LGHL The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ohio State’s 49-14 win over Marshall
- News
- 0 Replies
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ohio State’s 49-14 win over Marshall
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 Jason Mowry/Getty Images
The Buckeyes looked great on offense, but not so much on defense...
Ohio State played a less-than-pretty first half, but ultimately ran away with a 49-14 win over Marshall to move to 3-0 on the season.
The Buckeyes’ offense showcased a balanced attack, passing for 289 yards and rushing for 280 yards, while putting on display a knack for the explosive play with four touchdowns of 40 yards or more. Defensively Ohio State has things to be worked on, but the Silver Bullets pitched a shutout in the second half after allowing their first two touchdowns of the season in the first.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Marshall.
The Running Backs
Coming into the season we expected Ohio State’s running back tandem to be elite, but I don't know if we quite thought it would be this good this early. Chip Kelly’s offense has added a ton of diversity to the Buckeyes’ run game, and both TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins have executed the new scheme near-flawlessly.
That was on full display on Saturday, as Ohio State ran the ball 31 times for 280 yards and five touchdowns against Marshall.
Henderson and Judkins combined for 249 of those yards on only 20 carries — a casual 12.45 yards per carry. Henderson totaled six carries for 76 yards and two touchdowns, while Judkins ran the ball 14 times for 173 yards and two scores. Both backs scored on long TD runs as well, with Henderson ripping off a 40-yard TD and Judkins an 86-yarder. Ohio State even debuted a T-formation with both running backs on the field together, which ironically resulted in a rushing touchdown for Will Howard on the goal line.
Healthy Emeka Egbuka
With all the hype surrounding five-star freshman Jeremiah Smith, who did have a 53-yard catch-and-run touchdown against the Herd, some of the focus has come away from a guy like Emeka Egbuka. A former five-star in his own right and the No. 1 wide receiver in the 2021 recruiting class, Egbuka didn’t get to have the campaign he wanted last season alongside Marvin Harrison Jr. thanks to some nagging injuries.
Now, the talented pass-catcher is back to his full form, and he is showing why he is still among the nation’s best.
Egbuka got Ohio State’s offense off to a fast start against Marshall, hauling in Will Howard’s first pass of the game and turning on the jets for a 68-yard touchdown — his first of the season. He finished as the Buckeyes’ receiving leader on the day, finishing the game with five catches for 117 yards and the score. It feels like Egbuka has been pretty quiet through three games, but he is actually neck-and-neck with Smith as Ohio State’s second-leading receiver with 266 yards on 14 receptions (compared to 14 receptions for 281 yards for Smith).
The Defensive Line
Ohio State’s defensive line just flat out did not play well on Saturday. The Buckeyes were without starting defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, who had been the best player among the front four over the first two games, but that is not a good enough excuse against a Marshall team that has four newcomers on its offensive line from a year ago.
The Thundering Herd ran the ball pretty effectively, especially when quarterback Stone Earle was in the game. Marshall ran the ball 14 times for 59 yards in the first quarter, good for 4.2 yards per carry, and Ohio State had a tough time keeping contain on Earle — especially on third downs, where the Herd converted 6-of-11 times in the first half. When they weren’t running the ball, Marshall QB’s had far too much time to thrown, including on the late touchdown by Elijah Metcalf before halftime.
After recording eight sacks through the first two games of the season, Ohio State managed just one in this game. The pass rush was virtually non-existent for large stretches of the game, and the Buckeyes’ defense seemed unwilling to put extra guys in the box to help out despite Marshall’s reliance on the run game and quick slant passing game. The defensive front is going to play much better offensive lines than the Herd’s, so they will have to figure out what went wrong this time around.
Will Howard’s Interception
Howard recored his first — and to this point only — turnover of the season against Marshall on an attempted deep ball to Jeremiah Smith. It was an odd play, as Smith never looked like he thought the ball was coming his way and the pass itself was under thrown. Credit to defensive back Josh Moten for making a nice play on the ball and coming down with the interception, but that was definitely a pass that Howard wanted back.
All-in-all, it was a small blemish on Howard’s otherwise efficient day, finishing the game completing 16 of his 20 pass attempts for 275 yards and two TDs while also rushing for a score. If there is one knock on Howard’s game to this point it is that the deep ball has thus far alluded him, but with how easily Ohio State’s receivers have been turning short passes into long touchdowns, maybe the Buckeyes don't need to take all that many deep shots.
