Ohio State coach Ryan Day lamented all of the self-inflicted mistakes the Buckeyes made on offense in their 28-14 victory against Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinals, saying on Sunday that his team has to play better in the national championship game against Notre Dame on Jan. 20.
Day said the Buckeyes' offense allowed five drives to get away from them with penalties and a turnover in the semifinal game on Friday.
Two of those were 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, including one on running back TreVeyon Henderson that ended up forcing the Buckeyes to punt on their second drive of the game.
"There's nobody that came back on offense and was pleased with the fact that we had those penalties," Day said during a Zoom news conference Sunday. "The issues are there. We certainly have the right and opportunity to persevere through those penalties, but certainly sets us way behind the sticks, and we cannot have that in this game. Efficiency is going to be something that we've got to do a much better job of if we're going to win it."
Day said Henderson felt bad about his penalty, which came after he made helmet-to-helmet contact with a Texas defender.
"He knows that he's got to play with emotion," Day said of Henderson. "He can't let emotion play with him."
Day was also asked about star freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who was held to one catch for 3 yards in the game -- his lowest output of the season. It came as a surprise considering how much Smith dominated the first two playoff games with 13 combined catches for 290 yards against Tennessee and Oregon. Day said Texas did not play Smith any differently, and he again pointed to the missed opportunities on offense.
"It's a little bit more about execution than it is anything else," Day said. "We weren't able to sustain a few of those drives and connect on a couple other plays. [Smith is] obviously a huge part of our offense, so there's different ways that teams will adjust based on what he's done and what he's capable of. We'll identify what those are in this game and then go from there.
"But to me, the story of this past game was the self-inflicted wounds that set us back and allowed us to be in the game in the fourth quarter, when we could have done a better job executing and made it a little bit of a bigger spread down the stretch. That's going to be the focus this week. We've got to play our best game against Notre Dame."
Day also said starting cornerback Denzel Burke, who sat out the second half against Texas with an upper extremity injury, will be ready to play against the Irish.
