Friends, that is exactly how an Ohio State-Illinois game is supposed to go. The Illini are good enough to do some things and stress the Buckeyes at times on both sides of the ball, but ultimately, OSU’s extreme talent advantage is too much to deal with. That was what we saw in Ohio Stadium today as the No. 7 Buckeyes moved to 3-1 on the season and 1-0 in the Big Ten with a dominant 42-19 victory over Bret Bielema’s Fighting Illini (2-2, 0-1).
The story of the game is Jeremiah Smith notching another
milestone as he recorded the first three-touchdown game of his collegiate career, and he did it all in the first 21:29 of the game. The best player in college football finished the game with 217 yards on 12 receptions for those four total touchdowns.
More on him in a second, but a wide receiver can’t get the ball to himself, so his quarterback, Julian Sayin, deserves a ton of credit, and not just for what he did with his arm. On the day, the Buckeye QB was 27-for-36 for 367 yards and 4 touchdowns through the air, but the signal caller, who has been criticized for his lack of presence in the running game, rushed for 28 yards on seven carries, including a gritty third-down pickup and a 7-yard touchdown run.
I don’t know if Jeremiah Smith will win the Heisman, but he is college football’s best player
By the time Ohio State plays defending national champion Indiana on Oct. 17, it is likely that Jeremiah Smith will have Ohio State’s all-time records for receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. The matchup in Bloomington will be JJ.‘s 35th collegiate game.
Despite that fact, he has never won the Biletnikoff Award, nor been invited to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist. While he will always demur and put the team’s goals ahead of his own accolades on his priority list, it’s no secret that he wants some of those national recognitions; and I know I’m biased, but damnit, he deserves it.
Smith became the first Buckeye receiver to have three touchdowns in the first half of a game since Noah Brown against Oklahoma in 2016, and each one was an incredible example of something different that makes him so special.
Touchdown No. 1:
I know very few teams will be brash enough to leave Smith one-on-one outside against a corner anywhere on the field, especially in the low red zone. But any and every time that happens, this should be the play call. Smith makes Juice Clarke look small and ineffectual.
Touchdown No. 2:
On his longest reception of the game, J.J. made safety Mac Resetich look silly. Smith slowed his stride a bit to catch the ball, but Resetich didn’t get the memo, so he overran J.J. momentarily. From there, what Smith did next was borderline disrespectful, not because the Buckeye did anything wrong at all, but just because this game was being broadcast on national television and basically everyone Mac knows is going to see him get shoved in a blender while Jeremish Smith gives him the okie-doke.
Touchdown No. 3:
I admit, in real time, I thought it was pretty clear that Smith did not get his foot in bounds and it was an incomplete pass, but I should have known better. The strength, awareness, and body control are otherworldly. We have almost gotten used to him making an absurd play or two every game, but I hope we never become numb to it, because what he is able to do is truly special.
Julian Sayin… rushing threat?
One of the knocks that Julian Sayin has heard over his time as Ohio State’s starting quarterback is that he did not add much of anything to the rushing game. While I think fans recognize that he is not a Braxton Miller or Justin Fields-type athlete, and does not have nearly the toughness of J.T. Barrett or Will Howard, many inside and outside of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center want to see him take free yards when they are given to him and to show some grit when the opportunity presents itself.
He had an opportunity to do just that in the first half. It was third and 4 from Ohio State’s 28. Sayin rolled to his right as the pocket broke down, and instead of running for what looked like a relatively clean first down, he threw across his body to tight end Hunter Welcing, a pass that fell incomplete, leading to the Buckeyes’ first punt of the game.
That was the first time that the boo-birds were heard in The Horseshoe on Saturday, but on the next drive, Sayin got a bit of redemption. This time, it was third and 7 on the OSU 34. Sayin somehow avoided multiple sacks and powered through for a first down, then later in the drive, he added two more first-down conversions via more traditional quarterback keepers.
