Ryan Day Praises Ohio State Defense After 23-3 Win at Indiana
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day talks about the Buckeyes holding to Indiana to just three points in the season-opener.
Transcript
00:00 >> Ryan, have you decided that Kyle McCourty is the guy given the,
00:05 I mean, Devin got in just too serious one in mop up.
00:09 >> Yeah, I would have liked to have seen Devin play a little bit more,
00:13 but I just felt like we went three and out there.
00:17 And then I was worried that we weren't gonna be able to get into a rhythm.
00:20 We already felt a little clunky early on,
00:22 missed some short yardage situations, didn't convert on some third downs.
00:26 And so I didn't wanna run the risk of putting ourselves in a bad spot by
00:30 continually moving those guys in and out.
00:33 But going in, really wanted to play Devin some more,
00:36 would like to do that moving forward.
00:38 But like I said from the beginning, we gotta make sure we're doing what's right
00:41 for the team, what's right for Ohio State.
00:43 And I felt like that was the right call at the time.
00:45 >> Right next door, Tim Mayne.
00:46 >> Yeah, Ryan, second half, the guys got stuffed on that fourth.
00:49 I can't remember exactly when in the game,
00:51 what part of fourth that two down on the area instead of kicking, go, go.
00:55 >> It might have been first half.
00:56 >> It was first half, yeah.
00:57 >> Yeah, what was kind of the thinking there,
00:59 is that something with your offensive line?
01:01 >> Well, I think it was on the 29 yard line.
01:03 And I felt like that was probably on the outer edge of Jaden's field goal range.
01:08 So I felt like at that point, that was the right spot to go for it,
01:12 it was fourth and two.
01:13 I was disappointed that we didn't convert on that.
01:15 I was disappointed we didn't convert on the third down first.
01:19 But I was ready to go for it on fourth down based on where the ball was.
01:22 If it was another ten yards in, we probably would have kicked the field goal.
01:24 >> Based on the way the second half went,
01:25 do you feel better about your offense than you did at halftime?
01:28 And what are your thoughts after that?
01:31 >> Mixed bag, I guess, right now.
01:32 I thought there was some good things, but
01:35 we gotta play better situational football, we gotta finish in the red zone.
01:40 We gotta finish in short yardage, and we gotta do a better job on third down.
01:43 If we can do that, then certainly we'll do better.
01:46 We need to run the football.
01:47 I thought there was times, it was kind of by committee today.
01:52 Those games seem to go fast.
01:54 They had 54 total plays, we had 67.
01:57 But man, it just seems to go fast.
02:00 And I guess we ended up with about,
02:04 let's see, about 27 rushes and about 33 passes,
02:10 which is decent balance right there.
02:12 Chip ended up with about seven yards of carry.
02:14 The other guys were just south of four yards of carry.
02:16 We'd like to see all that north of five or six yards of carry,
02:19 then we're really cooking.
02:20 So we know what we need to do in order to win down the stretch,
02:24 play great defense around the football, and we'll continue to work to do that.
02:30 But like I said on the radio, it's okay for
02:32 me to be excited about great defense.
02:33 And I thought our defense played really well, and so I'm excited about that.
02:37 I think what we talked about is it's a different looking defense.
02:40 We got some good length out there, we got our hands on some balls early.
02:43 We took some shots early, I thought we were there, ready to make the play.
02:47 Defensive line was disruptive, so a lot to grow on.
02:50 You gotta get that first win, and anytime you're dealing with a new quarterback and
02:54 some guys in new spots, conference game on the road,
02:56 it's good to get that one under your belt.