Defensive end Caden Curry checks for crowd’s approval on his big day in Seattle…a team record for tackles for loss. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Scott Stuart)
Learn the names of Caden Curry, Kayden McDonald, Kenyatta Jackson and Tywone Malone. They are the new starters on the defensive line, and the way they played Saturday at Washington will cause future opponents to seek answers for how to slow them down.
Seattle, WA – The Ohio State defense entered the season with big-play, brand-name dudes – Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, Davison Igbinosun.
But who would perform the dirty work, grind behind the scenes, make important situational plays? A defensive line of all new starters, perhaps. But how much could reasonably be expected from them this early in the season?
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Defensive end Caden Curry, a senior getting his first chance to start, understood the presumed role and anonymity of the front four.
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“Our defensive line is just a bunch of no names,” he said. “We just go out there, we just try to ball, and we try to play as hard as we can.”
On Saturday, on the peaceful shoreline of Puget Sound, on the most gorgeous of Pacific Northwest afternoons at Washington’s Husky Stadium, Ohio State’s defensive line made a name for itself. Nothing catchy yet. The early 1970s Miami Dolphins already own “No-Name Defense.”
But through four games, and especially on Saturday in hostile territory, they were the dudes on defense. They led an effort that locked down the highest-scoring team in the country (previously 55.7 points a game), kept elusive quarterback Demond Williams in a cage, and created 51 negative yards.
And like a dominant defense sometimes must do, it gave No. 1 Ohio State’s offense time to find rhythm for a 24-6 victory in the Big Ten opener, ending Washington’s 22-game home winning streak.
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“You have some guys in there like Sonny and Caleb and now Caden and IGB that have played a lot of football, and they’re kind of the guys that are leading the way,” said head coach Ryan Day, whose team is 4-0 and looking more complete every week. “These guys are following because they believe in them because they’ve seen it.”
Washington (3-1 and unranked) came in confident with an offense that had scored on 21 straight possessions. What the Huskies probably didn’t see coming was how disruptive the Buckeyes’ front four could be. If anyone, Curry surely got the most attention on the scouting report. He entered the game with three tackles for loss, including two sacks.
Defensive end Eddrick Houston eyes a Husky ball carrier during OSU’s 24-6 win Saturday in Seattle.
Curry will likely earn some defensive player of the week honors. Against the Huskies, he set a school record with five tackles for loss, including three sacks, and led the team with 11 tackles.
“I’ve been seeing this since freshman year, so it’s not surprising,” said senior and fellow starting end Kenyatta Jackson. “I’m very excited for him.”
Jackson added a sack, and tackle Kayden McDonald had two sacks for a total of six. Williams was never a factor as a runner as he had been in wins over Colorado State, UC Davis and Washington State. He gained 20 yards on seven carries, but the six sacks set the Huskies back 48 yards, leaving Williams’ rushing total at minus-28.
“[Defensive line coach] Larry Johnson talked about four guys playing as one,” Day said. “When you’re going against a quarterback like this, it’s easy to find yourself going off on your own and trying to make plays. And then it’s easy for there to be layers that get disoriented, and before you know it, he can squirt out.”
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The chemistry up front isn’t all new. Curry, McDonald, Jackson and tackle Tywone Malone and others have been teammates for a long time. They know each other’s moves, but they’ve been waiting for a chance to show it. Not as individuals, but as a unit.
“Not playing selfish football,” Jackson said. “We got to give up some plays. We got to do things that we don’t like sometimes. But hey, as long as the team wins, we’re good.”
Jeremiah Smith’s catch-and-run for a touchdown before halftime put the Buckeyes ahead for good.
When Williams had time to throw, he was good, completing 18 of 22 passes for 173 yards. But when the rush found paths to Williams on third and fourth downs, he learned their names.
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“Just havoc,” Jackson said. “Nobody can block us. Do your job and get the dude with the ball.”
Those four quarters of havoc stopped Washington’s three red-zone advances, holding them to a field goal in each half and turning them over on downs in the fourth quarter. All day, and especially at halftime, Washington had to wonder why it couldn’t add to its early lead.