Special Teams
If you told me the Buckeyes had brought back Parker Fleming to coach the special teams in this one I certainly would have believed you. Pretty much every aspect of the special teams unit was awful on Saturday, from kicking and punting to returns.
The biggest story of the special teams’ afternoon was surprisingly kickoff trouble. Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding kicked the ball off out of bounds not once, not twice, but three times in a row, resulting in Marshall starting each of those drives at the 35-yard line. That kind of thing shouldn’t happen in a game one time, let alone three, and Fielding was summarily benched in favor of Austin Snyder the rest of the way, who managed to keep the ball in the field of play.
Ohio State also avoided near disaster on a lucky penalty against Marshall for an illegal formation when Brandon Inniss muffed a punt that the Herd had recovered before the play was called back. Inniss later got tripped up by the turf monster on a punt return that looked like it could have potentially gone for a touchdown.
For a unit that was under so much scrutiny the last few years and had so much emphasis on it this offseason, it was both a shocking and concerning day for the special teams.
Officiating
I don't know what was going on with the officiating crew in Columbus this weekend, but it looked as though it was their first time working a football game at any level.
On two separate occasions the group spent several minutes reviewing plays that were obviously called correctly on the field the first time, one being a fumble out of bounds by Marshall that was very obviously a fumble out of bounds by Marshall with no possible alternative and the other a catch by a Herd receiver that very clearly went out of bounds prior to making the catch, rendering the actual completion of the catch or not useless.
The made a handful of puzzling calls, including issuing a 15-yard penalty against Ryan Day for pointing out Marshall’s slow substations — I don't know I've ever seen a penalty levied against a coach prior to getting a sideline warning — as well as ejecting Caden Curry for targeting on a play where helmet-to-helmet contact was nothing more than incidental, much like Burke’s ejection a few weeks ago.
Even when they were making the correct call, the referees had trouble explaining the call on the mic to the crowd, either needing to cut the mic to confer with other officials or simply tripping over their own words and saying the wrong thing.
It didn’t have any impact on the game itself, but it definitely made it a harder watch than necessary. The whole crew was a complete disaster.
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 Jason Mowry/Getty Images
The Buckeyes looked great on offense, but not so much on defense...
Ohio State played a less-than-pretty first half, but ultimately ran away with a 49-14 win over Marshall to move to 3-0 on the season.
The Buckeyes’ offense showcased a balanced attack, passing for 289 yards and rushing for 280 yards, while putting on display a knack for the explosive play with four touchdowns of 40 yards or more. Defensively Ohio State has things to be worked on, but the Silver Bullets pitched a shutout in the second half after allowing their first two touchdowns of the season in the first.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Marshall.
The Good
The Running Backs
Coming into the season we expected Ohio State’s running back tandem to be elite, but I don't know if we quite thought it would be this good this early. Chip Kelly’s offense has added a ton of diversity to the Buckeyes’ run game, and both TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins have executed the new scheme near-flawlessly.
That was on full display on Saturday, as Ohio State ran the ball 31 times for 280 yards and five touchdowns against Marshall.
Henderson and Judkins combined for 249 of those yards on only 20 carries — a casual 12.45 yards per carry. Henderson totaled six carries for 76 yards and two touchdowns, while Judkins ran the ball 14 times for 173 yards and two scores. Both backs scored on long TD runs as well, with Henderson ripping off a 40-yard TD and Judkins an 86-yarder. Ohio State even debuted a T-formation with both running backs on the field together, which ironically resulted in a rushing touchdown for Will Howard on the goal line.
Healthy Emeka Egbuka
With all the hype surrounding five-star freshman Jeremiah Smith, who did have a 53-yard catch-and-run touchdown against the Herd, some of the focus has come away from a guy like Emeka Egbuka. A former five-star in his own right and the No. 1 wide receiver in the 2021 recruiting class, Egbuka didn’t get to have the campaign he wanted last season alongside Marvin Harrison Jr. thanks to some nagging injuries.
Now, the talented pass-catcher is back to his full form, and he is showing why he is still among the nation’s best.
Egbuka got Ohio State’s offense off to a fast start against Marshall, hauling in Will Howard’s first pass of the game and turning on the jets for a 68-yard touchdown — his first of the season. He finished as the Buckeyes’ receiving leader on the day, finishing the game with five catches for 117 yards and the score. It feels like Egbuka has been pretty quiet through three games, but he is actually neck-and-neck with Smith as Ohio State’s second-leading receiver with 266 yards on 14 receptions (compared to 14 receptions for 281 yards for Smith).
