Ohio State continued their perfect start to the season with a 34-16 victory at Illinois on Saturday. Despite allowing their opponent to reach double figures in scoring for the first time this season, the Buckeyes
still put together a dominant defensive performance as they ran their record to 6-0.
The Buckeye offense wasn’t so crisp against the Fighting Illini, only totaling 272 yards. While it’s hard to get too upset about an 18-point win on the road against a ranked team, there were some areas that could be concerning to Ohio State fans with games against Penn State and Michigan on the horizon in November.
Instead of diving into what we felt was wrong with the Buckeyes on Saturday, we are going to focus on some of the things we liked, since in the end, Ohio State still won by 18 points and covered the point spread.
Games like this week’s contest will help the Buckeyes going forward, as it will force them to look at some of their miscues, which is something they really haven’t had to do in the first five games of the season.
Duo of the Game – Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese
A couple weeks ago it was Caden Curry and Kayden McDonald in the road win over Washington.
This week it was Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese, who combined to make 19 tackles. Reese also had a sack and a half against the Fighting Illini, pushing his season total to 4.5 sacks, which is only bettered by Caden Curry through the first half of Ohio State’s season.
Styles and Reese are also neck-and-neck for the team lead in tackles right now. Reese has 38 tackles through the first six games of the season, while Styles has 37 stops.
Since Styles and Reese demand so much attention when they are on the field, it allows for some of the other talented Buckeye linebackers to shine when their number is called. Today it was Payton Pierce, who not only intercepted a pass, he also finished with four tackles.
Not that Reese or Styles ever want to come off the field, but at least they know when they have to the defense is still in good hands since the depth at the position is tremendous.
Lineup Change of the Game – Jermaine Mathews Jr. to nickelback
The injury to Lorenzo Styles Jr. forced a bit of shakeup in the secondary. The most obvious move was moving Jermaine Mathews Jr. from cornerback to nickelback, a position he is familiar with after taking snaps there over the last couple years.
Mathews responded with a sack, forced fumble, and a pass breakup that resulted in a Payton Pierce interception. Being able to plug Mathews into Styles’ spot in the secondary and not miss a beat against an Illinois passing attack that had been firing on all cylinders was huge.
With Styles out of the lineup, freshman Devin Sanchez also was able to see some extended time on the field. Sanchez held his own in his first career start, recording five tackles and breaking up a pass. With Davison Igbinosun and Mathews playing at a high level, Sanchez was targeted more but was up to the challenge.
The Fighting Illini threw for nearly 250 yards in the game, but some of that was because they fell in such a big hole in the first half they couldn’t afford to run the football any more on a day the Buckeyes dominated time of possession in.
Offensive Unit of the Game – The offensive line
The big uglies up front for Ohio State continue to state their case that they are the best offensive line in the country.
The Buckeyes didn’t allow a sack to Illinois on Saturday, and so far this season they have only allowed two sacks. There were times against the Fighting Illini where it seemed like Julian Sayin had hours to sit in the pocket and examine his passing options.
Halfway through his first season as starter, Sayin has proven that if you give him time he will carve up opposing defenses.
A couple players on the offensive line who really have stood out are Austin Siereveld and Luke Montgomery. Siereveld continued his amazing start to the season, as he has still not allowed a pressure.
While there was a moment when Siereveld missed a block on a Jeremiah Smith run that saw Smith leave the game for a short amount of time, the rest of the afternoon went well for the Buckeye left tackle.
Montgomery added some crushing blocks on the interior of the offensive line that has NFL scouts drooling at the possibility of drafting him.
Grinders of the Game – Ohio State’s running backs
The decision to run the football so much in Saturday’s victory irked many around Buckeye Nation, but the Ohio State running backs ran hard when their numbers were called.
It wasn’t pretty at times, but Ohio State ended up outrushing Illinois 106 to 47. Bo Jackson saw 10 carries, finishing with a team-high 47 yards rushing. The true freshman put together a gutsy performance despite being hampered by a lower-body injury.
Sitting just behind Jackson was C.J. Donaldson, who ran for 44 yards. The West Virginia transfer continues to have a nose for the end zone, plunging in two rushes for touchdowns in the victory. Donaldson now has half of the team’s 12 rushing touchdowns on the season.
The combination of the experience of Donaldson to go along with the big play ability of Jackson could be big coming down the stretch when teams start to tighten up their offensive game plans as the weather becomes more suspect around the midwest in November.
Sequence of the Game – Ohio State’s goal line stand
It has almost become comical at this point how good the Buckeye defense has been in goal-to-go situations over the last two seasons. Ohio State turned over Penn State last year before halftime, there was the iconic stand late in the game against Texas, and this year the Buckeyes hadn’t allowed a red zone touchdown entering this game.
Even though Illinois would finally slip past Ohio State in the red zone later in the game, the Buckeyes shut down the Fighting Illini right before halftime. Follow the ball being placed at the 1-yard line after a pass interference penalty, the defense hulked up.
First, Caden Curry tracked down Luke Altmyer to keep him out of the end zone. Then Tywone Malone snuffed out a shovel pass before Davison Igbinosun’s coverage on third down forced a field goal.
With teams having to work so hard just to score against the Buckeyes, it takes a lot out of wind out of the sails out of the opposition when Ohio State is able to keep them out of the end zone.
