INDIANAPOLIS — Ohio State fans had watched this nightmare play out before.
Kicker Jayden Fielding stepped on the field confident he could make the 27-yard field goal to tie the Big Ten Championship Game with less than three minutes to play. Seconds later, he had his hands on his helmet in shock that he’d missed a chip shot.
A few offensive linemen did the same motion, in disbelief that a 15-play, 81-yard drive was going to end with zero points.
“When it doesn’t work, you always look at it and second-guess it for sure,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said.
While it’s easy to blame Fielding for the Buckeyes’ 13-10 loss to Indiana on Saturday night, which extended their Big Ten title drought to five seasons and will drop them from the top of the College Football Playoff rankings, it was Ohio State’s inability to keep Fielding off the field at that point that cost it.
Ohio State scored on two of its four red zone trips. In the second half, after Elijah Surratt’s 17-yard touchdown put Indiana ahead and Ohio State found itself with its back against the wall for the first time this season, the Buckeyes took two drives inside the 10-yard line and scored zero points. That’s a recipe for disaster against anyone, let alone an Indiana team that has held opponents to just a 27 percent touchdown rate in the red zone this season.
“That’s how you lose a game,” Day said.
It led to a heartbreaking loss for an Ohio State team that will still likely be a top-four seed when the College Football Playoff bracket is revealed on Sunday afternoon. But the performance raises questions for an offense that couldn’t drive down the field and took too long to adjust to what Indiana was doing on defense.
Short yardage killed the Buckeyes
Late in the third quarter, on a third-and-1 at the 5-yard line, the Buckeyes decided to run a rollout with quarterback Julian Sayin, but the only true route on the play was run by receiver Jeremiah Smith, and Indiana knew that was coming. As has been the case all season, the Hoosiers were in the right position, and Sayin’s pass fell incomplete.
Then Ohio State decided to go for it on fourth down and ran a quarterback sneak instead of feeding running back Bo Jackson, who averaged 4.9 yards per carry Saturday. Sayin initially was given the first down, but a review found that his knee was down with the ball well short of the marker, the second time in two games that the Buckeyes failed to convert on a sneak.
“We felt like we’ve been pretty good at it, but we didn’t execute this one,” Day said.
The next time Ohio State was in the red zone, it did feed Jackson. He got the ball to third-and-1, but instead of staying in the pistol and spreading the Indiana defense out, the Buckeyes went back to their one-back, four-tight end package and threw the ball to one of those, Bennett Christian.
The ball fell incomplete, setting up Fielding’s kick. That capped a run of six plays inside the 10 yard line, which gained three yards and netted zero points.
Yes, Indiana’s red zone defense is elite, but Ohio State’s execution and play calling have to be better than that.
Short-yardage situations have been an issue all season. In its win over Michigan, Ohio State ran seven plays inside the 10-yard line and settled for a field goal. But the Buckeyes came back and ran for 186 yards in the second half, a performance that instilled some confidence the Buckeyes could move past those issues. That lasted a week.
Ohio State didn’t look confident in anything it was doing in the red zone, and it’s going to lead to some difficult conversations in the weeks leading up to the Playoff. And nobody should escape criticism.
All season long, the Buckeyes had been willing to play however the game dictated, but on Saturday, when the Buckeyes couldn’t block anybody up front, when they couldn’t convert a third down and couldn’t run the ball, they took too long to adjust.
Ohio State converted its first third down at the six-minute mark of the third quarter. By that time, it was obvious that the right side of the offensive line was struggling mightily, but it took until then for Ohio State to make some changes up front. Right guard Tegra Tshabola was taken out for Gabe VanSickle, and on the two drives that VanSickle played, Ohio State went down the field.
“We wanted to split the work up in this game and take some pressure off of both of those guys,” Day said. “We will decide if that’s the right thing to do going forward.”
The Buckeyes don’t need a complete revamp, but if they want to win a national championship, they will need to look in the mirror after this and make some changes.
What does Ohio State do at kicker now?
Leaving the Michigan game, the belief was that Fielding’s struggles were behind him. The senior kicker had a strong season before the Big Ten title game. Since making the game-sealing kick in last year’s national championship, he had made 15 of 17 kicks. Throughout the season, Day put him in positions to build his confidence even more.
But after Saturday, Ohio State probably has to rethink everything in the red zone, including how much it trusts Fielding.
OHIO STATE MISSES THE FIELD GOAL 😱
INDIANA STAYS ON TOP pic.twitter.com/QOjPJBgQvO
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 7, 2025
The Buckeyes can’t just go the entire postseason without a kicker. They need Fielding to bounce back. He did it a year ago, but this felt different because it seemed like he was past these struggles.
Something about the big moment, with his team trailing, really messes with Fielding. In Ohio State’s last two losses, Fielding has missed three kicks.
There’s no better option on the roster; Jackson Courville is the backup, and he hasn’t attempted a field goal all season. So Ohio State will enter the Playoff with Fielding as the kicker, and all it can do is hope that his confidence comes back.
Ohio State managed him well all season, but a kicker is ultimately judged by kicks in important games and reevaluated on a week-to-week basis. His two field goals against Michigan mean nothing now. And it will cause the coaching staff to second-guess every future fourth down.
Give credit to the defense
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza probably won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday, throwing for 222 yards and a touchdown, but Ohio State’s defense did a fine job in holding one of the best offenses in the country to one trip to the end zone. It forced an interception and sacked Mendoza five times.
Matt Patricia’s group struggled on third down, giving up six conversions on 13 attempts, but overall the Buckeyes allowed just 13 points.
After the game, Day was most frustrated with the offense’s inability to finish off its drives, not the defense. Indiana posed Ohio State’s biggest offensive test because of its run-pass balance, and the Buckeyes held strong.
If you’re an Ohio State fan and are looking for a straw of positivity to grasp, that is it. This is still an elite defense, and it can carry this Ohio State team deep into the Playoff.
But the offense also has to do its part.