Ohio State’s 41–28 loss to Oregon did more than add a third defeat to the résumé. It turned a promising 14–0 start into another lesson about how quickly this team can lose control of a game. Luke Fahey continued to grow, Jeremiah Smith moved within reach of another Big Ten record and the Buckeyes finally finished every red-zone trip with a touchdown. Those positives were real. So were the 38 unanswered Oregon points, four failed fourth downs and a running game that disappeared one week after appearing fixed. With Northwestern coming to Columbus and the postseason margin nearly gone, Ohio State has three regular-season games left to show what kind of team it still intends to be.

For one quarter Saturday afternoon, Ohio State looked like a team that had taken the USC loss personally.

The Buckeyes opened with an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, forced Oregon to punt and then traveled 82 yards in four plays for another score. Bo Jackson finished both possessions with touchdown runs. Ohio State led 14–0, had outgained Oregon 174–61 and appeared to have found the response everyone wanted after the disappointment in Los Angeles.

Then the game changed so completely that the opening quarter felt like it belonged to another Saturday.

Oregon scored the next 38 points. The Ducks turned a fake punt into a touchdown at the end of the first half, opened the third quarter with a 48-yard Dierre Hill Jr. touchdown run and repeatedly forced Ohio State into the kind of fourth-down decisions that become heavier with every failed attempt. By the time Luke Fahey found Jeremiah Smith for Ohio State’s first second-half score, 3:25 remained and Oregon had controlled the game for more than two quarters.

The 41–28 final was Ohio State’s second consecutive loss and its third of the season. The Buckeyes are 6–3 overall, 4–2 in the Big Ten and No. 21 in the latest AP poll, their lowest AP ranking since 2014. They are still mathematically involved in the Big Ten race and still possess a résumé that includes road wins over No. 6 Indiana and No. 16 Iowa, but the conversation is no longer about controlling a path. It is about winning the final three games and hoping the rest of the country leaves enough room for a three-loss team with quality victories.

That is a much different place than Ohio State expected to occupy in November. Here are six Monday Musings as the Buckeyes turn from Oregon toward Northwestern.

1. A 14–0 Lead Became Another Test Ohio State Could Not Finish

The first quarter deserves to be remembered accurately because it was not fool’s gold. Ohio State was physical, efficient and aggressive. The opening drive mixed the run and pass, converted third downs and ended with Jackson scoring from 16 yards. The second touchdown drive required only four plays because the Buckeyes created the explosive offense that had been missing at USC. Jackson’s eight-yard touchdown made it 14–0 with 1:20 left in the quarter.

That was genuine improvement. Ohio State did not carry the hangover from Los Angeles into the opening kick, and the offense did not need a full half to establish confidence with Fahey. The Buckeyes also went 4-for-4 in the red zone with four touchdowns after turning three red-zone scoring opportunities into only one touchdown at USC. They committed seven penalties for 40 yards after being flagged 11 times for 71 yards the previous week. Those are real corrections, and they should not be erased simply because the rest of the afternoon went badly.

The problem is that Ohio State’s progress continues to appear in pieces rather than as a complete performance. Oregon responded to the two-touchdown deficit with a 12-play field-goal drive, then scored a touchdown with 1:25 left in the half. The Buckeyes still had an opportunity to reach halftime with a lead, but a fake punt extended Oregon’s final possession and Jamari Johnson scored from two yards on the last play of the half. Ohio State went from leading 14–3 to trailing 17–14 in the final 85 seconds.

That sequence was followed by another failure at the most important moment. Oregon took the second-half kickoff 75 yards in five plays, with Hill breaking the 48-yard touchdown that made it 24–14. A game Ohio State had controlled became a two-score deficit before the offense had taken a third-quarter snap.

This season’s concern is no longer whether Ohio State can play championship-level football. We have seen it in the road win at Iowa, in the defensive finish at Indiana and during Saturday’s first quarter. The concern is whether the Buckeyes can hold that level when the opponent answers. Texas erased a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit. USC turned Ohio State’s empty possessions into a double-digit lead. Oregon absorbed a 14-point punch and scored 38 unanswered.

Good teams create stretches of dominance. Championship teams keep the next bad stretch from swallowing the game. Ohio State has not done that often enough.

2. Luke Fahey’s Growth Is Real, but 360 Yards Tell Only Part of the Story

Fahey completed 36 of 50 passes for 360 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in his second career start. He distributed the ball, remained willing to attack after Ohio State fell behind and helped direct two touchdown drives while the game plan was still functioning. He also gave Smith opportunities downfield rather than relying exclusively on the short throws that defined portions of his first start.

