large playoff argument and could remove the Buckeyes from the conference race. There is no longer a scenario in which Ohio State can shrug off an uneven performance because September and October built enough cushion.
The first test is Oregon, which comes to Ohio Stadium at 4–3 after an open week. The Ducks are no longer the top-five opponent anticipated during the preseason, and they fell out of the AP poll after losing 21–10 at Illinois. None of that makes the game unimportant. Oregon has spent two weeks preparing for Ohio State, while the Buckeyes must recover emotionally and correct problems that appeared on both sides of the ball.
Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. kickoff will be Scarlet the Shoe, but the larger color surrounding the game is urgency. Ohio State does not need help to save its Big Ten season. It needs four straight wins and a better version of itself.
What Ohio State Must Fix Before Oregon
The correction list is not mysterious. Ohio State must reduce the 11 penalties that surrendered 71 yards and repeatedly disrupted otherwise productive possessions. The offense must turn red-zone opportunities into touchdowns rather than asking Hawkins to carry the scoring. The defense must eliminate explosive plays, improve its tackling and generate more than one sack against an opponent forced into obvious passing situations.
Most importantly, the Buckeyes must respond like a team that understands the season is still available. The worst reaction would be panic—a desperate quarterback change, an abandonment of the running game or wholesale defensive reinvention. The second-worst reaction would be denial. USC did not steal the game. It exploited problems Ohio State has been carrying for weeks.
The answer sits between those extremes. Preserve what worked, particularly Fahey’s composure and the running-back rotation, while confronting the details that made 464 yards feel empty.
The Bottom Line
Ohio State’s season did not end in Los Angeles. Its benefit of the doubt did.
Fahey played well enough to establish that the Buckeyes can remain functional without Sayin. Jackson and West gave the offense its best rushing performance in weeks. Smith caught his 40th career touchdown and became the Big Ten’s outright record holder. Those are meaningful developments, not consolation prizes.
They also cannot obscure what the scoreboard said. Ohio State lost by 12 to a team that had scored seven points one week earlier. It committed 11 penalties, settled for four field goals and allowed USC’s two biggest plays of the night to become the difference. A team with championship goals cannot keep placing itself in situations where one mistake becomes fatal.
The first playoff rankings will tell Ohio State how the committee views its résumé. The Oregon game will tell us much more about how the Buckeyes view themselves.
There are four regular-season games left. Win all four, and Ohio State will play for the Big Ten championship with a chance to repair almost everything that went wrong in September and October. Lose again, and the conversation shifts from what this team can still win to why it never became what it was expected to be.
The margin is gone. The season is not.
Next Up
- Matchup: No. 11 Ohio State vs. Oregon
- Date: Saturday, November 7, 2026
- Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio
- Television: CBS
- Promotion: Scarlet the Shoe
- Records: Ohio State 6–2 (4–1 Big Ten); Oregon 4–3 (2–2 Big Ten)