Ohio State took a bit to get going on Saturday, but eventually ran away — quite literally — with a 45-16 win over Maryland in Week 6.
The Buckeyes’ ground game was the star of the show, as Bo Jackson and Ja’Kobi Jackson led the way with a 200-yard rushing performance. Jeremiah Smith still managed to get his, scoring another pair of touchdowns as he eyes the Big Ten record books, and the defense took another step forward as they held Terrapins QB Malik Washington to a career-low 64 passing yards.
Penalties
were a big issue for Ohio State, and Ryan Day voiced his displeasure with his team’s execution heading into halftime, but it was yet another mostly positive performance for a Buckeyes’ roster that was without several key contributors.
Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Maryland.
The Good
Jeremiah Smith
It was a quiet day at the office for Jeremiah Smith, at least by his standards. The star receiver only caught four balls against Maryland, but he made the most of those opportunities.
Smith’s first two catches of the day both went for touchdowns. His first was a simple crossing route, which he turned upfield for a 33-yard touchdown. His second, a seemingly inconspicuous bubble screen, turned into a 40-yard touchdown after he completely burned past every defender in his way.
On top of his two scoring plays, Smith made a ridiculous one-handed grab on a third-and-4 which he caught behind the sticks. He was somehow still able to turn his body around and put himself in a position to pick up the first down after hauling in the off-target throw.
Overall, Smith finished the game with four catches (on five targets) for 93 yards and two touchdowns. He remains far and away the Heisman Trophy favorite.
Defense
It was another positive day for the Ohio State defense, which has continued to improve as the season goes along.
The Buckeyes held Maryland quarterback Malik Washington to 64 yards passing — the worst mark of his young career. Washington completed only 12 of his 25 pass attempts on the day, only the second time over his 18 career starts that the QB finished with a completion percentage below 50%.
The Terrapins did not complete a single pass greater than 12 yards.
Ohio State was equally solid on the ground, holding lead back Dejuan Williams to 48 yards on 16 carries. As a team, Maryland mustered only 82 rushing yards on 28 attempts, good for a 2.8 yard-per-carry average. The Terps’ longest run of the day was 13 yards.
It was an especially impressive day for the safeties, as both Jaylen McClain and Earl Little Jr. balled out.
McClain finished as Ohio State’s leading tackler, finishing with eight total tackles, four of which were solo. Little Jr. tied for second on the team with four total tackles while adding a pass breakup. Both guys were active in coverage and made great plays in the open field.
The Buckeyes didn’t do a ton up front, as Maryland was very clearly focused on getting the ball out quickly, but Eddrick Houston and Qua Russaw were the stars up front. Both were disruptive in the run game, combining for 2.5 tackles for loss.
Further Run Game Improvements
Speaking of areas where this Ohio State team continues to improve, we saw further strides in the run game from the Buckeyes on Saturday.
Ohio State ran for over 200 yards against Maryland, which is the first time they’ve hit that mark since the season opener against Ball State. Bo Jackson also became the first Buckeye this year to rush for over 100 yards individually, with both he and Ja’Kobi Jackson’s previous season high being 83 yards apiece in the opener.
Bo Jackson finished the game with 23 carries for 107 yards and two touchdowns. Averaging 4.7 yards per attempt, the sophomore also came away with a rare explosive run for Ohio State when he turned a fourth-and-1 play into a 25-yard score in the third quarter. His second touchdown of a day put an exclamation point on a 16-play, 72-yard drive that ate up nearly 10 minutes of game clock, with 14 of those plays being runs.
Ja’Kobi Jackson looked good in his own right. The Florida transfer racked up 76 yards on 14 carries (5.4 yards per attempt) with a long of 15 yards. Ja’Kobi had some really tough runs, and both he and Bo seemed to feed off each other as the game went along.
The Buckeyes are still not quite where they’d like to be with the rushing attack just yet, but this duo is seeing their confidence continue to grow.
