Oregon Scores 38 Straight, Stuns No. 12 Ohio State 41-28 at the Horseshoe

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State owned the first quarter, Oregon owned everything after it, and the Buckeyes’ late scores only made the final margin look kinder than the afternoon felt. The No. 23 Ducks scored 38 unanswered points to beat No. 12 Ohio State 41-28 on Saturday at Ohio Stadium, according to the Sportradar match page, which lists the final quarter line as Oregon 0, 17, 14 and 10 against Ohio State’s 14, 0, 0 and 14.

It is a loss that changes Ohio State’s season. The Buckeyes entered 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten, ranked No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings — the first team out of the projected field — and a third loss, at home, leaves that playoff case in ruins, a conclusion Scarlet and Game also reached in its postgame coverage. Oregon, which arrived at 5-3 with no margin of its own, leaves Columbus at 6-3 with a road win over a ranked opponent.

Ohio State marched 75 yards on the opening drive, Bo Jackson finishing it on a 16-yard touchdown run, Ducks Wire reported. After an Oregon punt, quarterback Luke Fahey — starting in place of the injured Julian Sayin — hit Jeremiah Smith for 32 yards and Devin McCuin for 41, and Jackson scored again from 8 yards, according to Ducks Wire. Ohio State led 14-0.

Gage Hurych kicked a 33-yard field goal early in the second quarter to make it 14-3, per Sportradar. The turning point came late in the half. Facing a punt, Oregon faked it: Teitum Tuioti threw to Matayo Uiagalelei for 30 yards, a gamble Ducks Wire described as Dan Lanning pulling out the razzle-dazzle. Dierre Hill Jr. scored on a 9-yard run with 1:25 left to cut it to 14-10, according to Sportradar.

Fahey then gave Oregon one more opening. Throwing into triple coverage, he was intercepted by freshman Devin Jackson with 1:05 left in the half, Buckeyes Wire reported. Dylan Raiola — starting for Oregon in place of the injured Dante Moore — drove the Ducks to the goal line, and Jamari Johnson scored on a 2-yard run with two seconds left, per Sportradar. Oregon led 17-14 at halftime, and, as Eleven Warriors noted, the Ducks had won the middle eight minutes 21-0, flipping an 11-point deficit into the lead.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day, in his halftime interview with CBS Sports quoted by Scarlet and Game, said his team had to regroup, pointing to the fake punt and the turnover. Instead, Hill broke through missed tackles for a 48-yard touchdown on Oregon’s first possession of the half — Oregon’s longest scoring run of the season, according to Ducks Wire — to make it 24-14. Ohio State’s first drive went backward after a high snap, Buckeyes Wire reported.

Oregon missed a 52-yard field goal, a reprieve Ohio State could not use. The Buckeyes failed on fourth down, and Raiola found Dakorien Moore in the corner of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown with 6:42 left in the third, per Sportradar. Moore caught it one-handed, a grab Ducks Wire said turned a close game into a rout. Oregon led 31-14 after three quarters, having, according to Ducks Wire, outgained Ohio State 295-39 since the end of the first quarter.

Ohio State failed on fourth down again in the fourth — the Buckeyes finished 0 for 4 on fourth down, per Sportradar, while Oregon was 1 for 1 — and Raiola hit Brandon Smith on a 15-yard touchdown with just over 12 minutes left, The Columbus Dispatch reported, pushing the run to 38 straight points, 38-14. Tuioti was helped off during that stretch and went into the injury tent, according to Ducks Wire.

Ohio State scored twice late, in a game already decided. Fahey found Smith for a 13-yard touchdown with 3:25 remaining and ran in the two-point conversion, per Sportradar, to make it 38-22. Hurych answered with a 40-yard field goal for 41-22. In the final minute, Fahey hit Smith for 57 yards and then found Nate Roberts for a 15-yard touchdown with 48 seconds left, according to Sportradar’s play-by-play, but the two-point try failed, leaving the final at 41-28. Ducks Wire put it plainly in its live updates: the final score was going to look a bit closer than the game really was.

The final numbers, per Sportradar, are strange: Ohio State outgained Oregon 413-395, but Oregon won the ground game 108-53, committed no turnovers, and scored on all six red-zone trips. Fahey finished 36 of 50 for 360 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Raiola finished 25 of 40 for 257 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Hill carried 13 times for 75 yards and two scores, and Smith finished with seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown — most of it after the game was gone, and The Columbus Dispatch reported Smith looked visibly frustrated in the third quarter as targets dried up.

What happens next is the hard part in Columbus. Ohio State, now 6-3, must regroup with its playoff path effectively closed. Oregon, also 6-3, heads home with a season-defining win. Both backup quarterbacks played a game neither program expected — only one left with his season still alive.

Photo: Lectrician2, CC BY-SA 4.0