LGHL The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ohio State’s 45-0 win over Purdue
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ohio State’s 45-0 win over Purdue
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images
The Buckeyes dominated the Boilermakers on Saturday.
Ohio State returned home after an emotional win over Penn State looking to stretch its legs a bit against a 1-7 Purdue team. The Buckeyes were able to accomplish just that, knocking off the Boilermakers 45-0 in a game that felt like it was over before it even started. Will Howard accounted for four total touchdowns, the Silver Bullets pitched a shutout, and even the special teams got involved with a blocked punt.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Purdue
Ohio State’s defense
Jim Knowles was under heavy scrutiny after Ohio State gave up 32 points and almost 500 total yards in its loss to Oregon on Oct. 12. Since then, the Buckeyes’ defense has completely flipped the script, allowing only one touchdown over its last three games against Nebraska, Penn State and Purdue combined. The Silver Bullets let up a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Cornhuskers on Oct. 26, and have now gone over 130 minutes of game action without a team finding the end zone against them.
Ohio State had one of its best defensive performances of the year against the Boilermakers, pitching its second shutout of the season and its first of a Big Ten opponent since 2017 — a 56-0 win over Rutgers. The Buckeyes smothered Purdue all afternoon, holding Hudson Card and company to just over 200 total yards (108 passing and 98 rushing) while taking the ball away twice and recording four sacks. Ohio State even scored on defense on a scoop-and-score play by Jack Sawyer, and also made a play on special teams with an early blocked punt.
A huge reason for the Buckeyes’ newfound success on that side of the ball has been a change in philosophy up front. Gone is the stale and static four-down front that relied exclusively on one-on-one battles, and in its place has been a varied attack featuring stunts and twists, creative blitzes and a lot more rotation of personnel. They have even found time to add in a few new wrinkles, with Ohio State actively practicing its long-fabled JACK position against Purdue on a few drives — albeit without much success.
While there has been no official acknowledgement of any material change, it seems as though the longstanding feud between the defensive coordinator and his defensive line coach has been solved, and Knowles is now free to fully run his system the way he wants to. The outcome is a pass rush that has actually gotten a ton of pressure on opposing quarterbacks, and a defense that looks like it is finally playing with some confidence.
The new-look offensive line
Everyone knew that Ohio State would have a tough time replacing Josh Simmons once news broke that the starting left tackle was going to be out for the rest of the season. The Buckeyes tried to simply replace the senior with Zen Michalski, but it was clear after the Nebraska game that the Indiana native was not quite ready to fill those shoes. Once Michalski went down with injury, the situation became even more unclear.
Fast forward to today, and Justin Frye appears to have found something that can work. For the past two games, Ohio State has moved Donovan Jackson over to left tackle and inserted Carson Hinzman at left guard, joining the rest of the starting line that includes Seth McLaughlin, Tegra Tshabola and Josh Fryar from left to right. Jackson had his hiccups against Penn State, which was to be expected when matched up against a future NFL first rounder in Abdul Carter, but this group of five has looked more than serviceable.
That starting unit looked solid yet again on Saturday, helping to pave the way for an Ohio State offense that put up over 430 yards of offense. The pass protection was excellent, allowing only one sack while Will Howard completed 21-of-26 passes for 260 yards and three touchdowns. The run blocking left a bit to be desired, but it was more than good enough for TreVeyon Henderson, who ran it six times for 85 yards and a score.
It certainly isn’t perfect, but this unit has proven that it is capable of getting the job done, and they will only continue to get better as they get more experience playing together and as Jackson continues to adapt to his new position.
Broken records
There isn’t much that can be said about Jeremiah Smith that hasn't been said already. The freshman phenom has been all that was advertised and then some, as the former five-star already looks like the best wide receiver in all of college football. Last week against Penn State, Smith broke the Ohio State freshman record for most receiving yards in a season. On Saturday, he was right back at it adding his name to the record books.
Racking up six-catches for 87 yards and a touchdown against Purdue, Smith now also holds the Ohio State records for both receptions (45) and touchdowns (9) in a single season for a freshman. He has surpassed all of Cris Carter’s numbers from his standout freshman campaign in 1984, wherein he tallied 41 catches for 648 yards and eight touchdowns. The word ‘generational’ is thrown around far too often in today’s sports climate, but Smith is truly looking like a once-in-a-generation type of player.
