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GLENDALE, Ariz. — The last mistake was the final nail in Ohio State’s coffin. There was too little time — 37 seconds — to atone for it.
But it wasn’t the only tough break that doomed the Buckeyes. Wide receiver Chris Olave cutting off his route, thinking quarterback Justin Fields was going to scramble to his left, was just the last one in Saturday night’s crushing, 29-23 Fiesta Bowl defeat to Clemson.
“It came down to the end, and I made a mistake,” said Olave, whose misread of Fields led to a Nolan Turner interception in the end zone.
Questionable calls also hurt the Buckeyes. There was the third-quarter Ohio State defensive touchdown that was negated following video review, safety Jordan Fuller’s fumble recovery and 29-yard return for a score ruled an incomplete pass. It looked like Clemson receiver Justyin Ross had control of the ball and took three steps after catching it.
“We had a lot of good looks on it. We put on fast motion and slow motion,” referee Ken Williamson said. “The player did not complete the process of the catch, so therefore the pass was incomplete.”
“Certainly, there were a lot of plays in that game that didn’t go our way and [it’s] very hard to swallow right now,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “I am really going to have to look at the film and what really happened on some of those plays because in a game like this when the margin of error is so tiny, one play can alter the game and it didn’t seem like we got any of those plays.”
But Ohio State had other chances it failed to capitalize on, and penalties that would bite them.
There were three red zone drives in the first half that netted only nine points. There was cornerback Shaun Wade’s momentum-turning targeting penalty, an automatic ejection, in the second quarter that started Clemson’s comeback from 16 points down. Cameron Brown’s roughing-the-punter personal foul extended a drive, resulting in a Clemson touchdown. Running back J.K. Dobbins’ two first-half drops, one that would’ve been a touchdown, another that could’ve been. There was also the defensive touchdown that was negated on replay.
“Field goals weren’t enough,” said Dobbins, who ran for 174 yards on 18 carries and broke Eddie George’s Ohio State single-season rushing record of 1,927 set in 1995. “We needed to score touchdowns.”
Too many mistakes to beat the defending champions.
Even after Clemson went back ahead with 1:49 left, Ohio State wasn’t done. It drove to the Tigers’ 23. Then came the miscommunication between Fields and Olave. There wasn’t any overcoming that.
“You got to fight through adversity,” Dobbins said. “We tried to do that tonight, but we didn’t make enough plays.”
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