Egbuka’s big day…Emeka Egbuka hauls in his third touchdown pass from Will Howard in Saturday’s Buckeyes win over Iowa. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
After a fast start and a head-scratching second quarter, Ohio State mows down Iowa 35-7 and sets up next Saturday’s top-10 showdown at Oregon.
Columbus, OH – Run the football, stop the run.
Score off turnovers.
And throw the ball to No. 2 and No. 4.
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As the schedule continues to increase in degree of difficulty, continuing to play those important pieces of the game plan will serve the No. 3 Buckeyes well. Well enough to beat every other team in the nation?
Maybe. The season is just getting started.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
But a 35-7 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes is always a good sign. And at 5-0 coming off a strong second half is exactly where the Buckeyes want to be heading to No. 6 Oregon’s hostile Autzen Stadium next Saturday to face the unbeaten Ducks.
The Buckeyes aren’t unbeatable, but Saturday’s performance makes them look a little more immune to the chaos that is turning the SEC upside down. Head coach Ryan Day said the Buckeyes will review game film Sunday, award champions and celebrate the win.
But, he said not even 30 minutes after the game, attention had already turned to the future. The Buckeyes don’t want to be Georgia in its loss to Alabama. And they never again want to be anything close to Alabama in its loss to Vanderbilt.
“It didn’t take too long for us to set our focus on Oregon,” Day said.
Quarterback Will Howard got off to a furious start…finished 21 for 25, 209 yards, 4 TDs.
Quarterback Will Howard had another successful day, but he was happy to talk about next Saturday night.
“I’m excited to go out there,” he said. “It’s going to be a fun game.”
Saturday’s game was fun for the Buckeyes in so many ways even if the second quarter fell far short of scoreboard expectations.
Those important pieces:
Ohio State rushed for 203 yards at 5.1 yards per carry, and TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins combined for 139 of them. That’s acceptably close to the 166.5 average they entered the game with considering Iowa allowed fewer than 70 yards a game in their 3-1 start to the season.
“That was a huge emphasis coming into this game where we knew we needed to be physical,” Howard said. “Those dudes (on the line) are bad SOBs, man. And they’re coming downhill and just rocking people off the ball.”
The defense, with big, bad Tyliek Williams back in the middle of the line creating traffic jams with linebackers playing fast behind him, held Iowa to 116 rushing yards and Kaleb Johnson to 86 yards on 15 carries, far from his 171.3 average. Before Johnson gained 38 yards and ran 28 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the second team, he had 48 yards. And 28 of those came on a third-quarter run that didn’t lead to points.
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Controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides against the best opponent to date pleased Day.
“We have a reference point moving forward,” he said. “This can give us a lot of confidence. It was a big challenge to our entire team about physicality and toughness. I thought we answered that.”
The Buckeyes’ final three touchdowns all came off turnovers that set up drives of 19, 40 and 27 yards.
Jeremiah Smith scintillated the crowd with another one-hand touchdown catch in the third quarter.
And No. 2 Emeka Egbuka and No. 4 Jeremiah Smith are the passing-game weapons that cancel out anything else that’s close to being equal.
Egbuka caught nine passes for 71 yards and three touchdowns. Smith, the true freshman, caught four passes for 89 yards and another one-handed touchdown catch to give him at least one touchdown in every game and seven overall.
“One on one they’re open,” Howard said. “I have all the trust in the world in those guys.”
Egbuka had fun watching all of it and being involved at the level he was.
“Shout out to the defense holding them to zero for as long as they did,” he said. “I kind of felt like I was just out there. Will was putting them exactly where they need to be. All I had to do was catch it.”
The game script was fun through the 7:36 mark of the first quarter. That marked the end of a 14-play, 88-yard drive that ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Egbuka. On the drive, Howard completed all six of his passes for 14 yards, eight running plays produced 42 yards, they made six first downs and converted three third-down situations.
Flawless, surgical, but not quite tone-setting.
