Carnell Tate hauls Bobcat defender Tank Pearson into the end zone for six after a deep precision strike from Julian Sayin. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Ohio State stumbles in the red zone in the first half, but that problem is solved in the second with two Julian Sayin deep touchdown passes to the best pair of wide receivers in the nation.
Columbus, OH – Sometimes a team must live with the uncomfortable fact that the first half is no more than a means to get to the second half.
Stay focused. Don’t panic. Execute.
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Because no matter how many irksome moments come and go before halftime, you get 30 more minutes to prove you’re better than that. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and his team had no choice but to accept that fate Saturday night when Ohio University hung around like an unwelcome guest.
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Eventually the Bobcats, a truly competent team from the MAC, were shown the door 37-9 by No. 1 Ohio State’s ever-stifling defense and evolving deep passing game.
As Day talked about the game while fielding questions, his mood was difficult to read. After about eight minutes, he was asked how he felt about the tale of two dissimilar halves.
“Definitely frustrated in the first half with our inability to score touchdowns in the red zone and then encouraged with the way we responded in the second half,” he said.
That’s the best takeaway a coach can have to keep focused on the future.
Jayden Fielding didn’t take it personally when the boo-birds came out after the Bucks stalled in the red zone, he just quietly took care of business.
The first half actually started well. The offense and quarterback Julian Sayin clicked on the first three possessions until it reached the red zone, a place last year’s national championship team owned. The first trip ended on a failed fourth-and-goal from the 4. The second two ended with Jayden Fielding field goals of 38 and 20 yards for a 6-0 lead.
The fans expressed themselves with boos when Fielding ran onto the field for the second field goal on fourth-and-goal at the 2.
“Can’t let ego get in the way,” Day said. “Just kick the field goal, and let’s not get this game into a situation where we put ourselves at risk.”
The Buckeyes eventually got to halftime up 13-3 on Sayin’s 16-yard touchdown pass to tight end Max Klare. Ohio kicked a 44-yard field goal after a tipped pass at the line for the first of two Sayin interceptions.
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The second half began with the biggest shock of the night. Ohio State gave up a 67-yard touchdown pass from Parker Navarro to Chase Hendricks, the Bobcats No. 1 receiving threat.
Beau Atkinson gets a sack on Parker Navarro, his first as a Buckeye and the 12th of his career.
Get hung up on the drive-stopping plays in the red zone if you must, but this team is still growing into itself. Certainly, those moments were troubling to the team. Certainly, they will be dissected inside the Woody this week. Certainly, execution and unwavering attention to detail will be emphasized in the red zone.
“We’ve got to stay on schedule better in the red zone,” Sayin said. “Third long and the red zone that’s a little bit tougher because there’s not much space down there. But also just our timing in the red zone. It starts with me.”
The rest of the game started with Sayin in the best of ways. It became what the Buckeyes hope comes of the second half the season – a time for a young team to grow into a group capable of playing consistent and complementary football.
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So … take a moment to reflect on the final 29 minutes of the game. And behold the quarterback Sayin is becoming. He is far from a finished product. But can he ever throw the football.
Jeremiah Smith hauls in his 18th career touchdown pass, finishing with nine receptions for 153 yards.
He has the best pair of wide receivers in the country. But Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate can only catch the football if they can reach it. And Sayin is showing an innate ability to put the ball where they don’t have to reach for it.
If other things, in this at times uneven performance are forgotten, the deep touchdown passes to the post Sayin made to Smith and Tate less than seven minutes apart will be remembered. And they will be repeated by this trio.
The first one to Smith covered 47 yards. The second to Tate covered 49 yards and had a particular beauty to it. Both balls were caught a step before the goal line and pushed the Buckeyes lead to 30-9 with 14:14 left in the game.
In preseason and after the Texas game, Day talked about how when it was time for Sayin to go vertical with the passing game, he needed to have enough trust in the play, his receivers and himself to let it rip.
Indeed, he did.
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“Great plays by Carnell and Jeremiah,” Sayin said with a broad smile. “We work on those throws a lot in practice, and Coach Day and Coach Fessler always are telling our quarterbacks throw it high, give them air so they can adjust, and they made two great catches.”
Julian Sayin rolls to his right and slings one to Max Klare in the back corner of the end zone.
Day said the interceptions could have been avoided by better decisions, especially the second one when Sayin should have taken the sack and not the risk. But there was also a lot to like about a 25-for-32 performance, a career high 347 yards and three touchdowns.
“His deep balls were excellent tonight,” Day said. “The first one down the sideline to Jeremiah had a lot of air on it, which allowed him to go make a play. Both posts were well thrown. They had good rhythm.”
The touchdown to Smith got the Buckeyes out of a one-score game and to a 23-9 lead. After the Buckeyes got a first down on the ground, Smith knew what was coming. Day had told him on the sideline to be ready.
“You got to go get it,” Smith said was Day’s directive. “So I already knew the ball was coming to me. I just had to go and make a play.”
Smith made a lot of plays. He caught a career-high nine passes for 153 yards, the second-highest total of his still young career. He also ran a reverse for a 17-yard touchdown for the game’s final score.
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In the first half, Smith surpassed 1,500 yards in his 19th game to reach that total faster than any Buckeye. Jaxon Smith-Njigba did it in 20 games.
There will be lots of talk going forward about true freshman running back Bo Jackson, who led the Buckeyes’ three-man backfield that piled up most of the team’s 225 rushing yards. He showed his burst through the line again with his second straight 100-yard game, gaining 110 on nine carries with a long run of 64 yards.
Smith, for one, keeps telling everyone the kid from Cleveland is special.
Bo Jackson gets loose for 64 of his 109 yards against the Bobcats, his second 100 plus yard game.
“I’ve been saying Bo Jackson’s that guy, and you’ll see more of that throughout the rest of the season,” Smith said.
The defense did its usual thing, holding Ohio to 181 yards and 55 plays to allow the Ohio State offense to gain 572 yards on 63 plays. The defensive line continues to impress with quarterback pressure and quarterback containment. They kept Texas’ Arch Manning in a box and did the same with Ohio’s Parker Navarro, whose strength is running for first downs.
Caden Curry made game-changing plays from the right end position with four tackles, a sack, a hurry and a batted down pass. On the sack he powered through two linemen on third down to force a sack.
All-American safety Caleb Downs made six tackles and a couple of the finest textbook form tackles the Buckeyes will put on film this season. Linebacker Arvell Reese’s closing speed was on display.
The Bobcats – as generationally good as they might be for their program – made the 81.2-mile trip from Peden Stadium to Ohio Stadium full of confidence. Last Saturday they defeated West Virginian 17-10 at home in front of a record crowd of 26,740. The Bobcats didn’t quite sell out Peden. Capacity is 27,000.
Julian Sayin found Purdue transfer Max Klare all alone in the back of the end zone for Klare’s first TD as a Buckeye.
Maybe it took longer than most of the 105,765 in Ohio Stadium expected, but the Bobcats left town with an understanding of what the best teams in the nation look like.
And had they been watching – who knows, maybe they are Peacock subscribers – two former Michigan head coaches might have finally realized the difference between Ohio and Ohio State.
Even if the difference wasn’t completely clear until the second half.
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