Smith has done all of this in only nine games, and is guaranteed at least four more contests between the regular season and a bowl game, not including a potential B1G title game and/or the College Football Playoff.
Will Howard’s deep ball
Will Howard has unquestionably been an upgrade at quarterback for Ohio State. The Kansas State transfer has been a tremendous leader for this group of Buckeyes, and has made a ton of plays both with his arm and with his legs. His abilities as a runner and a passer have opened up a lot of the playbook for Chip Kelly, and more often than not Howard has proven that he can make the right decisions with the football. The one nagging flaw in his game to this point, however, has been the deep ball.
It’s not clear if it's a lack of arm strength or a timing issue, but Howard has consistently under thrown his receivers when attempting to hit guys over the top. There has been more than a handful of times already this season when specifically Smith or Carnell Tate have been wide open deep down the field and would have an easy walk-in touchdown on a good throw, but the pass attempts have consistently come up short. In a few instances the receiver has been able to come back and still make a play on the ball, but each time it has taken a free touchdown off the board.
It isn’t the end of the world, but when you have a trio of speedy receivers in Smith, Tate and Emeka Egbuka, those guys are going to find themselves open down the field on occasion. You can't afford to turn easy touchdowns into incompletions, or even worse an interception — especially against tougher opponents down the stretch.
The wrong backup
Speaking of quarterback play, Ryan Day is still choosing to use valuable game reps on the wrong backup quarterback.
Every time Ohio State has gotten into a garbage time situation so far this season, it has been Devin Brown that takes the field first as the Buckeyes’ backup quarterback. Brown seems like a great kid and has been around the program for three years now, but based on what we have seen from his play and what we know about the rest of the position group, it is very clear that he is not going to be Ohio State’s starting quarterback in 2025, nor does he seem like the best option to take over should something happen to Howard.
The clear heir apparent to the Buckeyes’ quarterback throne is Julian Sayin, who transferred to Ohio State from Alabama this offseason after Nick Saban’s retirement. Sayin was a five-star prospect in the 2024 class, and has outplayed Brown this year in very limited reps despite being a freshman. Heading into the game against Purdue, Brown had completed only 55.7% of his passes for 108 yards (six yards per attempt) and a touchdown, while Sayin had completed 71.4% for 84 yards (12 yards per attempt) and a TD.
We have seen a decent amount of Brown over the past two seasons, and he has completed less than 60% of his pass attempts to this point in his career. It doesn’t seem like he quite has the accuracy Ohio State would want from its starting quarterback, and with Sayin now on the roster — alongside Lincoln Kienholz and fellow freshman Air Noland — it feels as though Day should prioritize getting reps for the guy who is likely the starter in 2025.
The FOX broadcast
It feels as though the TV product for college football gets a little bit worse each season. It is already annoying enough that every Ohio State game gets thrusted into the Big Noon slate on FOX, but it is made significantly worse by a constant barrage of commercials and announcers that don't seem like they even want to be there.
Today’s broadcast featured both of those things. On multiple occasions we were hit with the classic ‘touchdown -> commercial -> kickoff -> commercial’ that these big networks love to do to squeeze in as much advertising as humanly possible. On top of that, Gus Johnson treated both a scoop-and-score defensive touchdown for Ohio State and a 19-yard TD run by Henderson with the enthusiasm of a worker at the DMV.
And that’s not even to mention that the booth continues to pronounce multiple players’ names wrong despite having called numerous Ohio State games already this season.
Lower body injuries
Ohio State narrowly avoided disaster on Saturday with a pair of what would have been devastating injuries against Purdue.
First, it was Carson Hinzman, who went down with an apparent knee injury late in the second quarter. The offensive lineman was on the ground with trainers for a bit, but eventually got up and was able to walk off the field under his own power. Luckily for the Buckeyes, Hinzman returned to the starting lineup out of the halftime break and seemed no worse for wear, getting some additional time to rest up once the backups came in as well.
Then it was Howard, who seemed a big banged up following his 17-yard touchdown pass to Smith on Ohio State’s final offensive play of the first half. The quarterback had bodies falling at his feet and took a small hit to his legs, hopping up and down a bit afterwards and favoring one knee. Howard seemed to quickly shrug it off, and only had to play two more offensive series after that anyway before getting to sit the remainder of the afternoon.
All things considered, the Buckeyes are pretty close to fully healthy outside of the long term injury to Simmons. They seemed to have dodged a pair of bullets against the Boilermakers, and would love to avoid anymore injury scares with three regular season games remaining.
