First Posted: 9/8/2014
COLUMBUS – The bad taste of Saturday night’s 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech lingered on into Sunday night for Ohio State’s football team.
The Sunday evening “victory dinner” has been a tradition for Ohio State’s players since Urban Meyer became OSU’s coach in 2012. But for the first time after a home game with Meyer as coach, the victory dinner was replaced with just dinner this week.
Plain, old regular dinner. Nothing to get too excited about.
“Man, it was something I didn’t really enjoy, something I can’t get used to. Spaghetti and meatballs,” defensive back Tyvis Powell said.
Asked what leads the menu after a win, he said, “Steak, shrimp, lobster, all that stuff.”
There is little doubt Ohio State should be back to eating well next Sunday night.
The football menu has served up winless Kent State (0-2) as the Buckeyes’ next game, a noon kickoff at Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
Unlike most weeks, Meyer did not get even one question about Kent State during the time he spoke at his weekly press conference on Monday. There was much more talk about the most recent game than the next one.
“It was a tough loss against a very good team. We’ve just got to move forward,” he said about the Virginia Tech game.
“I can tell they (Ohio State’s players) are hurting. So we get to hurt the rest of the day today (Monday), and then the coaching staff and players need to move forward and try to get our second win.”
Powell – the only Ohio State player made available for interviews on Monday – said Meyer “remained calm about it” after the loss.
“He paints the big picture for us. All you think about is the loss but he kind of gets you to move on move forward and look to the future rather than dwell on the loss. He just brought a lot of positive attitude to the situation,” he said.
Ohio State fell behind 21-7 against Virginia Tech before tying the game 21-21 with 11 minutes to play. Considering the long list of problems, such as offensive line issues, lack of a running game, dropped passes and a defense that couldn’t get stops on third downs, it was remarkable OSU was still in a position to win so late in the game.
“That was a really good team we played. I think we’re a really good team. A play here or play there, a field goal here, field goal there or a stop I could go on, and on, and on, and that’s what’s frustrating,” Meyer said. “I’m not taking anything away from Virginia Tech, but a few good plays and it’s a different outcome.”
Meyer said the offense had to contend with a defense it had not expected to see and did not deal well with it. He thought the defense played acceptably for 2 ½ quarters.
“The first two drives were bad and then we settled down to play some really good defense for about 2 ½ quarters. We had one bad drive (defensively) in the second half. For the most part I’m very pleased, but I want to get to the point at Ohio State where it’s shut down, lock down defense,” he said.
That defense should be strengthened by the return of defensive end Noah Spence this week after a two-game suspension for testing positive for a banned supplement last year.
Kent State opened its season with a 17-14 loss to Ohio University and was beaten 23-13 by South Alabama last Saturday.
The Golden Flashes have six returning offensive starters and eight on defense from a team that finished 4-8 last season.
An already difficult season became infinitely more challenging for them when starting center Jason Bitsko died in his sleep of natural causes Aug. 20.
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Reach Jim Naveau at 419-993-2087 or on Twitter @Lima_Naveau.