The Bad
The Defensive Line
Ohio State’s defensive line just flat out did not play well on Saturday. The Buckeyes were without starting defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, who had been the best player among the front four over the first two games, but that is not a good enough excuse against a Marshall team that has four newcomers on its offensive line from a year ago.
The Thundering Herd ran the ball pretty effectively, especially when quarterback Stone Earle was in the game. Marshall ran the ball 14 times for 59 yards in the first quarter, good for 4.2 yards per carry, and Ohio State had a tough time keeping contain on Earle — especially on third downs, where the Herd converted 6-of-11 times in the first half. When they weren’t running the ball, Marshall QB’s had far too much time to thrown, including on the late touchdown by Elijah Metcalf before halftime.
After recording eight sacks through the first two games of the season, Ohio State managed just one in this game. The pass rush was virtually non-existent for large stretches of the game, and the Buckeyes’ defense seemed unwilling to put extra guys in the box to help out despite Marshall’s reliance on the run game and quick slant passing game. The defensive front is going to play much better offensive lines than the Herd’s, so they will have to figure out what went wrong this time around.
Will Howard’s Interception
Howard recored his first — and to this point only — turnover of the season against Marshall on an attempted deep ball to Jeremiah Smith. It was an odd play, as Smith never looked like he thought the ball was coming his way and the pass itself was under thrown. Credit to defensive back Josh Moten for making a nice play on the ball and coming down with the interception, but that was definitely a pass that Howard wanted back.
All-in-all, it was a small blemish on Howard’s otherwise efficient day, finishing the game completing 16 of his 20 pass attempts for 275 yards and two TDs while also rushing for a score. If there is one knock on Howard’s game to this point it is that the deep ball has thus far alluded him, but with how easily Ohio State’s receivers have been turning short passes into long touchdowns, maybe the Buckeyes don't need to take all that many deep shots.
The Ugly
Special Teams
If you told me the Buckeyes had brought back Parker Fleming to coach the special teams in this one I certainly would have believed you. Pretty much every aspect of the special teams unit was awful on Saturday, from kicking and punting to returns.
The biggest story of the special teams’ afternoon was surprisingly kickoff trouble. Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding kicked the ball off out of bounds not once, not twice, but three times in a row, resulting in Marshall starting each of those drives at the 35-yard line. That kind of thing shouldn’t happen in a game one time, let alone three, and Fielding was summarily benched in favor of Austin Snyder the rest of the way, who managed to keep the ball in the field of play.
Ohio State also avoided near disaster on a lucky penalty against Marshall for an illegal formation when Brandon Inniss muffed a punt that the Herd had recovered before the play was called back. Inniss later got tripped up by the turf monster on a punt return that looked like it could have potentially gone for a touchdown.
For a unit that was under so much scrutiny the last few years and had so much emphasis on it this offseason, it was both a shocking and concerning day for the special teams.
Officiating
I don't know what was going on with the officiating crew in Columbus this weekend, but it looked as though it was their first time working a football game at any level.
On two separate occasions the group spent several minutes reviewing plays that were obviously called correctly on the field the first time, one being a fumble out of bounds by Marshall that was very obviously a fumble out of bounds by Marshall with no possible alternative and the other a catch by a Herd receiver that very clearly went out of bounds prior to making the catch, rendering the actual completion of the catch or not useless.
The made a handful of puzzling calls, including issuing a 15-yard penalty against Ryan Day for pointing out Marshall’s slow substations — I don't know I've ever seen a penalty levied against a coach prior to getting a sideline warning — as well as ejecting Caden Curry for targeting on a play where helmet-to-helmet contact was nothing more than incidental, much like Burke’s ejection a few weeks ago.
Even when they were making the correct call, the referees had trouble explaining the call on the mic to the crowd, either needing to cut the mic to confer with other officials or simply tripping over their own words and saying the wrong thing.
It didn’t have any impact on the game itself, but it definitely made it a harder watch than necessary. The whole crew was a complete disaster.
Continue reading...
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25633452/2173564432.jpg "Marshall v Ohio State")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25633194/usa_today_24290852.jpg "Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25633196/usa_today_24290485.jpg "NCAA Football: Marshall at Ohio State")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25633195/usa_today_24139816.jpg "Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25633245/Gemini_Generated_Image_3ajl7l3ajl7l3ajl.jpeg)
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25633115/Screenshot_2024_09_21_at_1.46.50_PM.png)
