Ryan Day and 3 Ohio State scapegoats most to blame for loss to Michigan

Ryan Day suffered his second straight loss to Michigan but the Ohio State head coach isn’t the only Buckeye to blame for losing The Game.

It was a simple scenario for the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday. If they could get revenge against rival Michigan for last year’s loss in Ann Arbor with The Game now being played in Columbus, Ryan Day’s team would punch its ticket to the Big Ten Championship Game and almost surely the College Football Playoff.

Instead, it was just a repeat of last year’s embarrassment, this time with a different setting.

Ohio State took a 20-17 lead over Michigan into halftime but got absolute toasted in the final 30 minutes of the game as J.J. McCarthy, Donovan Edwards and the Wolverines at large ran amok and pulled away for a monster 45-23 victory, earning the exact things that the Buckeyes were trying to and leaving OSU no longer in control of their own destiny for the Playoff.

It’s only natural for fans and others to now play the blame game. But who on the Buckeyes deserves the lion’s share of that blame? We have some ideas.

3. Gee Scott Jr. cost Ohio State valuable momentum after losing the lead

There were plenty of moments throughout the game in which the Buckeyes, despite playing inside the friendly confines of Ohio Stadium, looked rattled by the big moment that they were a part of. And oftentimes, the result of that was penalties. But there was no flag drawn that was arguably more costly — or more senseless — than the one that tight end Gee Scott Jr. was on the receiving end of.

After Michigan had scored to take a 24-20 lead, Ohio State got the ball back and had a chance to respond. On the first play of the drive, the pass went for a first down but was going to be called back for a holding penalty. Then, for seemingly no reason at all, Scott made it exponentially worse.

Following the play, Scott went over to the sidelines after the Michigan defensive back covering him, got in his face, and proceeded to headbutt him right in the helmet. That then drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that pushed the Buckeyes back into an insurmountable first-and-35.

Naturally, they didn’t convert, and that seemingly started pushing all the momentum in favor of the Wolverines. And had Scott kept his cool, that might not have been the case and things could’ve turned out differently.