The Ohio State football team huddles up during the Ohio State-Rutgers game on Nov. 7. Ohio State won 49-27. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
The first 30 minutes of the Ohio State-Rutgers game played out in a typical fashion, but the second half did not go as the Buckeyes had planned.
After jumping out to a 35-3 lead heading into the locker room, Ohio State struggled to match the dominant performance in the second half — losing the final two quarters 24-14. Although the Buckeyes flashed the consistent dominance of a great team in the first half, head coach Ryan Day said the play on each side of halftime was not the same.
“It is a tale of two halves,” Day said Saturday. “We didn’t close them out like we said. We had some other guys in the game, late in the game — and that kinda is what it is — but we really should have dominated in the first five or six minutes of the second half and then allow some of the other guys to get in the game — that didn’t happen.”
In the first half, Rutgers moved the ball for a total of 83 yards on 23 plays. The second half, however, saw the Scarlet Knights score four touchdowns and gain 290 yards on 52 plays.
Trick plays were the theme of the second half for Rutgers, who scored touchdowns with an offensive lineman and a cross-field lateral on a punt return.
Day said he has not seen a team call as many trick plays as Rutgers did Saturday.
“Especially the onside kicks, it was like a New York sidewalk — they were going back-and-forth and back-and-forth,” Day said. “I thought our team did a really good job of handling it.”
Although Day acknowledged missed tackles, he said the root of the problems in the second half can be traced back to before kickoff.
“We’ve got to practice better,” Day said. “If we want to be what we need to be, if we want to be a great team, it has to happen, especially, on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Graduate linebacker Tuf Borland, who finished the game with six tackles, said the team came out with a lot of energy in the first half, but they will need to watch film to correct mistakes in the final 30 minutes.
The three-time captain said that the failure to translate the play from the first half to the second half started with one person.
“I will be the first one to say it starts with me,” Borland said. “You’re up big at half, you come out and you just kinda took the foot off the gas, and that starts with me — that can’t happen.”
The issues extended beyond the defensive side, as the offense was only able to lead two scoring drives in the second half.
Junior quarterback Justin Fields said the offense has room to improve and that he did not expect to be on the field late in the game after the explosive start.
“I don’t think anyone did,” Fields said Saturday. “What we need to focus on is just playing the second half better and finish.”
Junior wide receiver Chris Olave caught two touchdowns in the game — including one in the second half.
Echoing the sentiment held by other Ohio State players, Olave said the correction to the second half is simple.
“We’ve just got to close out the game,” Olave said Saturday. “We came out at halftime 35-3. We’ve just got to put a cap on it and close it out.”
Day said the lead mixed with the lack of fans removed some of the early energy the team was playing with, but said the group needs to get better at sustaining that themselves.
Similar to the expectation that the team needs to carry over the play from the first half to the second half, Day said the backups need to pick up where the starters left off.
“Our expectation is when the second group gets in there, they pick it up from where the first team left off and we pull away in the second half,” Day said. “If that’s not happening, then we need to get that fixed, as well.”
