Ohio State’s defense is falling apart, and Matt Patricia is taking the blame. The Buckeyes have dropped two straight games, falling 30-18 to USC before blowing a 14-0 lead in a humiliating 41-28 loss to Oregon. Now sitting at 6-3, Ohio State has plummeted from No. 2 to No. 21 in the AP poll in just two weeks.

But the most troubling part isn’t the losing streak. It’s that Patricia’s defense keeps making mistakes the coaching staff already knows about.

According to an X post by Dillon Davis, Patricia said Ohio State’s defense was put at a disadvantage from the snap on both the first USC touchdown and Oregon’s touchdown coming out of halftime. He could immediately recognize the positioning issues that allowed both plays to turn into long scoring gains.

“On both of those plays, the first one in SC, a little bit out-leveraged, misaligned a little bit… there’s usually some over the top, let’s call it, safety net that the ball’s going to be squeezed to,” Patricia said. “And then really understanding where that is, is critical in the defense. And certainly we didn’t do that on those two plays… I need to make sure that’s very clear and that the ball needs to be funneled to certain areas so that it doesn’t get out into those really long situations.”

Patricia accepted responsibility for ensuring his players understood their assignments rather than placing the blame entirely on them. His admission carries more weight considering Ryan Day had already publicly criticized the defense following the USC loss.

On November 2, Day pointed to missed tackles, explosive plays, and alignment issues that needed immediate attention. “And then, there were some alignment things as well that we need to get corrected,” he said. Yet Oregon exposed similar weaknesses just six days later, leaving Patricia to explain why those problems persisted.

Oregon scored 38 unanswered points, something Ohio State hadn’t allowed since 1999. A 30-yard fake punt helped set up a touchdown, while explosive gains continued to hurt the Buckeyes. Despite Ohio State recording 413 total yards to Oregon’s 395, costly mistakes turned an early 14-0 advantage into another defeat.

The warning signs had been there for weeks. Ohio State surrendered 462 yards against Illinois in its fourth game, and its pass rush had struggled throughout the season. Against USC, the Buckeyes failed to register a single quarterback hit while allowing explosive gains of 69 and 70 yards. That was a stunning reversal for a defense that entered the matchup ranked fourth nationally in scoring defense and sixth in total defense, without having allowed a single play of 40-plus yards all season.

Those explosive plays have put Patricia’s defensive positioning under scrutiny. However, he pushed back on the suggestion that his players were necessarily lining up in the wrong spots. Instead, he described the problem as a matter of fine margins, where even a slight disadvantage could prove costly against faster opponents.

“Again, I’m not saying they’re necessarily not in the spots; it’s just a fine margin in there some of the time, certainly when you play better teams, and you play guys with really good speed; that line is pretty small. So I can make sure I’m very clear on that with those guys,” Patricia said.

Interestingly, those same defensive details were among Patricia’s biggest strengths last season. In Ohio State’s 14-7 victory over top-ranked Texas in August 2025, the Buckeyes repeatedly disguised coverages and shifted defensive fronts, keeping Arch Manning from completing a pass longer than 15 yards until the fourth quarter. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian praised Ohio State’s coverage disguises as being at an “elite level,” crediting them with limiting explosive plays.

The contrast is particularly striking considering Ohio State finished 2025 ranked No. 1 nationally in total, passing, and scoring defense. Patricia’s system relied on changing defensive looks, rotating safeties, and confusing opposing quarterbacks. But that complexity also demanded precise communication and positioning. Against USC and Oregon, the same approach has struggled to deliver the results that once made Ohio State’s defense so difficult to beat.

What Patricia Wants Fixed

Patricia wants to eliminate explosive plays and restore consistency across all four quarters. His priority is simplifying defensive calls so players can react quickly and aggressively rather than hesitate over their assignments.

“The explosives are something that we’ve got to eliminate in those plays that, we haven’t really given up,” Patricia said, according to an X post by Eleven Warriors. “Those changes, it just changes everything of the rhythm of the game and kind of the outlook and then maybe some of the next calls that come after that and some of the things that you’re doing schematically.”

“So making sure that that’s consistent all the way through has probably been the biggest difference, I would say, right now from post-Texas to kind of like the last couple games is that consistency over the full four quarters, which is part, I think, of what we’re looking at and trying to make sure that we keep it in a mode that’s simple enough where we can kind of just stay fast for all four quarters.”

Patricia’s biggest challenge now is maintaining defensive discipline for an entire game. Ohio State has shown flashes of its old dominance, but those stretches mean little when a handful of mistakes can erase an early advantage. With opponents repeatedly exploiting those weaknesses, the Buckeyes need more than tactical adjustments to stop their defensive slide.

With Northwestern, Nebraska, and Michigan still on the schedule, Patricia is running out of time to fix Ohio State’s defensive mess. The Buckeyes have already watched their championship hopes take a serious hit, and another collapse could make things even uglier. For a coordinator who led the nation’s best defense just a year ago, the excuses are wearing thin.

Now, Patricia needs results, not explanations.