COLUMBUS, Ohio — The No. 12 Oregon Ducks upset the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes 35-28 on Saturday, handing the Buckeyes their first regular-season loss since 2018 when they lost at Purdue.
Oregon's running back C.J. Verdell ran for 161 yards and had three touchdowns over the course of the game.
Ohio State had three receivers break 100 yards as Chris Olave snagged 12 catches for 126 yards, Garrett Wilson caught eight passes for 117 yards and Jaxon Smith-Njigba had 145 yards on seven catches.
But despite being favored to win by 14 1/2 points, Ohio State never led the game.
While freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud put up some big numbers, the Buckeyes front seven struggled to contain Verdell, control the edge and get after Ducks quarterback Anthony Brown.
"I felt like it was a game we were never really in control of, I felt like they ran the ball and we didn't do a very good job of running the football and because of that I think that they kind of controlled the game," head coach Ryan Day said after the loss. "We have to learn from this, we have to grow from this. We still have a lot of football left and get on the film and figure out where the execution issues were and get them fixed."
The Buckeyes had a chance to tie it late after pulling within a touchdown with 7:55 left. But when they got the ball again, Stroud took his first sack of the day and then threw an interception in front of a stunned crowd of more than 100,000.
Stroud threw for 472 yards and three touchdowns, but those three times in the end zone weren't enough to hold off the Ducks.
"To begin the game I feel like we came out strong and got the ball moving and kind of the whole first half every time we got the ball past the 50-yard line and split the field we just weren't getting in the end zone," Stroud said. "Definitely something that we need to fix execution-wise because I feel like if we put more points up we might have won the game. Definitely on my part I have to be better."
The Buckeyes will play at home again next week against Tulsa. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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