Will Howard Slid Too Late And Ran Out The Clock As Ohio State Lost To Oregon By 1

For the second time this college football season we were treated to a top-5 showdown that fully lived up to the hype. After Alabama and Georgia went back-and-forth in an instant classic two weeks ago, it was Ohio State and Oregon’s turn in Eugene, where the No. 3 Ducks escaped with a wild 32-31 win over the No. 2 Buckeyes.

The two teams traded leads throughout the game, as both offenses took turns showing off their incredible talent all over the field in what became a shootout. However, both defenses were able to come up with some key holds in the fourth quarter, as Oregon held Ohio State to a field goal that put them ahead 31-29 with six minutes to play, and the Buckeyes defense was able to get a goal line stand to force a field goal by the Ducks with 1:47 to go that made it 32-31.

That set the stage for Will Howard and Ohio State to take over needing just a field goal to win, and the Buckeyes worked it all the way down to the Oregon 28 with 28 seconds to play. At that point, Howard found freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith for what looked to be a big play, but Smith had pushed off to create separation and got hit with an offensive pass interference call that backed Ohio State up to the 43 and out of field goal range.

At that point, clock management issues began to create problems for the Buckeyes. They didn’t realize the clock would start on the ready to play after the PI call, and let almost 10 seconds melt off the clock. From there, Oregon got a 12-men on the field penalty that gave Ohio State five yards (but also wasn’t whistled at the snap meaning the Buckeyes lost time on the play), leaving them with six seconds and one timeout. On third down, Howard took off scrambling to get that yardage, but lost track of the clock and didn’t slide down until the clock had hit 0:00, keeping the Buckeyes from getting a game-winning field goal attempt.

It was a stunning final sequence in an absolutely wild game that featured big plays, tons of lead changes, and even a spitting ejection. For Howard and the Buckeyes, it was a painful way to suffer their first loss of the season, as the offense did almost everything it could in the game to win it but had a few crucial mistakes in the final 30 seconds, punctuated by Howard’s scramble that just took too much time.