There is meaningful growth between the freshman who completed 55.3 percent of his throws at USC and the quarterback who completed 72 percent against Oregon. Fahey looked more comfortable identifying pressure, worked through more of the passing game and helped Ohio State finish with 413 total yards. Devin McCuin’s season-high nine catches for 84 yards were especially important because they showed the offense can develop a dependable answer beyond Smith. A young quarterback needs that kind of second option when defenses tilt coverage toward the best receiver in the country.

Still, this is where the final line can hide as much as it reveals. Ohio State gained 165 yards and scored both of its second-half touchdowns after Oregon had built a 38–14 lead. The final touchdown came with 44 seconds remaining, on a two-play, 72-yard drive that did not affect the outcome. Those snaps matter for Fahey’s development, but they should not be used to argue that Ohio State consistently solved Oregon’s defense.

The most important possessions came when the score was still 17–14, 24–14 and 31–14. Ohio State did not score on any of them. A snap sailed over Fahey’s head early in the third quarter, the Buckeyes failed to convert manageable fourth downs and his interception eventually gave Oregon a 13-yard field before the touchdown that made it 38–14. Fahey was not solely responsible for the collapse, but he also was not as dominant as 360 passing yards might suggest.

That distinction matters because Julian Sayin is not expected back soon. Ryan Day said last week that Sayin’s throwing-arm injury is healing, but also made clear the recovery would take time rather than days. Fahey is not merely keeping the offense warm for the next series. This is his team for the foreseeable future, and the staff has to evaluate him by the moments that decide games rather than by the yards accumulated after they have been decided.

Fahey has shown enough to win with. Ohio State now has to help him become better on the third-and-fourth-down snaps that determine whether a productive drive becomes seven points, three points or nothing.

3. The Red-Zone Problem Improved, but the Situational-Offense Problem Did Not

One of the clearest frustrations after USC was Ohio State’s inability to turn movement into touchdowns. The Buckeyes produced 464 yards in Los Angeles, possessed the ball for nearly 40 minutes and still settled for four field goals. That made Saturday’s red-zone efficiency worth noting: Ohio State entered Oregon territory four times deeply enough to be credited with a red-zone opportunity and scored a touchdown on all four trips.

Jackson’s two early touchdown runs were exactly the kind of finishes that had been missing. Smith’s 13-yard score and Nate Roberts’ 15-yard touchdown came late, but both required execution in a compressed field. Ohio State did not ask Connor Hawkins to rescue stalled drives with short field goals. In isolation, that is progress.

The larger situational picture, however, was worse. Ohio State went 0-for-4 on fourth down. Oregon went 1-for-1, and its lone conversion came on the fake punt that changed the end of the first half. The Buckeyes also converted only six of 14 third downs while Oregon converted eight of 17. A team can be perfect in the red zone and still lose the situational battle if it repeatedly fails before getting there.

That is what happened Saturday. Ohio State had enough offense to reach fourth-and-manageable situations but not enough control at the line of scrimmage to convert them. Once Oregon took the lead, every failed attempt created a shorter field, increased the pressure on Fahey and left the defense with less room to recover. Ryan Day acknowledged afterward that the lost possessions at the end of the first half and the start of the third changed the game. The fourth-down numbers show how long that damage continued.

The lesson moving forward is not that Ohio State should become automatically conservative. Punting every time would not have solved a game in which Oregon scored on six straight possessions. The lesson is that the offense must earn better choices. A reliable run on third-and-short, a cleaner snap or a completion that stays on schedule can keep the fourth-down decision from becoming desperate.

Northwestern just experienced the other side of this problem. In its 24–10 loss to Iowa, the Wildcats went 1-for-11 on third down and 1-for-4 on fourth down. Ohio State should have an advantage against an offense that struggled badly to stay on the field. But after Saturday, the Buckeyes cannot assume situational football will fix itself merely because the opponent has the same concern.

4. The Running Game Did Not Build on USC—and That May Be the Most Disappointing Regression

The most encouraging development in the USC loss was Ohio State’s 204 rushing yards. Jackson ran for 121, Isaiah West added 65 and the Buckeyes repeatedly generated positive gains without relying on one long run. Even though that production did not result in a rushing touchdown, it appeared to give Ohio State a sustainable identity for Fahey’s starts.

One week later, the Buckeyes rushed for 53 net yards on 21 attempts against Oregon. Jackson scored twice but finished with 48 yards on 11 carries. Fahey lost yardage on sacks and the bad snap, yet the broader issue cannot be explained away by negative quarterback plays. Ohio State called fewer runs as the deficit grew, did not consistently win short yardage and never gave Oregon a reason to stop attacking the passing game.

