Gene Ross
Guest
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ohio State’s 52-6 win over Akron
Gene Ross via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Buckeyes started slow but finished strong in a blowout victory to begin the season.
After a sleepy first half to begin the season, Ohio State came alive in the second half to defeat Akron 52-6 in the opener. The Buckeyes led just 17-3 at the break, but were able to shake off the cobwebs in a 21-point third quarter and get the backups in there late as they coasted to an easy win in Week 1.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Akron.
Jeremiah Smith
In an otherwise clunky first half offensively for Ohio State, five-star freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith introduced himself the college football world with authority. He, like the rest of the team, had to get himself acclimated to the game, dropping his first target on a screen pass. Smith responded shortly thereafter by hauling in the first touchdown of the season for the Buckeyes on a 16-yard pass from Will Howard — the transfer QB’s first TD pass in scarlet and gray.
That would not be all for Smith, who also scored the second touchdown of the game for Ohio State on a 9-yard slant route to make it 17-3 in the second quarter. Not done just yet, Smith made the longest play of the afternoon by either team with a 45-yard one-hand grab down to the 2-yard line to set up a Quinshon Judkins touchdown run to begin the third quarter.
All in all, Smith finished with a game-high six catches for 92 yards and the two scores. The freshman looked every bit the player he has been hyped up to be this offseason, and it will be a treat to watch him in Columbus for the next three years.
The Defense
While the offense was sputtering in the first half, the defense was lights out from start to finish. There was a fair share of misplays, as you’d expect from the very first game of the season, but it would be hard not to come away impressed with the performance of the Silver Bullets on Saturday, even given the quality of opponent.
Ohio State held Akron out of the end zone for all 60 minutes, giving up only two long field goals. The Buckeyes scored two defensive touchdowns, a scoop and score by Lathan Ransom and a pick-six on a deflected ball by Gabe Powers, while recording 10 tackles for loss, five sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble. The Zips totaled just 177 total yards, with 47 rushing yards on 35 attempts — good for 1.3 yards per carry. Akron finished the game 4-of-16 on third down.
Special Teams (!?)
Ohio State’s special teams unit, now free from the shackles of Parker Fleming, looked really solid against the Zips. Jayden Fielding made his lone field goal attempt of 40 yards, and Brandon Inniss seemed incredibly comfortable in his punt returner role. Outside of a few nice returns by Inniss there was nothing totally outstanding by the group, but having an average to slightly-above-average special teams unit will be a massive upgrade from years prior.
The Offensive Line
The offensive line had a rather tough go of it — especially in the first half. Without starting left guard Donovan Jackson, the blocking throughout the first two quarters was a glaring weakness for Ohio State. The run blocking stood out the most, with 44 of the Buckeyes’ 87 first half rushing yards coming on three carries. They had 43 rushing yards on the other 15 attempts, a 2.86 yards-per-carry average.
Things got better as the game went along, but the offensive line will be an area to watch moving forward, especially giving the attention it has received this offseason following a bad year for the unit in 2023. Missing Jackson is obviously important, but against a team like Akron the Buckeyes’ front should have been able to move guys off the ball with ease, and we did not really see that on Saturday.
The First Half
As mentioned several times above, Ohio State came out sluggish in the first half. Not being your sharpest in the first game action of a brand new season isn’t the end of the world, but a 17-3 lead at halftime as 50-point favorites against a lower-tier MAC school didn’t exactly inspire confidence. The Buckeyes were able to rebound well and eventually looked like the team we expected, but a start like that against a better football team could spell disaster later in the year.
The passing game was especially off-kilter in the first two quarters, with Howard completing just 10 of his first 21 pass attempts for 116 yards and the two Smith TDs. It was mostly a result of some sloppiness, with drops, miscommunication and a few puzzling play calls (on top of less-than-stellar offensive line play) leading the way for the slow start. Howard threw some really nice passes during that stretch, but it seemed like one thing or another would go wrong to prevent a completion.
In turn, two of Ohio State’s first three drives finished with a punt and a turnover on downs. From there, five of the next six drives with the starters still in the game resulted in points — four touchdowns and the one field goal.
The CBS Viewing Experience
The actual watching experience of this game from home was horrendous. This may be my ‘old man yells at clouds’ moment, but the 2024 debut of the Big Ten on CBS was awful.
Most if it was not anyone in particular’s fault, outside of Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson regularly mispronouncing several Ohio State players’ names. However, the amount of commercial breaks — and the length of those breaks — in college football now is just insane. We all knew the “two-minute timeout” was nothing more than an excuse to throw in another ad break, but as a whole the game felt like four hours of advertising interrupted by a football game rather than the other way around.
The 3:30 p.m. kickoff did not reach the fourth quarter until after 6:30 p.m., and the game did not come to an end until after 7:00 p.m. The vast majority of that air time was spent during commercial break, and each commercial break felt longer than the last.