The Bad
Injuries
Ohio State entered this Week 6 matchup even more banged up than originally thought.
We figured the Buckeyes would be without Jay Timmons, who missed last week’s contest against Illinois with an injury. We also knew early in the week there was a good chance Ohio State would be without offensive tackle Phillip Daniels, who has now missed four consecutive games after suffering an injury against Texas.
Then the injury report got even more crowded on Thursday night, adding receivers Devin McCuin and Brandon Inniss as well as linebacker Christian Alliegro and defensive lineman Khary Wilder. While all four guys were initially listed as ‘questionable’, none of them took the field against Maryland despite both McCuin and Timmons upgrading to ‘probable’ on Friday.
Then the big surprise came on Saturday morning, when it was announced starting tackle Austin Siereveld would also miss the contest against the Terrapins. Siereveld’s absence was allegedly due to an illness, so hopefully Ohio State can get him back in time for next week’s matchup against Indiana.
The Buckeyes are pretty banged up at midseason, and they have their toughest stretch of the year coming up with three straight games against ranked opponents. Ohio State made it work along the offensive line against Maryland, but missing Siereveld and Daniels against Indiana will be a much tougher ask.
It remains to be seen how many of these guys are dealing with serious injuries and how many were just precautionary measures against an overmatched Maryland team, but they need to get healthy rather quickly.
Special Teams (Temporary upgrade from The Ugly)
Ohio State’s special teams unit did not do anything abysmal in this game to warrant really even talking about them, but I wanted to mark the first time this season that the group did not find itself in the ‘Ugly’ portion of this column.
That’s not to say the Buckeyes’ special teams was without its issues.
Ohio State was again called for offsides on a kickoff for the second time in two weeks, and they were also flagged for running into the kicker on a punt that luckily did not move the chains. They also had a false start on an extra point attempt.
The Buckeyes punted from midfield on their first drive of the game, and the ball was kicked into the end zone for a touchback instead of attempting to pin Maryland deep — a net punt of about 32 yards.
However, it is worth noting that Ohio State’s special teams unit did manage a few positives.
Other than that first punt, Joe McGuire averaged 52 yards per attempt with a long of 56 yards, pinning the Terrapins inside their own 20-yard line twice. Connor Hawkins also made his only field goal attempt, this one from 40 yards out.
In addition, Ohio State stopped an attempted fake punt to force a turnover on downs late in the second quarter, and Phillip Bell had a nice 31-yard punt return.
I’d say at worst it was a net neutral day for the special teams, which is far better than we can usually say.
The Ugly
Penalties
Ryan Day isn’t going to be all too pleased in the film study this week despite the 45-16 win.
Ohio State was exceedingly sloppy in this game, especially early on. The Buckeyes had issues on both sides of the ball with execution and communication, and the team just felt out of sorts at various moments throughout the afternoon.
Penalties were a huge issue against Maryland. Ohio State was flagged eight times for 65 yards in the game, and many of those flags came in the most inopportune spots.
The most egregious penalty of the day came on the Terrapins’ lone offensive touchdown drive.
Ohio State appeared to get the stop on third down on an incomplete pass, but Beau Atkinson shoved Washington for no reason after the play to draw a roughing the passer call and keep the Maryland offense on the field. The Buckeyes proceeded to add three more penalties on that drive alone, including a pair of offsides and a defensive delay of game (?) as they practically willed Maryland into the end zone.
Ohio State also had a touchdown called back on a holding penalty midway through the second quarter, ultimately killing the drive and forcing the Buckeyes to settle for a field goal.
The lack of focus and execution didn’t come back to bite them this week, but Ohio State cannot afford to have a sloppy start against Indiana, USC or Oregon unless they want to put themselves in a heap of trouble.
In a way, maybe this type of performance will enhance their focus as they prepare for a battle with the Hoosiers in Bloomington next week. Time will tell…
