Ryan Day reflects on Ohio State's Big Ten setback against Indiana

Ryan Day left Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night knowing his team just blown a chance at something they haven't done since 2020. Indiana beat Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten Championship Game, ending the Buckeyes' perfect season - and their hopes of winning a conference title for the first time in five years.

Day didn't look for excuses in his postgame comments. He took responsibility and talked about getting better before the playoff starts. 

Ohio State was leading 10-6 at the half but never scored again. Quarterback Julian Sayin threw for 258 yards on 21-of-29 passing with one touchdown, but Indiana's defense sacked him five times. The Buckeyes managed just 58 rushing yards on 17 carries.

Jeremiah Smith had eight receptions for 144 yards to give him consecutive 1,000-yard seasons - only the second player in program history to achieve that feat.

None of the above mattered when kicker Jayden Fielding missed a 27-yard field goal with two minutes left that would have tied the game.

Day takes the blame but looks ahead to playoff games

Day said his team practiced well this week. They just didn't execute when the game started. Indiana scored what turned out to be the winning touchdown on a 17-yard pass from Fernando Mendoza to Elijah Sarratt with 6:30 left in the third quarter.

Ohio State drove inside the Indiana 10-yard line twice in the fourth quarter and came away empty both times.

"At the end of the day, that's our job to come out here and execute and win games," Day said postgame. "So, we're not gonna make any excuses about this. We wanted to win this game. The guys had a good week at practice, but in the end, they came up short. So, we gotta get back, figure out why it happened, what issues were, get fixed. Because, you know, the season's not over. Got a lot of football ahead of us, and hopefully we can use this as a way to get better as we head into the playoffs."