Continue reading...
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images
The Buckeyes dominated the Boilermakers on Saturday.
Ohio State returned home after an emotional win over Penn State looking to stretch its legs a bit against a 1-7 Purdue team. The Buckeyes were able to accomplish just that, knocking off the Boilermakers 45-0 in a game that felt like it was over before it even started. Will Howard accounted for four total touchdowns, the Silver Bullets pitched a shutout, and even the special teams got involved with a blocked punt.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Purdue
The Good
Ohio State’s defense
Jim Knowles was under heavy scrutiny after Ohio State gave up 32 points and almost 500 total yards in its loss to Oregon on Oct. 12. Since then, the Buckeyes’ defense has completely flipped the script, allowing only one touchdown over its last three games against Nebraska, Penn State and Purdue combined. The Silver Bullets let up a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Cornhuskers on Oct. 26, and have now gone over 130 minutes of game action without a team finding the end zone against them.
Ohio State had one of its best defensive performances of the year against the Boilermakers, pitching its second shutout of the season and its first of a Big Ten opponent since 2017 — a 56-0 win over Rutgers. The Buckeyes smothered Purdue all afternoon, holding Hudson Card and company to just over 200 total yards (108 passing and 98 rushing) while taking the ball away twice and recording four sacks. Ohio State even scored on defense on a scoop-and-score play by Jack Sawyer, and also made a play on special teams with an early blocked punt.
A huge reason for the Buckeyes’ newfound success on that side of the ball has been a change in philosophy up front. Gone is the stale and static four-down front that relied exclusively on one-on-one battles, and in its place has been a varied attack featuring stunts and twists, creative blitzes and a lot more rotation of personnel. They have even found time to add in a few new wrinkles, with Ohio State actively practicing its long-fabled JACK position against Purdue on a few drives — albeit without much success.
While there has been no official acknowledgement of any material change, it seems as though the longstanding feud between the defensive coordinator and his defensive line coach has been solved, and Knowles is now free to fully run his system the way he wants to. The outcome is a pass rush that has actually gotten a ton of pressure on opposing quarterbacks, and a defense that looks like it is finally playing with some confidence.
The new-look offensive line
Everyone knew that Ohio State would have a tough time replacing Josh Simmons once news broke that the starting left tackle was going to be out for the rest of the season. The Buckeyes tried to simply replace the senior with Zen Michalski, but it was clear after the Nebraska game that the Indiana native was not quite ready to fill those shoes. Once Michalski went down with injury, the situation became even more unclear.
Fast forward to today, and Justin Frye appears to have found something that can work. For the past two games, Ohio State has moved Donovan Jackson over to left tackle and inserted Carson Hinzman at left guard, joining the rest of the starting line that includes Seth McLaughlin, Tegra Tshabola and Josh Fryar from left to right. Jackson had his hiccups against Penn State, which was to be expected when matched up against a future NFL first rounder in Abdul Carter, but this group of five has looked more than serviceable.
That starting unit looked solid yet again on Saturday, helping to pave the way for an Ohio State offense that put up over 430 yards of offense. The pass protection was excellent, allowing only one sack while Will Howard completed 21-of-26 passes for 260 yards and three touchdowns. The run blocking left a bit to be desired, but it was more than good enough for TreVeyon Henderson, who ran it six times for 85 yards and a score.
It certainly isn’t perfect, but this unit has proven that it is capable of getting the job done, and they will only continue to get better as they get more experience playing together and as Jackson continues to adapt to his new position.
Broken records
There isn’t much that can be said about Jeremiah Smith that hasn't been said already. The freshman phenom has been all that was advertised and then some, as the former five-star already looks like the best wide receiver in all of college football. Last week against Penn State, Smith broke the Ohio State freshman record for most receiving yards in a season. On Saturday, he was right back at it adding his name to the record books.
Racking up six-catches for 87 yards and a touchdown against Purdue, Smith now also holds the Ohio State records for both receptions (45) and touchdowns (9) in a single season for a freshman. He has surpassed all of Cris Carter’s numbers from his standout freshman campaign in 1984, wherein he tallied 41 catches for 648 yards and eight touchdowns. The word ‘generational’ is thrown around far too often in today’s sports climate, but Smith is truly looking like a once-in-a-generation type of player.
Smith has done all of this in only nine games, and is guaranteed at least four more contests between the regular season and a bowl game, not including a potential B1G title game and/or the College Football Playoff.
