Carnell Tate continues to give teams something else to think about besides Jeramiah Smith as he has a career day at the ‘Shoe. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Ohio State’s offense answered red-zone and long passing game questions, and the Buckeyes strengthened their hold on No. 1 in what will be remembered as the Carnell Tate Game.
Columbus, OH – Watch Ohio State play football and try to pick a fatal flaw. Inform the world of the one thing or the two things you are convinced will rise up and beat this team.
Nit-picking has been a popular September pastime, so go for it. And good luck. Because after Saturday night’s performance what’s left?
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Nothing. (And it’s OK to say the Buckeyes are playing like the best team in the country.)
Through four games – all victories – the whisperers wondered about scoring enough touchdowns in the red zone and completing passes downfield. It was enough for the skeptics to go to bed every Saturday night trying to ignore the anxiety over such deficiencies.
Relax, and get some sleep.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The No. 1 Buckeyes settled those debates Saturday night in a 42-3 victory over a pretty good Minnesota team. And the Buckeyes showed – as other teams of note continue to lose unexpectedly – staying power.
“It has nothing to do with our opponents,” head coach Ryan Day said. “You’ve heard me say that before, and I guess it sounds cliche and boring. But it’s true.”
So true that Day and his players never talk about being ranked No. 1 or having won nine straight games unless they are asked. All Sonny Styles needed for confirmation about why rankings don’t phase the team was to reference Penn State’s loss to UCLA and Texas’ loss to Florida on Saturday.
“In the Big 10 or just across the country, you see it today, you can lose any game,” he said. “There’s a lot of good teams out there, and there’s a lot of good players out there.”
Styles knows what Day will say in Sunday’s team meeting.
Jim who? Sonny Styles and the Matt Patricia defense put on another clinic, raising the question. By only allowing 5 points per game and no TD’s in the red zone, will they become the defense to which all others are compared?
“We come every Sunday and he says, ‘How would this meeting be if we lost the game?’” he said. “So we got to approach each week like that, and approach correcting our mistakes like that.”
Next Saturday the Buckeyes travel to Illinois, a team that has been ranked all season and has rebounded from a humbling blowout loss to Indiana.
“It’s going to be a bear,” Day said. “You saw what happened in college football today. The team that’s desperate, the team that’s hungry, is going to win the game. And it’s our job to make sure it doesn’t take a loss to make sure we are hungry and desperate.”
Clearly the offense has stayed hungry and worked on correcting mistakes in the red zone, a place they have turned the ball over on downs or kicked field goals far too much for their liking. On Saturday, they were finishers, scoring touchdowns on all five trips inside the 20.
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The Julian Sayin-led offense did it against the nation’s fifth-best rushing defense with rushes of one yard by C.J. Donaldson, five yards by Bo Jackson and one yard by backup quarterback Lincoln Kienholz. And Sayin threw touchdowns of six and nine yards to Jeremiah Smith.
Bo Jackson made his first start of the season, contributing 63 yards and a TD.
That success near the goal line should improve the Buckeyes’ red zone national ranking of 74th and Big Ten ranking of 12th. The red zone is now a confident place for the Buckeyes.
Confidence in the long passing game grew thanks to Minnesota covering receivers man-to-man too many times. Saturday will be remembered as the Carnell Tate game. He set career highs with nine catches, 183 yards and a long pass of 49 yards.
“We were just shocked that they came out in man, and we just made them pay for it,” Tate said.
Tate caught a 48-yarder on the first touchdown drive. He started the second scoring drive with a 49-yarder. On the next drive, the only play needed was a 44-yard touchdown strike to Tate. At that point Minnesota had to know what Tate believes.
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Tate was asked if he and Smith were the top receiving duo in the country: “I know we are.”
The Buckeyes showed a little razzle-dazzle on this punt return as Lorenzo Styles, Jr., gets an across the field lateral from Brandon Innis and promptly makes the Gophers pay.
Day would agree, and he made it a point to state how good Smith is.
“I don’t think it’s even close that Jeremiah Smith is the best offensive player in college football,” he said. “But if it’s close, I’d like to know who it is.”
Drawing more double teams, Smith caught seven passes for 67 yards and a long of 31 yards. Tight end Max Klare caught five passes for 63 yards and a long of 29 yards.
“I can’t say enough about Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith, Brandon Inniss, Max Klare, all of these guys are very prideful, all of them want the ball, all of them have expectations,” Day said. “To see the unselfishness each week of a bunch of guys that just want to win, that’s winning football.”
The offense, however, can only go as far as the quarterback can take it. Sayin, owner of the nation’s highest completion percentage, had his third 300-yard passing game with 326 yards on 23 of 27 passing and three touchdowns. Day and offensive coordinator Brian Hartline have been able to manage Sayin’s development because the defense has been the best in the country.
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“Quarterbacks sometimes we have to maybe put them in situations that they’re maybe not ready for,” Day said. “But when you have a defense like we do right now, you can bring them along in a certain way. And you see it every week Julian play with more and more confidence, and we wanted to put more on his plate this week.”
Julian Sayin pushed his nation-best completion percentage to 80.2 , while going 23-of-27 for 326 yards.
The running game forged more of an identity with freshman Bo Jackson starting. He gained 63 yards on 13 carries to lead a 133-yard and 4.4 average-per-carry effort.
What’s a defense to do against all those playmakers?
“They know how people are going to defend them,” Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said. “And the minute you pick something, they go ahead and take what you’re giving them. They’ve got the playmakers to do it.”
While the offense has been developing its identity, the defense continues to be known as the best unit in the country. They lowered the number of points they allow per game to five. After the Gophers drove 66 yards to an opening field goal, it gave them a false sense of security. From there, the Buckeyes held the Gophers to 96 additional yards for a total of 162. The Gophers were 1 of 11 on third-down conversions and 0 of 1 on fourth-down conversions.
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“They put you in a corner and they change up so many different coverages and fronts,” Fleck said. “After that first drive I thought we had them in their base defense and their base coverages and we had a really good bead on them. Then we came back and they changed it.”
When the Gophers got to the red zone, they kicked their field goal after achieving first-and-goal at the 10 because they couldn’t complete a pass. In the second quarter, trailing 14-3, Fleck went for it on fourth-and-one from his own 44.
And if you’ve watched Ohio State’s defense the past two years, you knew what was coming.
Caleb Downs, All-American safety, and Beau Atkinson, defensive end, stopped running back Darius Taylor for no gain. And the deflation of Minnesota began.
Caden Curry and his crew made sure the officials knew they had stopped the Gophers on 4th and short.
So here the Buckeyes are. Considered the best team for now. Showing themselves to be more complete week by week. And staying hungry. None of this guarantees a second straight national championship. But the chances of getting there and being good enough to win it all look more promising than ever for Day’s program.
That would be a historic event in Columbus. Day kind of made history Saturday. His career record stands at 75-10 and a winning percentage of .882. That’s .001 better than the final record of Notre Dame legend Knute Rockne, set from 1918-30.
“Well, I’m glad you brought that up because this is the last game I’ll ever be coaching at Ohio State,” Day quipped. “I’m gonna hang it up, and that’s it. I’m gonna go walk it off right now. I appreciated being the coach here.”
Then Day got serious and gave credit to everyone else.
“It has everything to do with the players and the coaches at this place,” he said. “When you recognize how long some of those coaches coached and recognize what they went through and the seasons and different changes, you just can appreciate how long they coached. Some of these seasons are like dog years at Ohio State, but I’m just fortunate to be here. And I know what the obligation is and what the expectation is, and so do these players and coaches, and we’ll just keep swinging away.”
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