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
Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Buckeyes started slow but finished strong in a blowout victory to begin the season.
After a sleepy first half to begin the season, Ohio State came alive in the second half to defeat Akron 52-6 in the opener. The Buckeyes led just 17-3 at the break, but were able to shake off the cobwebs in a 21-point third quarter and get the backups in there late as they coasted to an easy win in Week 1.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Akron.
The Good
Jeremiah Smith
In an otherwise clunky first half offensively for Ohio State, five-star freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith introduced himself the college football world with authority. He, like the rest of the team, had to get himself acclimated to the game, dropping his first target on a screen pass. Smith responded shortly thereafter by hauling in the first touchdown of the season for the Buckeyes on a 16-yard pass from Will Howard — the transfer QB’s first TD pass in scarlet and gray.
That would not be all for Smith, who also scored the second touchdown of the game for Ohio State on a 9-yard slant route to make it 17-3 in the second quarter. Not done just yet, Smith made the longest play of the afternoon by either team with a 45-yard one-hand grab down to the 2-yard line to set up a Quinshon Judkins touchdown run to begin the third quarter.
All in all, Smith finished with a game-high six catches for 92 yards and the two scores. The freshman looked every bit the player he has been hyped up to be this offseason, and it will be a treat to watch him in Columbus for the next three years.
The Defense
While the offense was sputtering in the first half, the defense was lights out from start to finish. There was a fair share of misplays, as you’d expect from the very first game of the season, but it would be hard not to come away impressed with the performance of the Silver Bullets on Saturday, even given the quality of opponent.
Ohio State held Akron out of the end zone for all 60 minutes, giving up only two long field goals. The Buckeyes scored two defensive touchdowns, a scoop and score by Lathan Ransom and a pick-six on a deflected ball by Gabe Powers, while recording 10 tackles for loss, five sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble. The Zips totaled just 177 total yards, with 47 rushing yards on 35 attempts — good for 1.3 yards per carry. Akron finished the game 4-of-16 on third down.
Special Teams (!?)
Ohio State’s special teams unit, now free from the shackles of Parker Fleming, looked really solid against the Zips. Jayden Fielding made his lone field goal attempt of 40 yards, and Brandon Inniss seemed incredibly comfortable in his punt returner role. Outside of a few nice returns by Inniss there was nothing totally outstanding by the group, but having an average to slightly-above-average special teams unit will be a massive upgrade from years prior.
The Bad
The Offensive Line
The offensive line had a rather tough go of it — especially in the first half. Without starting left guard Donovan Jackson, the blocking throughout the first two quarters was a glaring weakness for Ohio State. The run blocking stood out the most, with 44 of the Buckeyes’ 87 first half rushing yards coming on three carries. They had 43 rushing yards on the other 15 attempts, a 2.86 yards-per-carry average.
Things got better as the game went along, but the offensive line will be an area to watch moving forward, especially giving the attention it has received this offseason following a bad year for the unit in 2023. Missing Jackson is obviously important, but against a team like Akron the Buckeyes’ front should have been able to move guys off the ball with ease, and we did not really see that on Saturday.
The Ugly
The First Half
As mentioned several times above, Ohio State came out sluggish in the first half. Not being your sharpest in the first game action of a brand new season isn’t the end of the world, but a 17-3 lead at halftime as 50-point favorites against a lower-tier MAC school didn’t exactly inspire confidence. The Buckeyes were able to rebound well and eventually looked like the team we expected, but a start like that against a better football team could spell disaster later in the year.
The passing game was especially off-kilter in the first two quarters, with Howard completing just 10 of his first 21 pass attempts for 116 yards and the two Smith TDs. It was mostly a result of some sloppiness, with drops, miscommunication and a few puzzling play calls (on top of less-than-stellar offensive line play) leading the way for the slow start. Howard threw some really nice passes during that stretch, but it seemed like one thing or another would go wrong to prevent a completion.
In turn, two of Ohio State’s first three drives finished with a punt and a turnover on downs. From there, five of the next six drives with the starters still in the game resulted in points — four touchdowns and the one field goal.
The CBS Viewing Experience
The actual watching experience of this game from home was horrendous. This may be my ‘old man yells at clouds’ moment, but the 2024 debut of the Big Ten on CBS was awful.
Most if it was not anyone in particular’s fault, outside of Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson regularly mispronouncing several Ohio State players’ names. However, the amount of commercial breaks — and the length of those breaks — in college football now is just insane. We all knew the “two-minute timeout” was nothing more than an excuse to throw in another ad break, but as a whole the game felt like four hours of advertising interrupted by a football game rather than the other way around.
The 3:30 p.m. kickoff did not reach the fourth quarter until after 6:30 p.m., and the game did not come to an end until after 7:00 p.m. The vast majority of that air time was spent during commercial break, and each commercial break felt longer than the last.
Continue reading...