The Bad
Will Howard’s deep ball
Will Howard has unquestionably been an upgrade at quarterback for Ohio State. The Kansas State transfer has been a tremendous leader for this group of Buckeyes, and has made a ton of plays both with his arm and with his legs. His abilities as a runner and a passer have opened up a lot of the playbook for Chip Kelly, and more often than not Howard has proven that he can make the right decisions with the football. The one nagging flaw in his game to this point, however, has been the deep ball.
It’s not clear if it's a lack of arm strength or a timing issue, but Howard has consistently under thrown his receivers when attempting to hit guys over the top. There has been more than a handful of times already this season when specifically Smith or Carnell Tate have been wide open deep down the field and would have an easy walk-in touchdown on a good throw, but the pass attempts have consistently come up short. In a few instances the receiver has been able to come back and still make a play on the ball, but each time it has taken a free touchdown off the board.
It isn’t the end of the world, but when you have a trio of speedy receivers in Smith, Tate and Emeka Egbuka, those guys are going to find themselves open down the field on occasion. You can't afford to turn easy touchdowns into incompletions, or even worse an interception — especially against tougher opponents down the stretch.
The wrong backup
Speaking of quarterback play, Ryan Day is still choosing to use valuable game reps on the wrong backup quarterback.
Every time Ohio State has gotten into a garbage time situation so far this season, it has been Devin Brown that takes the field first as the Buckeyes’ backup quarterback. Brown seems like a great kid and has been around the program for three years now, but based on what we have seen from his play and what we know about the rest of the position group, it is very clear that he is not going to be Ohio State’s starting quarterback in 2025, nor does he seem like the best option to take over should something happen to Howard.
The clear heir apparent to the Buckeyes’ quarterback throne is Julian Sayin, who transferred to Ohio State from Alabama this offseason after Nick Saban’s retirement. Sayin was a five-star prospect in the 2024 class, and has outplayed Brown this year in very limited reps despite being a freshman. Heading into the game against Purdue, Brown had completed only 55.7% of his passes for 108 yards (six yards per attempt) and a touchdown, while Sayin had completed 71.4% for 84 yards (12 yards per attempt) and a TD.
We have seen a decent amount of Brown over the past two seasons, and he has completed less than 60% of his pass attempts to this point in his career. It doesn’t seem like he quite has the accuracy Ohio State would want from its starting quarterback, and with Sayin now on the roster — alongside Lincoln Kienholz and fellow freshman Air Noland — it feels as though Day should prioritize getting reps for the guy who is likely the starter in 2025.
The Ugly
The FOX broadcast
It feels as though the TV product for college football gets a little bit worse each season. It is already annoying enough that every Ohio State game gets thrusted into the Big Noon slate on FOX, but it is made significantly worse by a constant barrage of commercials and announcers that don't seem like they even want to be there.
Today’s broadcast featured both of those things. On multiple occasions we were hit with the classic ‘touchdown -> commercial -> kickoff -> commercial’ that these big networks love to do to squeeze in as much advertising as humanly possible. On top of that, Gus Johnson treated both a scoop-and-score defensive touchdown for Ohio State and a 19-yard TD run by Henderson with the enthusiasm of a worker at the DMV.
And that’s not even to mention that the booth continues to pronounce multiple players’ names wrong despite having called numerous Ohio State games already this season.
Lower body injuries
Ohio State narrowly avoided disaster on Saturday with a pair of what would have been devastating injuries against Purdue.
First, it was Carson Hinzman, who went down with an apparent knee injury late in the second quarter. The offensive lineman was on the ground with trainers for a bit, but eventually got up and was able to walk off the field under his own power. Luckily for the Buckeyes, Hinzman returned to the starting lineup out of the halftime break and seemed no worse for wear, getting some additional time to rest up once the backups came in as well.
Then it was Howard, who seemed a big banged up following his 17-yard touchdown pass to Smith on Ohio State’s final offensive play of the first half. The quarterback had bodies falling at his feet and took a small hit to his legs, hopping up and down a bit afterwards and favoring one knee. Howard seemed to quickly shrug it off, and only had to play two more offensive series after that anyway before getting to sit the remainder of the afternoon.
All things considered, the Buckeyes are pretty close to fully healthy outside of the long term injury to Simmons. They seemed to have dodged a pair of bullets against the Boilermakers, and would love to avoid anymore injury scares with three regular season games remaining.
Continue reading...
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