I’m with you on this. Like obviously there were some issues but I don’t think all hope is lost. One thing that is not getting enough consideration is the two short fields fhat Oregon were gifted with the Judkins fumble and flukey squib/onside. Thats a tough spot to put your defense in and the Ducks got 10 points from those short fields. 
 

By contrast, the OSU offense’s best starting position all game was fheir own 26 yard line. 

Those Vegas nerds are very good at what they do. Not 100% perfect (no one is) but they’re the best in the business precisely because to them it is a business. 
 

Let me ask….how many other teams do you watch aside from Ohio State? Well Vegas watches every single one and breaks down their performances from a statistical/analytical perspective. 
 

Point being, yes Ohio State has some issues. Every single other team has issues too. 

Dropping a DL got us a pick 6 against Alabama

People are just looking for rage-bait at this point. What a coach says to the media doesnt affect the team and they use coach-speak anyway. 
 

What he says to the team and the adjustments behind closed doors is far more important. 

Here’s Urban after we got blown out by Purdue which ended up costing us the playoffs:

Q: Obviously some of the issues that flared up tonight we've seen in the past. How surprised are you by this performance?

URBAN MEYER: Very surprised. I thought we had a good week of work. The glaring shortcomings we have were exposed. The number one off the top of my head is our red zone offense. You go down there three times, two field goals and one missed field goal, you’ve gotta score points. We’ve never had this issue. So we’re going to get a real thorough evaluation of that. And the big plays on defense.

Q: The problems are easy to see?

URBAN MEYER: We have good players, good coaches and we’re going to get to work. We lost a game last year and came right back. So we have good guys and we’re going to work our you-know-whats off and get this thing right.

Q: Is there a sense that some things need to be sort of blown up in the next two weeks by you guys or some things that need some drastic change?

URBAN MEYER: I don’t know if it’s blown up. Once again, we’re 7-1 and we’ve got a chance to be 8-1. That’s the only focus. But there’s some serious shortcomings right now we’ve got to get fixed.

https://247sports.com/college/ohio-state/Article/Ohio-State-Buckeyes-football-coach-Urban-Meyer-answers-questions-after-loss-at-Purdue-123606875/

I agree the overall trend isnt good and I have my doubts about him. But I also think Day has had a really weird mix of mistakes and some real bad luck. Like if we all agree that Michigan ran a 3 year cheating scheme for a competitive advantage, then how do you count those losses against him? 

As far as my comment goes - people tend to use numbers to support their narrative which is peculiar in this case because rankings are inherently subjective. There’s hardly much difference between a #5 team and an 8th ranked team for example. Rankings are just a general guide and they should be looked at that way. 
 

Like do I think Penn State is the 3rd best team in the country? No. But I do think they’re somewhere around a top 10 squad and beating them at home isnt easy. So if Day pulls it off, he should get credit for it. Top 5, Top 10 - eh, not much difference.

That doesnt mean I dont have real concerns about him. I definitely do. But he has shown growth over these 6 years that lead me to believe he can get it done. He’s not Lincoln Riley. 

A game is "top 5" when it supports your narrative according to most on this site. 

If we beat #3 Penn State on the road this year, I guarantee you many on this site will discount it. 

28/35 for 326 yards 3TDs and 0 INTs on the road against the #3 team is not a game manager.

Its a fair point on Coop inheriting a worse program. Although Day helped build the program as OC before he took over but yes, it wasnt the same situation. 
 

So lets give Coop a pass for the first few years…..I dont know why you stopped counting the games after 1998. They certainly count in this discussion. The program massively dropped off on his watch and that hasnt happened under Day. Coop also had a weaker Big Ten and less games on the schedule each year.

(I’m only discussing regular season for the comparison since there was no playoff then)

Matchups are everything in football. This is a bad take. 
 

Offense played well enough to win - not perfect by any means - but good enough to win. Our BEST starting field position was the 26 yard line. They still managed to put up 467 yards and 31 points. Meanwhile Oregon had multiple short fields to work with. 
 

Defense needed 1 or 2 more stops and didnt get it. 

Give me an example where they had a chance to “bury” Oregon and Day was timid? They were up 7-0 and had the ball and then Judkins fumbled. They were up 28-22 with the ball, and on 3rd down, Howard dropped the snap. 
 

They converted two fourth downs in the game and were playing aggressively on the last drive to get into reasonable field goal distance. 
 