In the first half, the Huskies had done so many things they wanted to do, stuff you must do to beat the No. 1 team in the land.
But you must finish what you start if you want to win games like this on days when you declare a “Purple Reign” for the crowd to make the scarlet-clad visiting fans as invisible as possible.
That didn’t work as well as the Huskies had hoped. The purple and scarlet clashed in a lot of sections around Husky Stadium. There were easily more than 10,000 Ohio State fans among the record crowd of over 72,000. Maybe 20,000.
“You saw sea of red, and when it’s supposed to be a crazy atmosphere, and just seeing all them was a great atmosphere to see,” Curry said. “We just took accountability of our actions today, and we just made the plays when our number’s called.”
The Huskies’ superlatives in the first half: They only let the Buckeyes’ offense on the field three times. They forced a turnover on downs at the Washington five and a turnover on a fumble when Brandon Inniss lost the ball on an otherwise good punt return. They shut down Ohio State’s offense for over 25 minutes.
Running back C.J. Donaldson celebrates one of his two touchdowns in the Buckeyes’ win.
But when Jedd Fisch led his team to the locker room, the scoreboard read Ohio State 7, Washington 3. He had to feel like he was in a “Purple Haze” because of what Curry and Company was doing to his offense and what Bo Jackson, Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith had just done to his defense on a dominating touchdown drive.
The Buckeyes finally found a balance throwing the ball to Smith and handing it off to Jackson on a 10-play, 73-yard drive. On third-and-11 at the Washington 18, the Buckeyes expected pressure. Sayin sidestepped the rush and hit Smith on a short pass across the middle. And Smith did the rest, as is his habit, for touchdown and a 7-3 lead with 1:08 left in the half.
“Jeremiah did a nice job of finding the window, and the receivers did some great blocks, and the O line did a great job up front,” Sayin said.
The offense continued to hum in the second half, opening with a 14-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in a 14-3 lead on C.J. Donaldson’s one-yard run. Two more drives ended in Jayden Fielding’s 34-yard field goal and Donaldson’s four-yard touchdown catch on fourth-and-one.
The Buckeyes’ longest pass play was a 19-yard to Smith. The longest running play was a 16-yarder by Jackson (17 carries, 80 yards) to set up Donaldson’s touchdown catch. The day was much more methodical than the past two weeks when long touchdown passes were the highlights in wins over Grambling State and Ohio.
“We had to take what they were giving us,” said Sayin, who saw more zone coverage than what the Huskies normally play. “There wasn’t many opportunities for big shots. It was going to be longer drives, and I think we did a good job of executing.”
Much was made about how Sayin would handle a noisy crowd and a good team in his first road game as the starter. He completed 22 of 28 passes for 208 yards, took only one sack with a few good escape moves, and never came close to throwing an interception. He relied heavily on Smith, who caught nine passes for 81 yards and reached 100 receptions in his 20th game, matching the record of Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Brandon Inniss enjoys some yards after catch in the Buckeyes’ 24-6 win over Washington.
“Coach Day has been preaching to us all week about having poise in the noise,” Sayin said. “We did a good job of having poise in the loud environment. Our mindset was just keep swinging. Things aren’t going to go our way the whole time. There’s going to be momentum shifts, so we just gotta keep swinging.”
With a dominant defense and talented playmakers on offense, the Buckeyes might just be beginning to swing. They’ve got Smith and Tate catching the ball. They’ve got Jackson, Donaldson and James Peoples making positive plays from the running back position. They’ve got the big names and no names on defense.
Still, the first guy who will always get talked about on this team – no matter what anyone else does in a particular game – is the dude who brings it every game. And that, obviously, is Jeremiah Smith.
“That alien gives us some juice,” Donaldson said. “Man, that guy’s different.”
And there’s a bunch of dudes on the defensive line that are suddenly different bringing some unexpected juice.
Quarterback Julian Sayin enjoys some post-game national exposure on CBS.
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