Urban Meyer says Ohio State's loss at USC wasn't on the backup quarterback

Urban Meyer won't let Ohio State hide behind its quarterback injury. The former Buckeyes coach went after the rest of the roster on Monday, two days after the then-No. 2 Buckeyes lost 30-18 at USC. His point was that the 11 penalties and the dropped passes had nothing to do with true freshman Luke Fahey's first career start.

Fahey started because Julian Sayin went down two weeks earlier with what HEAVY reports is believed to be a season-ending injury. The game was played in the rain at the Coliseum, and 247Sports described an Ohio State team that fell behind early and never gave its new quarterback enough help. The box score supports Meyer. According to HEAVY, Ohio State had 10 more first downs than USC, more than 100 more total yards and no turnovers. Several drives stalled in USC territory, but the penalties came at bad moments and the Buckeyes missed tackles, which is not something they usually do.

Speaking on the Triple Option podcast, Meyer said the message in the locker room has to be that "we all have to play our best version of ourselves." He was still upbeat about where the season stands. Ohio State dropped to No. 11 and has four regular-season games left, three of them at home. Meyer's math is simple: win all four and the Buckeyes are in Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game. That run starts with Oregon, followed by Northwestern, a trip to Nebraska and Michigan to close.

For USC, the win is the best on a 7-2 record that also includes a 31-23 win at Penn State. The Trojans have been hard to read, though. A week before beating Ohio State, they lost 24-7 at Wisconsin. They travel to No. 6 Indiana on November 14.

What it means for Oregon

Ohio State is 6-2, and both losses have come away from home: 24-23 at Texas and now 30-18 at USC. The Buckeyes are 4-0 in Columbus, winning those games by a combined 202-41. Over the full season they have outscored opponents 293-124. The concern is the offense since Sayin went down. Ohio State scored 19 at Indiana and 18 at USC, its two lowest totals of the year. Oregon is the one team on this schedule that also beat USC, winning 41-27 in Los Angeles. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS, according to Ohio State's game center.

Even after the loss, the market has Ohio State favored at home. Across the 12 venues on our board, Novig has the Buckeyes at -251 on the moneyline and Oregon at +233. The best Oregon price anywhere is +240 at Hard Rock Bet, so the venues are only a few points apart on the outright winner. The spread is wider. Novig lists Ohio State -7.5 at +104, while Pinnacle has the Buckeyes at -7 for -113. Oregon +7.5 is -122 at Novig and -105 at theScore Bet. The total sits at 45.5 at Novig, which is low for a matchup like this, and BetRivers is the outlier at 47.5. That total reflects the same question Meyer raised: can the rest of Ohio State's roster play cleanly enough to carry a freshman quarterback.