Stock Up/Down: A Loss Could Be the Soul-Cleansing Ohio State Needed Before the College Football Playoff, and Ups and Downs Continue for Offensive Line

By Andy Anders on December 9, 2025 at 8:35 am
Carson Hinzman and Luke Montgomery
20 Comments

For the first time all season, the majority of stocks are down for Ohio State.

The Buckeyes suffered their first loss in more than a calendar year against No. 1 Indiana in the Big Ten Championship Game, losing a 13-10 war to an exceptional football team. Ohio State didn't snap its five-year Big Ten title drought and won't have a chance at college football's first-ever 16-0 season.

But three wins separate the Buckeyes from the history that matters most: The first repeat national championship in school history. Ohio State's flaws were laid bare in a matchup game. The upside of that, however, is that it knows what must be fixed to hoist another CFP championship trophy above its head. 

Stock Up

Soul Cleansing

"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."

Woody Hayes, the only Ohio State coach ever to win multiple national championships – at least for now – was full of wise, curt quips that contained great wisdom. This was one of them.

Losing in life, especially when it's on a grand stage, is a humbling experience. Losing in football is particularly humbling because you wake up the next morning and your body feels like a sore slab of stale cardboard. Body drained. Emotions drained. A cleansing.

Ohio State has been humbled. Not that ego was a problem with this team, but it's good to be reminded after 11 consecutive victories by at least 18 points that it is, in fact, possible to lose. Now the Buckeyes will do whatever it takes not to taste that again. Fully cleansed, it's time to refuel with practice reps that attack the issues exposed vs. Indiana.

Sonny Styles

Ohio State's defense still had stars glimmering against Indiana, and Styles burned with incomparable intensity. He racked up 12 tackles, flowing from play-side or back-side to make frequent stops in the running game and hitting Hoosier quarterback Fernando Mendoza once after he threw. Per Pro Football Focus, Styles hasn't missed a single one of his 70 tackle attempts this year. 70 for 70. Incredible.

Caden Curry

An Indiana native, Curry played like a man possessed in his home state against his hometown team. He collected seven tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks with a pass breakup. He fought through a hold by former teammate Zen Michalski and a chip from a running back to end the Hoosiers' first drive with a sack. 

Curry also delivered a massive blow to Mendoza early in the game, which the Indiana quarterback took in stride.

Indiana

Credit where credit is due, the Hoosiers had been one of the two best teams in college football all season and played like the best team in college football on Saturday. The margins of this contest were unbelievably tight. Each team had 17 first downs. Indiana barely outgained Ohio State, 340 to 322. Yards per play were equally thin, 6 for the Hoosiers and 5.8 for the Buckeyes.

As my esteemed colleague Dan Hope has said, the winner of the national championship likely played in Indianapolis on Saturday. The question is, which team?

Sanity

Sanity prevailed. Head-to-head matchups still matter in college football. The CFP selection committee put Miami into the last at-large spot after the Hurricanes beat the Fighting Irish in Week 1. Huzzah! (No, I will not be taking questions about the hypocrisy of dropping BYU after a bad conference title game performance and not Alabama.)

Notre Dame responded by declining its invitation to the Pop-Tarts Bowl. An entire team opting out of a bowl game. Weak sauce. Childish behavior. Gross.

Stock Down

Offensive Line Play

Ohio State's offensive line had its best performance of the season at Michigan on Nov. 29. One week later, the Buckeyes had their worst. In the first half, at the very least.

The front five yielded a season-high three sacks with 12 total pressures, per Pro Football Focus. Veteran right guard Tegra Tshabola, after having the best performance of his career at Michigan, struggled mightily and was pulled for redshirt freshman Gabe VanSickle for the final three drives of the contest. VanSickle ultimately played 29 snaps to Tshabola's 28. 

It wasn't close to the front's standard. Ohio State averaged a meager 2.2 yards per carry running the ball. But the offensive line bounced back in the biggest way possible during the CFP after last year's Michigan loss, and I expect an extremely motivated group again this postseason.

"The issues were always there," is what left guard Luke Montgomery stated after the loss, showing his maturity. Time to get cracking on the fixes.

"Just certain plays and stuff like that. Like, it happens," Montgomery said. "They arose today. Just more of, like, a technique standpoint. I think we can all be better, including me, obviously. We'll have to figure that out."

Red Zone Offense

Two Ohio State drives landed inside the 10-yard line and yielded zero points. The Buckeyes went 2-of-4 with one touchdown and one field goal in the red zone, in total. Red zone problems hurt the team earlier in the season against Texas and the like, and came back in force vs. Indiana. One of those other three drives results in a touchdown, and the tenor is very different on this Tuesday.

Play Calling

The game plan for said red zone didn't work. Lots of heavy personnel. Lots of failure to run out of it. Not having Jeremiah Smith or Carnell Tate on the field for many red zone plays felt like an oversight. The quick passing game that worked for large parts of the game wasn't utilized consistently for Ohio State. With three and a half weeks to get ready for the quarterfinals, as with last year, that game plan could look much better. Brian Hartline will still be running the ship, but perhaps with much more input from the man who remains the true mastermind of the offense, Ryan Day.

Jermaine Mathews Jr.

Per Pro Football Focus, the often-reliable All-Big Ten cornerback yielded four receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown the four times he got targeted in the passing game. That touchdown, a great catch by Hoosier wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, was Indiana's only of the game. But great players have off days. He'll be another motivated man after the soul cleansing.

The Routine

Perhaps the distractions of the past week knocked Ohio State out of the routine that Day has emphasized and has been so beneficial to its success. Hartline being announced as South Florida's head coach. Tons of kerfuffling about National Signing Day. Big Ten awards season. Ideally, the coming weeks are less eventful.

Jayden Fielding

It pains me to write this section.

Some of you might have seen, I posted a fun little warmup exercise where Fielding hit the goal post on purpose from the corner of the end zone pregame. It's been viewed three million times on X now, reposted by a lot of big accounts. Lots of folks dogging on the kid. Not something I wanted to address, but it would feel weird not to. Part of me wishes I had never posted it, even if I was just doing my job, and it spread way too far to delete after the fact.

When Fielding missed his 27-yard potential game-tying field goal in the final three minutes Saturday, his instant hands-to-helmet reaction drove a stake through my heart. I could see all the hate, the death threats he received after missing two field goals in The Game last year flashing back through his mind. No one deserves that over a sport. I can't imagine what the last few days have been like for him.

Fielding has been excellent for most of his career. He was an awesome 15-of-17 (88.2%) on field goals this year entering the matchup with Indiana, only one of those misses coming inside of 50 yards. 

But this is the business at Ohio State. You can't chip shots with The Game or the Big Ten title on the line. It's time for Jackson Courville to get a real shot in practice this month.

Just please, don't pile onto the kid. No one feels worse than him about it.

20 Comments

Brian Hartline “Honored and Humbled” for “World-Class Opportunity” As USF’s New Head Coach

Brian Hartline

This Week in Our Dumb, Beautiful Sport: Indiana is No. 1, Notre Dame Sent Packing, and College Football Playoff Gets Messier Than Ever

Notre Dame got what it deserved
View 20 Comments