The frustrating part is that the opening quarter showed the plan could work. Ohio State’s first two drives paired Jackson’s decisiveness with enough perimeter stress to keep Oregon from crowding the box. Once the Ducks adjusted, the Buckeyes lost that balance. The offense went from 174 yards in the first quarter to 74 combined yards in the second and third quarters. By the fourth, Ohio State was throwing on nearly every meaningful snap because the score demanded it.

This is why the USC performance cannot yet be called a permanent correction. It was evidence that the line and backs are capable of producing a good rushing day, but not proof that Ohio State has built a dependable running identity. The best version of the offense with Fahey cannot require him to throw 50 times. It has to keep him out of repeated third-and-long situations, preserve the play-action game and create a way to close possessions without exposing a freshman quarterback to every pressure look on the call sheet.

Northwestern’s defense will challenge that priority. Linebacker Braydon Brus has 75 tackles and 13.5 tackles for loss through nine games, while safety Robert Fitzgerald returned against Iowa and intercepted a pass for the third consecutive start. The Wildcats are disciplined enough to punish Ohio State if it abandons the run and asks Fahey to win every snap from obvious passing situations.

The rushing total against Northwestern matters, but the distribution will matter more. Ohio State needs a running game that exists after the scripted opening series, on third-and-two and when protecting a second-half lead. Saturday’s first quarter showed the possibility. The next three quarters showed how quickly it can disappear.

5. The Defense and Special Teams Could Not Stop the Avalanche

Oregon finished with 395 total yards, only 18 fewer than Ohio State. Dylan Raiola threw for 257 yards, the Ducks rushed for 108 and Ohio State recorded nine tackles for loss. Those are not the numbers of a defense that was physically overwhelmed on every snap.

They are also not enough to explain away 41 points.

The fake punt was the first major breakdown. Ohio State had Oregon in a position to give the ball back before halftime and instead allowed the Ducks to extend a drive that ended in the end zone. Hill’s 48-yard touchdown on the first possession of the third quarter was the second. Later, Oregon needed only six plays to cover 42 yards after a failed Ohio State fourth down, then drove 13 yards after Fahey’s interception for the touchdown that made it 38–14.

This was a complementary-football collapse in the worst sense. The offense and special teams repeatedly shortened the field, but the defense did not force Oregon to settle. The Ducks finished 6-for-6 in the red zone with five touchdowns and two field goals overall. Ohio State did not record a sack, and Raiola avoided the negative play that might have interrupted one of Oregon’s six consecutive scoring possessions.

The same concern carried forward from USC in a different form. In Los Angeles, two explosive completions accounted for 139 yards and two touchdowns. Against Oregon, the damage was spread across the fake punt, the long touchdown run, short fields and an inability to get off the field. The Buckeyes have now allowed 71 points in two weeks after surrendering only 94 across their first seven games.

That does not mean the defense that won games earlier in the season has disappeared. It does mean October’s reputation no longer earns automatic trust. Ohio State must recover the communication, tackling and situational toughness that made Matt Patricia’s unit the most stable part of the team. Northwestern offers an opportunity because the Wildcats scored only 10 points against Iowa and may again be without starting quarterback Aidan Chiles. It also presents a warning: if Ohio State gives a struggling offense short fields and extra possessions, it will be repeating the exact formula that allowed Oregon to take control.

The best response Saturday would not be a handful of spectacular sacks. It would be a complete afternoon without the one special-teams mistake, one explosive run or one sudden scoring burst that changes the emotional temperature of the game.

6. Jeremiah Smith Is Closing In on History While Ohio State Fights to Preserve Its Season

Smith caught seven passes for 133 yards and a touchdown against Oregon. The touchdown was the 41st of his career, tying the record for the most receiving touchdowns by any player through his first three college seasons. He also reached 232 career receptions, tied for sixth in Big Ten history, and moved within 31 yards of becoming the conference’s career receiving-yards leader.

Those milestones are extraordinary even if the losses have made them harder to celebrate. Smith has spent much of the season breaking records while Ohio State has spent much of the season searching for consistency around him. He became the Big Ten’s career leader in touchdown catches at USC, then produced his first 100-yard game with Fahey against Oregon. The quarterback changed, the offensive structure changed and the opponent devoted extra coverage to him. Smith continued producing anyway.

He should have an opportunity to claim the Big Ten yardage record against Northwestern, but the pursuit cannot become forced. Fitzgerald’s three interceptions in his last three starts are a reminder that the Wildcats can take advantage when a quarterback decides where the ball is going before the snap. Ohio State needs to create Smith’s touches through formation, motion and favorable matchups, while continuing the progress McCuin showed Saturday.