You could argue that defensively they could’ve blitzed or stunted more when the front 4 wasnt getting pressure. But at least offensively, this wasn’t a team that had a chance for a knockout blow and Day played scared. 

Yeah there was definitely a difference in Meyer before and after the title. Definitely appreciate what he did to get the natty in 2014 obviously but people have rose colored glasses when it comes to his tenure, particularly with 2015-2018.

People also need to recognize the B1G was weaker then. His typical end of season challenge was beating a bad or mediocre Michigan team and then a mediocre B1G West team in Indy. Day will have to play an elite Oregon team twice this year (hopefully) just to make it out of the B1G. 

My man, if OPI isnt called and we kick the field goal, Lanning is getting torched right now for not taking points near the goal line and for the extra point failures. And we’re hearing about “how could Oregon’s defense give up 470 yards at home?”  
 

That doesnt mean Day/staff didnt have mistakes but it wasnt some big disparity

Theres something to be said for always being in the mix and people really shouldnt take it for granted. We were incredibly fortunate to go from Tressel to Meyer. A new coach isnt a guarantee that they will keep the train going just because we are Ohio State. 
 

People keep bringing up Cooper but he didnt have anywhere near the consistent success that Day has had. In his tenure, here’s how many games Cooper lost each season : 6, 4, 4, 3, 1, 4, 2, 1, 3, 1, 6, 4. 
 

That doesnt mean Day cant be criticized of course. There are obviously things needing to be tweaked to get over the hump. But he has shown the ability to grow and fix problems: fired Coombs midseason then went and got the best DC on the market, gave up play calling, brought in Chip Kelly, improved the OL and run game, red zone efficiency is now fantastic etc. 

While the loss naturally put some doubt in my head, this team still has all the pieces to get the job done and theres a lot of football left to play.
 

While I remain cautiously optimistic with Day, a 9-3 season with another loss to Michigan is an absolute catastrophic scenario with this roster and I would easily move to the “fire Day” camp. 
 

Edit to add: I dont think this scenario will play out. But I guess we’ll see

I dont think any team is going undefeated. 

Yeah, It hasnt been discussed much but going uptempo against us was effective. There were many plays where our DL wasn’t even set when the ball was snapped. 
 

Its something other teams might use against us in the future. 

I partially agree with you but looking forward, we have to generate some pass rush to beat playoff teams. What do you think Ewers will do to us if he has all day to throw?

This is exactly right. And to win the conference, you won’t be playing some mediocre B1G West team in Indy either. 

I appreciate what Urban did but the reality is that the B1G was weaker and those Michigan teams werent as good as what Day has faced. You will no longer be playing a mediocre B1G West team in Indy.  Doesnt take away his accomplishments but its a fact.

Day still needs to get the job done but with these super conferences and the 12 team playoff, its not going to look like it used to. Teams are going to take more regular season losses. Its essentially NFL-lite now. 
 

I dont know if Day will get the job done this year but he still can. We still control our own destiny.

Defense was overhyped for sure but they’re not terrible. There’s no way you’re going to hold elite offensive teams to 200 yards in a game. 500 is too much for sure but elite teams are gonna move the ball and score some points in today’s game. We put up 467 yards on them, does that make Oregon’s D terrible?

For me it all comes down to getting pressure from the front 4. That will solve a lot of problems but its been a consistent issue with this group. 

Under the old system, I’d be a lot more upset about this loss. But nothing has changed as far as attaining the season’s goals, except for our margin of error. If we rematch in Indy, this first game becomes meaningless.

But that does mean we have to take care of business in the weeks ahead. Nebraska is a decent team, Happy Valley is a hard place to play, Indiana has a potent offense and The Game is still The Game. 
 

This team can do it. We’ll see what happens. 

Many of us, including myself underrated Oregon. Before the game, I didnt think they were a national title contender - I thought they were a good Top 10 team. I was wrong on that, they are elite. They are legit on the OL/DL, have playmakers at the skill positions and a good, experienced QB.

Lanning has done a good job of building their team.

Yeah, out of all of it, the DL is the biggest issue to me. We can adjust our scheme to get help over the top, and you’d like to think Burke doesnt play that badly again…but I’m not sure what to do with this DL. Sawyer and JT have been here for 4 years. They are what they are at this point. 

I’m not a defensive coordinator so I don’t know what the answer is with that DL. 

Not happy about the loss obviously but we need to recognize that Oregon is an elite team. Many of us underestimated them a little bit.