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Because in the second quarter the Buckeyes turned the ball over on downs when Howard was stopped a yard short on a fourth-and-two run, on a fumble after Smith’s first catch on the perch of the red zone and on Howard’s underthrown interception.
The Buckeyes outgained the Hawkeyes 199-90 in the half but led only 7-0.
“We beat ourselves,” Howard said. “It’s never the other team beating us, but it’s all about how you respond.”
Cody Simon’s fumble recovery led to another third quarter touchdown.
Howard didn’t let the interception make him less aggressive. He finished 21 of 25 with 209 yards and four touchdowns.
“In my long career, one of the things that I’ve learned is that you can’t let the play before affect the next play,” he said. “I’ve gotten a lot better at that.”
Day said he tries to rattle Howard in practice, but it doesn’t work.
“He tries to get in my head, he tries to make practice harder than the game,” Howard said. “We push ourselves in practice so that it is truly harder than the games.”
The second half was new and must have felt easy as the points piled up.
OSU started with the football and began atoning for the second quarter with a drive similar to its first one. The Buckeyes covered 86 yards in nine plays for a 14-0 lead in a Michigan State déjà vu moment.
Day said on Tuesday that it’s clear defenses always want to know where No. 4 is. In a prescient move, Smith’s number was displayed on the seats in the middle section of the south stands for everyone to see. As fans filled in and covered up the display, Iowa watched No. 4 like a hawk during the first half.
But on the first drive of the third quarter Iowa’s knowledge of Smith’s whereabouts didn’t matter.
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Smith put a double move on the Iowa secondary that two defenders saw but couldn’t keep up with. He got behind two Hawkeyes for a 53-yard catch to the four. Then Chip Kelly called No. 4’s number again on the next play.
Howard already knows what to do in situations when he sees Smith covered by one man: Throw the ball in Smith’s ZIP code and you have a better than even chance. And it didn’t matter that Iowa’s Kyler Fisher had his hands all over Smith on the high fade throw.
Smith, with his left arm tangled with Fisher, leaped and pulled down his second one-handed touchdown catch in as many weeks. Then he pushed Fisher away and jumped into a chest bump with tight end Jelani Thurman.
How defense is done…Denzel Burke punishes a Hawkeye receiver during Satuday’s 35-7 Buckeye win.
“That one-handed catch – stupid,” Howard said shaking his head. “Just let them go make plays, and it’s fun to watch.”
It’s quite likely that Smith set a record for consecutive games with one-handed touchdown catches at two. And you have to wonder if Smith injures (even breaks) his left hand that he still might start.
Then the turnovers turned on the onslaught that finished a run of four touchdowns in the first 19:02 of the second half.
Defensive end Jack Sawyer forced a fumble on a sack of former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, and linebacker Cody Simon recovered at the 19. Three plays later Howard scored on a three-yard run for a 21-0 lead.
Simon got involved in another turnover with a tipped pass at the line that was intercepted by Davison Igbinosun. Seven plays later Howard threw a 15-yard touchdown pass on an almost back-shoulder throw that Egbuka snagged going toward the back left corner of the end zone. The pass was past Fisher’s ear so fast that he was the most surprised person of the 105,135 in the stadium.
Defensive end Jack Sawyer flexes after a tackle in Saturday’s win over Iowa.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Ty Hamilton sacked McNamara, forced a fumble and Kenyatta Jackson recovered at the Iowa 27. The Buckeyes kept the ball on the ground in Henderson’s hands until Howard completed a three-yard touchdown pass to Egbuka on a similar route for a 35-0 lead. This time Egbuka had to adjust more to the throw.
Adversity in this game, Day said, was good for his team even if they didn’t like the miscues that brought it on. But they moved on, made the most of the third quarter and set up a Big Ten showdown on the West Coast for the first time.
And just like those bad plays Howard moves on from, it’s time to move on from this one as fun as it was.
“I’m proud of the way that we played,” Howard said, “but we’ve got a big one coming up next week.”
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