Senior Day in Columbus didn’t exactly go as the Buckeyes planned it as they suffered their first regular season loss since the 2005 season:
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 10 — For the second consecutive season, undefeated Ohio State flopped spectacularly in a big game. Only this season, the loss came a few weeks earlier for the top-ranked Buckeye
In its first defeat since being blown out by Florida in last season’s national title game, Ohio State lost, 28-21, to unranked and enigmatic Illinois (8-3, 5-2 Big Ten) on Saturday. Quarterback Juice Williams threw four touchdown passes to deliver the signature victory of the Ron Zook era and the Illini’s first triumph against a No. 1 team since 1956.
“It’s a beautiful day,” Williams said. “It’s hard to describe.”
For most of the 105,453 fans at Ohio Stadium, many of whom sat in stunned silence as the clock ran out on Ohio State (10-1, 6-1), it was a hard loss to swallow. It ended the Buckeyes’ 28-game winning streak in the regular season and their 20-game streak in the Big Ten. One could almost hear the shrieks of joy in Oregon, where the Ducks will likely leap to No. 2 in the Bowl Championship Series standings. They and soon-to-be No. 1 Louisiana State would likely play in the national title game if the season were to end this weekend.
The only good news on Saturday for Buckeye fans was the fact that Michigan had lost to Wisconsin earlier in the day, meaning that a trip to the Rose Bowl will still be on the line when the two teams play next Saturday.
As shocking as this loss is, though, Stewart Mandel points out, it’s really just par for the course this year:
[N]othing about this season can possibly surprise me — Ohio State is merely the ninth top-five team to lose to an unranked foe this fall — but think about how quickly its complexion changed Saturday. Seven hours ago, we were looking toward another epic OSU-Michigan showdown between two teams with undefeated Big Ten records; the two rivals will still play for a conference title and Rose Bowl berth next week, but few outside the Midwest will care.
Suddenly, LSU and Oregon sit in the national-title driver’s seat. Both, like the Buckeyes, lost to a current three-loss team; fortunately for them, those defeats came in September and October, not mid-November.
(…)
But don’t be fooled. Ohio State’s loss was merely the beginning of what I fully anticipate will be a tumultuous final few weeks to the regular season. By Dec. 2, we will have yet another, unprecedented BCS dilemma to debate.
I don’t doubt it.