The larger historical context is uncomfortable but important. Smith is approaching records that will define his career, while this Ohio State team is three games from determining how its season will be remembered. The Buckeyes fell from No. 11 to No. 21 in the AP poll after the Oregon loss. They were No. 12 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, but the next ranking arrives Tuesday and will reflect a third loss. UCLA leads the Big Ten at 6–0, Indiana is 5–1 and Ohio State is one of six teams sitting at 4–2.

The Buckeyes no longer control a straightforward route to Indianapolis. Winning out would get them to 7–2 in league play, but they would still need UCLA and Indiana to lose and would likely need help sorting through a crowded group of two-loss teams. The at-large playoff argument is similarly narrow. A 9–3 Ohio State team would own road victories over currently ranked Indiana and Iowa, and all three losses came against teams ranked in Sunday’s AP poll: No. 8 Texas, No. 15 USC and No. 18 Oregon. That is a better résumé than a simple loss total suggests. It is not a résumé guaranteed to receive a playoff invitation.

So the focus has to become smaller. Beat Northwestern. Win at Nebraska. Finish against Michigan. Let the standings and committee decide what those three wins are worth.

There is no useful scenario that begins with Ohio State losing a fourth game.

What I’ll Be Watching

Whether Ohio State can play beyond the opening script. The first quarter against Oregon was excellent. The next two were scoreless. The Buckeyes need an offense that can adjust after Northwestern changes its coverage and run fits, not one that peaks during the first 15 calls.

The quarterback availability reports. Sayin remains unavailable, while Chiles missed Northwestern’s loss to Iowa with an injury. Nicco Marchiol completed 24 of 32 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown in his first Wildcats start and led the team with 52 rushing yards. Until Northwestern provides a firmer update, Ohio State has to prepare for both quarterbacks.

The run game on money downs. Ohio State does not need 200 rushing yards for the total alone. It needs Jackson and the offensive line to convert third-and-short, keep Fahey out of 50-pass territory and sustain the offense after halftime.

Explosive-play prevention and special-teams discipline. Northwestern receiver Griffin Wilde has 49 catches for 813 yards and five touchdowns. He posted consecutive 100-yard games before Iowa, including 146 yards and a touchdown at Oregon. Ohio State cannot allow one coverage error or one special-teams gamble to give the Wildcats belief.

How the Buckeyes handle the emotional weight. A third loss changes the goals but does not erase the responsibility to finish. Ohio State needs urgency without panic and confidence without pretending the last two weeks did not happen.

Early Prediction

Ohio State 30, Northwestern 16

Northwestern is not a ceremonial homecoming opponent. The Wildcats are 6–3, own a 34–13 win over Penn State and were competitive at Indiana and Oregon. Their defense has enough experience to make Fahey work, and Wilde can punish the secondary if Ohio State loses leverage.

But Northwestern has lost two straight, struggled badly on third and fourth down against Iowa and may be starting its backup quarterback in Ohio Stadium. Ohio State should have the better roster, the stronger receiving corps and every emotional reason to play with purpose.

The measured concern is that the Buckeyes have not earned a prediction built around four clean quarters. Northwestern can keep this uncomfortable into the second half if Ohio State again loses the run game or gives away field position. I expect the Buckeyes to respond, establish Jackson more consistently and use a defensive takeaway to create separation, but this team’s recent form makes a dominant score difficult to assume.

The Bottom Line

Ohio State did improve some of the things that failed at USC. The Buckeyes scored touchdowns on every red-zone possession, reduced the penalties and received a better passing performance from Fahey. Those developments are worth preserving.

They are not the main story of a 41–28 loss.

The main story is that Ohio State led 14–0 and then allowed 38 unanswered points. It failed on four fourth downs, rushed for 53 yards and went scoreless for more than 42 minutes of game time. The Buckeyes once again showed what they could be, then spent too much of the afternoon showing why they are 6–3.

There are still meaningful things to play for. Smith is approaching Big Ten history. The Michigan game remains at the end of the schedule. A 9–3 finish would force the playoff committee to compare Ohio State’s victories and strength of schedule against every other at-large contender. Enough chaos could even keep the Big Ten Championship door from closing completely.

But the season no longer needs grand declarations. It needs three wins.

Northwestern is first. After the last two weeks, that should be more than enough to command Ohio State’s full attention.

Game Information

● Matchup: No. 21 Ohio State vs. Northwestern

● Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026

● Kickoff: Noon ET

● Location: Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio

● Television: FOX

● Records: Ohio State 6–3 (4–2 Big Ten); Northwestern 6–3 (3–3 Big Ten)

● Series: Ohio State leads 66–14–1 and has won 11 consecutive meetings

● Last meeting: Ohio State 31, Northwestern 7 — November 16, 2024, at Wrigley Field

Photo Credit: USAToday