3 scapegoats most responsible for heartbreaking loss to Georgia

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Noah Ruggles, Ohio State Buckeyes. Mandatory Credit: USA Today Sports, The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio State saw a 14-point lead crumble in the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl to suffer a heartbreaking loss to Georgia and we know who to blame.

The Buckeyes had it. After a Noah Ruggles field goal just before the end of the third quarter, Ohio State took a 38-24 lead over defending champion Georgia in the Peach Bowl. 15 minutes separated them from the national championship match.

Those 15 minutes, however, were fateful.

Stetson Bennett IV played the quarter of a lifetime to hold off the Dawgs, including a late touchdown pass to AD Mitchell with less than a minute left. CJ Stroud then delivered the Buckeyes with a few feats, but it wasn’t meant to be. Noah Ruggles missed a 50-yard field goal left in the closing seconds to give Georgia the 42-41 victory and send OSU home.

If you said Ohio State lost in the college football playoff semifinals, I guess Stroud would have struggled again in a high-stakes moment. This was not the case, however. The quarterback was brilliant. And let’s be clear, the Buckeyes have been plagued by injuries, especially with Marvin Harrison Jr. leaving the game after a big hit.

That said, finger pointing is always possible, and as we watch Columbus-flavored heartbreak for Ohio State, these three deserve a fair share of the blame.

Ohio State football: 3 scapegoats to blame for Peach Bowl heartbreak vs Georgia

3

Noah Ruggles

K Ohio State Noah Ruggles doesn’t deserve to be stacked but his game-ending kick never gave Ohio State a chance

I really don’t want to pile on Noah Ruggles here. Simply put, the Buckeyes would have been in a tough spot in this game and at times throughout the season without their kicker. He had missed just two kicks in the entire coming season on Saturday night and had already converted attempts from 25 and 48 yards on the night against UGA before the fateful game-winning attempt.

At the same time, however, Ruggles’ kick was about as bad as you could imagine at the time. As soon as his foot connected, the rotation of the ball and the angle he took looked horrendous and the result reflected as much as he was a mile from the goal posts.

This game was not lost to Ruggles. There were many plays that other Ohio State players could have stepped in to make a play that would have ultimately sealed the game and they didn’t.

That may be true, but it’s also true that the kicker had the opportunity to erase previous errors with a 50-yard field goal and his effort was probably one of the worst of his life. Hopefully the youngster will bounce back and erase this from his memory, but it was a tough scene for him as the clock struck midnight and chimed in the new year.

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