EUGENE, Ore. — One second.
That’s all No. 2 Ohio State football needed to give kicker Jayden Fielding a chance to beat No. 3 Oregon on Saturday.
That’s all quarterback Will Howard needed to leave on the clock when he ran out of the pocket.
Ohio State trailed 32-21 with six seconds left when Howard fielded a snap on third-and-20.
With four seconds to go, he looked toward receiver Brandon Inniss. However, with a defensive lineman in his face, Howard elected to tuck the ball.
With three seconds left, he went into scramble mode. Howard ran up the middle before sliding and trying to use Ohio State’s last timeout.
“He knew what he was doing there,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said postgame. “He’s sharp. He thought he went down with time on the clock. Once you give yourself up, you’re down.”
Howard’s goal was to get enough yardage and keep at least a second on the clock for Fielding.
Instead, the clock hit zero, ending Ohio State’s bid to steal a win in front of a record 60,129 fans at Autzen Stadium.
“It’s a b—-,” Howard said. “It sucks. A play like that, it’s just — you don’t want to lose a game like that. I don’t know what we could’ve done better. I could’ve gotten down earlier (and) gave us a chance. It would’ve been a long kick.”
Kelly said OSU needed about 10-11 yards to get into field goal range.
“I thought I (got down),” Howard said. “Obviously, I didn’t. I worried about trying to get enough yards to make the field goal and get us into field goal range… We’ve got to learn from it.”
