COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — At times against Marshall, it wasn’t pretty. And it’s apparent that there are still things for Ohio State to work on moving forward.
But as the schedule shifts from the non-conference to Big Ten play, the third-ranked Buckeyes have a perfect 3-0 record. All three wins were dominant performances, led by the running back tandem of Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, who once again combined for four touchdowns for the second straight game.
“I thought we had a good tempo on offense today,” head coach Ryan Day said. “We had an opportunity to wear them down and be explosive so I thought that was well done.”
Here are three takeaways from Ohio State’s 49-14 win over the Thundering Herd.
Offense capable of big, explosive plays
There were moments when there was little time for the defense to catch its breath on Saturday afternoon. Quarterback Will Howard orchestrated three scoring drives that took two plays or fewer against the Thundering Herd. Two of them came from Howard’s arm: a 68-yard reception by Emeka Egbuka and a 53-yard touchdown catch by Jeremiah Smith.
“I’m just very thankful for the people blocking for me. It was a screen play obviously and the linemen were able to get out and get to the next level and block those linebackers and safeties,” Egbuka said. “Carnell Tate ran all the way down and scored with me pretty much to get that last corner. It was by no feat of my own that I was able to score.”
Yet it was Judkins’ 86-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that stood out the most from the Buckeyes’ scoring frenzy. The Ole Miss transfer recorded his longest touchdown run in his career and tied for third-longest rushing score in Ohio State history.
“The mindset of me and my teammates as a whole is to play with bad intentions,” Judkins said. “That’s my job, I’m going to do my job at the end of the day. I’m going to try and get the first down, I’m going to try and score. So every time I get the ball, I’m going to make the most of it.”
Defense overcomes early challenges
Coming into Saturday’s game, Ohio State had yet to allow a touchdown this season. In fact, the defense hadn’t even allowed an opponent to enter the redzone. We knew those streaks were bound to end eventually but the Buckeyes were rattled early, making the majority of the 103,371 fans a bit nervous during the first quarter.
“We haven’t been hit with too much adversity in the season. But them going out there and scoring. We just had to take a chip on our shoulder,” Buckeyes senior cornerback Jordan Hancock said. “We just had to go out there and make adjustments because we’ve got some really good coaches and they’re trying to put us in the best position for us to win.”
The adjustments paid off. After Marshall converted six third-down attempts in the first half, the OSU defense limited the Herd to just one while being held scoreless in the latter 30 minutes of the contest.
Issues on special teams
There were a number of moments that showed Ohio State’s biggest weakness right now might be on special teams. At one point in the first half, Brandon Inniss muffed on a punt return, allowing Marshall to recover just yards away from the endzone. But Inniss got bailed out when the Thundering Herd were hit with an illegal motion penalty.
Then kicker Jayden Fielding struggled on kickoffs in the first half with all three attempts going out of bounds. Fielding was replaced by Groveport native Austin Snyder in the second half.
“I thought [Austin] did a nice job. We’ll evaluate [Jayden] and see if there’s any tweak or something that happened in the hip or whatever,” Day said. “But either way, we can’t have that. That’s putting our defense in a terrible situation. Having three out of bounds and three drives start at the 35-yard line, that’s completely ridiculous. We gotta get that fixed.”
Four weeks and three wins in, there’s still plenty for Ohio State to improve on. Now the focus is on Michigan State.
