This year November was the cruelest month, and also the most prophetic. 

The Northwestern game should have been the red alert for this team.  Yeah, it was windy, but the 2nd ranked team in the country should be able to steamroll a 1-win patsy in any conditions short of a Cat 5 hurricane.  Instead the teams played to a statistical tie.  More concerning was the fact that more than 1/3 of our rushing yards came from a designed run by CJ Stroud, which pretty much passes as a trick play in this offense.

The Maryland win foreshadowed further problems.  A mobile, strong-armed QB exposed the weakness in our secondary, particularly at cornerback.  And throughout the game OSU was undisciplined, penalty-prone and sloppy, something that one might expect in September but certainly not in the penultimate game of the regular season. 

Bottom line is that for all of his success, over the past 4 years Day has managed to create a team that seems to be better suited to 7-on-7 play than actual football.  I am hopeful that he and his current staff recognize what is needed in terms of players and technique to reverse this trend.