Ryan Day Says Ohio State Has To “Clean Some Things Up” After Nine-Point Win At Nebraska

The Buckeyes had just 90 rushing yards and two turnovers against the Cornhuskers on Saturday afternoon..

Author:
Andrew Lind
Nov 6, 2021 6:48 PM EDT

For the second week in a row, Ohio State found itself needing a field goal late to seal a nine-point win over a Big Ten opponent. But while Buckeyes got credit for their hard-fought victory against Penn State last weekend, Saturday’s game at Nebraska probably won’t get the same response given the Cornhuskers’ 3-7 record on the season.

That said, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day noted earlier this week that Nebraska was better than its record would indicate, with their six previous losses all coming by eight points or less. He then reiterated that point during his postgame press conference.

“I think it’s great to see our guys win like this,” Day said. “When you play nine conference games and your other game is Oregon, you have to bring it week in and week out. We have a young team and we have to learn that it’s every single week that you (have to) show up. It’s hard to win in this conference. It’s hard to win on the road. Coming off an emotional game (against Penn State) and a late game two weeks in a row with an 11 a.m. kick, we knew it was going to be a challenge. We knew it.

“Certainly too many penalties on offense, just shooting ourselves in the foot across the board. We’re going to watch (the film) a think, ‘Boy, we could have won by three touchdowns or more if we clean some things up.’ But this is a good team. They’re a good defense. We knew that coming in. I said that and I believe it, so it’s great to get wins on the road. (It’s) not easy to do.”

Coming into Saturday, Ohio State led the nation in points and yards per game. But the offense could only muster three second-half field goals against Nebraska, including the 46-yarder by kicker Noah Ruggles with 1:29 left in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

“I think we can do a better job with the runs. Right now, we’re not getting as much as we’d like on it,” Day said. "We’ll go back and figure that out, but when they blitz a lot, there’s going to be an extra guy in the box and opportunities for the pass game, which I thought we did a good job of, we just got out of whack with a couple penalties, a sack and a couple things in there that were big plays that got us off schedule, which happened a little bit last week, too.

“I think we’re moving the ball, we’re just not clean in some areas. Anytime you’re talking about this after a nine-point win on the road, that’s a good thing. We’re playing really well on defense, stopping the run against a good team that took Michigan State to overtime, they had The Team Up North beat, they played well against Oklahoma. This is a good quality team. We knew that coming in and have a lot of respect for those guys.”

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