Ryan Day on Chaos Before Halftime: "It Was Completely Mismanaged"

Ohio State appeared to have a 21-3 lead at halftime, but they were called out of the locker room to defend one more play before the break. Penn State kicked a 50-yard field goal to make the halftime score 21-6.

The Buckeyes dominated Penn State in the first half on Saturday night. Penn State had only 75 yards of offense, quarterback Sean Clifford was under constant pressure and the Buckeyes had a comfortable 21-3 lead after Justin Fields threw a second passing touchdown of the night with less than three minutes left in the half.

The half was over ... until it apparently wasn't.

On a fourth-and-one from their own 36-yard line and with two seconds left in the half, Justin Fields snapped the ball, looked at the clock and took a couple steps backwards and took a knee to close the half. 

Both teams jogged off the field and headed into their respective locker rooms. Ryan Day was in the middle of taping a halftime interview with ABC's sideline reporter Maria Taylor and the broadcast had already dipped into commercial break. All of a sudden, the referee came over to him and told Day that the replay booth buzzed down to the officials and said there was still one second remaining in the half. Ohio State's entire team was already in the locker room, but the defense needed to come back out on the field.

While this normally wouldn't be a big deal, the kneel on fourth down meant a turnover on downs for the Scarlet and Gray from their own 36 yard line and it gave Penn State a chance to hit a 50-yard field goal with one second on the clock. Jordan Stout took advantage and buried a perfect kick, making the score 21-6 going into half.

"Probably the most bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced," the head coach said. "There was two seconds on the clock, we took a long knee. We probably took four seconds off the clock. So it was completely mismanaged. I don’t know what to say. I’d rather not get into it. We’ll figure it out later."

When the broadcast showed a replay with the play clock and game clock over-layed on the screen, two things were apparent. First, there was one second remaining when Fields' knee actually hit the turf. Second, and more importantly, the clock didn't start when the Buckeyes snapped the football. The play clock had elapsed two seconds, but the game clock inexplicably only elapsed one second, apparently leaving time for another down.

Feel free to start the play clock whenever it's convenient, Beaver Stadium pic.twitter.com/wol7NxRza0

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 1, 2020

"Once it happened, we just had to move on and put it behind us; there was nothing we could do at that point," Day continued. "But it’s two seconds on the clock, we take the snap and Justin waits, waits, waits, waits, waits and then takes a knee. I don’t know how that took one second. I still don’t know. They said it came down from replay and that’s all I know.

"So I don’t know what to say. It’s obviously extremely frustrating, but another thing that we just overcame. If it were four seconds left, we probably would have either just punted it or used the quarterback to get more time. But it was only two seconds. I don’t know how that’s even physically possible. But anyway, we’ll move on and deal with it tomorrow."

Thankfully, it didn't come back to hurt the Buckeyes too badly, although it made for an interesting start to the second half. Penn State got the ball first to begin the half and they marched right down the field to score and make it a 21-13 ballgame. But they never got closer than that margin the rest of the way.

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