But it was his run at the end of the first half that got him into the end zone for the second time this season. The fact that this play was clearly not designed for the QB to run is what was most encouraging to me. On the third-down scramble, he didn’t really have a choice, but on the TD, Sayin still had time that he could have waited to see if anyone came open.
Instead, he realized that there was no one guarding the back side and took off for the pylon. I don’t want, or even need, Sayin to do this every drive, or even every game, but it is nice to know that he has it in him, and hopefully we will see it more often in high-leverage situations.
When you couple that with his record-breaking accuracy and the willingness he showed today to step up into the pocket and take hits in service of completing passes, that is the recipe for a championship quarterback.
I’m not saying that OSU’s QB is perfect and doesn’t still need to sharpen and clean things up, but I wasn’t sure Sayin had the level of fortitude in him that he showed today, so chalk this up as a positive performance for QB1.
Defense is still struggling to get off the field
The last two seasons for Ohio State’s defense — one under former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and one under current defensive coordinator Matt Patricia — have been historic. In both seasons, the Buckeyes have led the country in scoring defense (12.3 and 9.3 points per game) and total defense (254.6 and 219.1 yards per game). But after all of the talent on that side of the ball that has matriculated to the NFL, it isn’t exactly a surprise that this year’s version of the Silver Bullets isn’t quite as consistent, at least not yet.
There are a ton of players that I have quickly grown to love watching this season: nickleback Jay Timmons, corner Devin Sanchez, linebackers Riley Pettijohn and T.J. Alford, and safety Jaylen McClain, to name a few. But you’ll notice that none of the names I mentioned are on the defensive line, and that proved to be a bit of a recurring problem against Illinois.
Coming into the game, the Illini’s offensive line was thought to be its weak spot, even without a number of injuries that weakened the unit even further. And yet, Illinois was able to move the ball almost at will, especially in the second half. For the game, the Illini rushed for 199 yards on 33 attempts, for a 6-yard-per-rush average.
In the third period, Illinois was able to maintain possession, keeping the ball for 13:15 and limiting the electric Ohio State offense to a single five-play drive. Admittedly, the Buckeye defense did turn it back on in the fourth quarter, but against better teams, you can’t have those lapses.
That is the part that concerns me the most. Ohio State has enough talent on defense that I don’t expect this unit to suddenly become bad, and there are clearly playmakers at all three levels. But the Buckeyes have spent the last two years being able to rely on their defensive talent to essentially make every offense inoperable. Through four games this season, that’s just not a luxury they have anymore.
Illinois came into Columbus with an offensive line that should have been vulnerable, and instead, the Illini consistently created running lanes and kept Katin Houser relatively comfortable (OSU did sack the Illinois quarterback twice). Aidan Laughery was especially problematic, piling up 113 yards on just 11 carries for an unacceptable 10.3 ypc average.
The defensive line is struggling to find the right mix of players, but today’s struggles were the fault of the entire defense. There were missed fits, wide-open rushing lanes, blown tackles at all levels, and Illinois did a good job using Ohio State’s aggressiveness against it at times. But when the Buckeyes needed to get the Illini off the field, it just felt like they had no ability to win at the point of attack.
It obviously didn’t come back to bite them against Illinois, but it very well might moving forward. Iowa next week might not present the most explosive offense in the conference, but after that comes Maryland, Indiana, USC, Oregon, Northwestern (who looked pretty tough against Indiana on Friday), and eventually Michigan. Against the better teams on Ohio State’s schedule, Patricia can’t count on Jeremiah Smith and the offense putting up 49 points while his defense struggles to figure things out.
The previous two Ohio State defenses could erase mistakes because somebody up front — J.T. Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams, Ty Hamilton, Caden Curry — would eventually destroy a play. This group might ultimately find players capable of doing the same thing, but against both Texas and Illinois, there have been far too many stretches where nobody did.
And if that continues, the Silver Bullets are going to have to find a different way to shut down opposing offenses.
