With hapless offense, Ohio State football loses to Missouri in Cotton Bowl

ARLINGTON, Texas – It's going to be a long offseason for Ohio State.

The No. 7 Buckeyes entered the Cotton Bowl with two main objectives. They wanted to take away some of the pain from the loss to Michigan with a season-ending win over No. 9 Missouri.

Probably more importantly, the Buckeyes wanted Devin Brown to play well enough to give optimism about the quarterback position for 2024 following Kyle McCord's transfer.

They got neither in a 14-3 loss in front of 70,114 at AT&T Stadium.

To be charitable, Brown gets an incomplete grade. Though he looked shaky, the redshirt freshman didn't get a chance to settle in. He was knocked out of the game early in the second quarter after completing 4 of 6 passes for only 20 yards.

The Buckeyes (11-2) mustered little offense after that when freshman quarterback Lincoln Kienholz was forced into action. Kienholz, who enrolled after spring practice, looked overmatched in completing only 6 of 17 passes for 86 yards.

The Buckeyes gained only 203 yards (3.6 per play). The three points were the fewest Ohio State has scored since losing to Clemson 31-0 in the 2016 College Football Playoff semifinal. The previous low in Ryan Day's five years as coach was 17.

Ohio State, which played without star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (opt-out) had only one chance to score after Kienholz entered. But Jayden Fielding's 48-yard field goal hit off the upright in the third quarter.

"Lincoln was put in a tough spot there, to say the least, and I thought he battled his tail," Day said. "Clearly, we didn't we didn't help him up front. We didn't run the ball well enough."

Ohio State's offensive line has been an issue most of the season. For the Cotton Bowl, the Buckeyes benched center Carson Hinzman, shifted right guard Matt Jones to that spot and inserted Enokk Vimahi at right guard.

It didn't make much of a difference. Missouri's pass-rushers consistently applied pressure to Brown and Kienholz and seldom opened holes for TreVeyon Henderson (19 carries for 72 yards).

That left it up to the defense to be perfect. It was for most of three quarters until it finally wilted.

Missouri (11-2) capped a 95-yard touchdown drive with a 7-yard touchdown run by Cody Schrader on the first play of the fourth quarter. The touchdown was set up by a 49-yard completion from Brady Cook to Marquis Johnson on a broken coverage.

Missouri then went 91 yards for the clinching touchdown with just over 5 minutes left.

"They played great, good enough to win," Day said of the defense.

Ohio State's only points came on a 44-yard field goal by Jayden Fielding in the first quarter. That came two plays after Brown sustained a high left ankle sprain.

Brown did return for one series, but left for good after taking a blindside sack.

"He had a little bit of nerves, but you can see the athleticism," Day said of Brown's abbreviated performance.

"I know he wanted to play this game worse than anybody. Even after he hurt himself, he wanted to get back in there and actually did for a series, but it just wasn't fair to him. He couldn't move."

That forced the Buckeyes to rely on Kienholz, who enrolled after spring practice from South Dakota. He was primarily the scout-team quarterback behind McCord and Brown and played only in mop-up situations in two games.

"I just want to give Lincoln a shout-out for stepping in there and playing with confidence in a tough spot," junior defensive end Jack Sawyer said about Kienholz, who sat next to him in the postgame press conference. "I thought you fought your ass off. It's not easy and you did the best you could."

It wasn't nearly good enough, unaided by the absence of Harrison and the inability of the offensive line to control the line of scrimmage.

Now come decisions for NFL prospects such as Sawyer, who had three sacks Friday night, about whether to return to Ohio State for another season.

"I think a lot of us are all on the same page about how we don't want to end our Ohio State careers like this, with two tough losses," Sawyer said. "We all love it here. We love Coach Day and love the staff.

"Sometimes, unfortunate things happen and you don't get the outcome you want, and I think it's going to be a big factor in our decisions."

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: With hapless offense, Ohio State football loses to Missouri in Cotton Bowl