I'll take a shot. We were not winning the game if we scored at the end because we would have kicked the extra point, and Chip Kelley is the OC for the other team. I had forgotten how good he was. He outcoached our team by himself. Yes, this D was championship level, but picked the very worst time to give up a 75. yard TD. We had 0 room for error, because we were playing a team as good as us. It felt to me that not only were they equally talented as us, but that their QB was getting incredibly lucky throwing into double coverages the first half.
2nd half, when his luck wore out, the refs bailed him out by not calling holding, at least that one third down. And kudos to the commentators, they realized Howard had not run any in the game and actually predicted he would run on that very important down, either a 3rd or 4th down.
Our OL? Were they injured? worn out? Or was OhioSt. just better?
About the fourth and goal. I flashed back to GD, because GD would have used any QB as a battering ram to get that last yard. Never forget how he called two or three strait QB sneaks for Colt to get that last yard against kState, and that was with an inferior OL. I don't know anything, but I always felt like the Arch package had to have some passing in it, maybe a jump pass or something.
I missed last year's game against Washington, on a flight to Alaska, so this is what it feels like, huh?
I kept getting the same feeling, we need a break.
Seriously, we just needed the 1983 defense to magically appear and return an interception. I keep repeating myself, but this team wasting this D is not the worst example. The 1983 D was so good, it outscored the offense in a game against TCU. The D scored two TDs and the O scored one TD. That team was the #1 D in the country and we lost the NC game by one point, 10-9.
Plug in an int returned for a TD and this game is different.
Overall, I would much rather be in this situation than before. With NIL we will get the players. Our exposure will be great because we should be in the playoffs every year. It may all come down to coaching. It did last night.