Ohio State is no stranger to close games against Penn State, and with the scoreboard showing 17-14 at halftime, it looked like we could be in for another one of those classic battles. That was not to be the case, however, as the Buckeyes’ defense pitched a second half shutout and Julian Sayin further solidified his Heisman campaign in a 38-14 Ohio State win.
Here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the Buckeyes’ latest victory…
The Good
Jeremiah Smith
On a day where Carnell Tate sat out as a precautionary
measure for a minor potential injury in pre-game warm-ups, we got a brief glimpse at what the Ohio State passing attack would look like if it only had the best wide receiver in America instead of the top two pass-catchers in the sport.
Jeremiah Smith was fantastic against Purdue, catching 10 passes (on 10 targets) for 137 yards and a touchdown. He was able to do so without the added benefit of Tate drawing defenders on the opposite side as well, so there was even more attention paid to Smith — not that it mattered.
The sophomore sensation made a pair of ridiculous catches on the Buckeyes’ second possession of the game, making a juggling and-one catch where he was interfered with and then muscling over a defender for a catch down near the goal line to set up Ohio State’s first touchdown.
Smith was also the recipient of one of Julian Sayin’s best passes of the day, with Sayin hitting Smith in stride over the middle with three defenders around him for a 35-yard touchdown.
Over the last two games, Smith has been targeted 16 times and caught the ball all 16 times for a total of 260 yards and three touchdowns. Buckeye Nation has grown to expect these sorts of things at this point from Smith, but we cannot take for granted just how special a talent he really is.
Bo Jackson
Ohio State had one of its better rushing performances of the season against the Boilermakers. Adjusting for sack yardage, the Buckeyes ran for 189 yards on 41 carries, good for more than 4.6 yards per carry. That was to be expected against a Purdue team that ranked 92nd nationally in rushing defense to start the day, but it was still a step in the right direction.
Among the eight different players to run the ball, Bo Jackson really stood out as the best among them.
Jackson’s final stat line doesn’t jump off the page. He ran for 75 yards on 14 carries (5.4 YPC) and also caught a 10-yard pass; Good numbers for sure, but nothing spectacular. Jackson’s day would have looked a whole lot better had his 70-yard touchdown run on Ohio State’s very first offensive play of the game not been called back for an iffy block in the back penalty.
That said, it was the way he was running that made Jackson stand out among the pack. On at least two occasions, it was an extra individual effort by Jackson that allowed the Buckeyes to convert on third down, breaking tackles and fighting his way forward past the line to gain. The freshman running back was seeing the hole well, made some guys miss and showed a burst that some of the other ball-carriers on the team have lacked.
I’ll give a small shoutout to CJ Donaldson as well, who has clearly been moved into a purely short yardage role. His touchdown in the second quarter, while only from a yard out, was one of his best runs of the season thus far, keeping his legs churning and powering his way into the end zone.
Donaldson has had issues in those short yardage situations, but not on Saturday.
Defense
It was another run-of-the-mill day for this elite Ohio State defense.
Prior to Purdue’s final series against the second string unit, the Silver Bullets allowed only three points and 111 total yards. The Boilermakers managed a field goal on their second possession of the game, and from there went punt, interception, punt, punt, punt before that last garbage time score.
Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne completed 10 of his 19 pass attempts for 76 yards and a pick, adding three rushes for 27 yards. It was clear that Matt Patricia was more than willing to let Browne throw the ball, as Ohio State was only rushing three on many occasions throughout the afternoon.
After registering at least three sacks in each of the last three games, the Buckeyes did not sack the quarterback against Purdue, but some of that seemed to be by design. Patricia felt comfortable allowing his secondary to make plays, and that they did.
Outside of one pass interference penalty, Davison Igibinosun had a really nice game in coverage, and Jermaine Mathews Jr. made the defense’s biggest play of the game with his interception on a ball deflected by Caleb Downs. Sonny Styles and Jaylen McClain were each also credited with a pass breakup.
On an otherwise quiet performance along the defensive line, Kayden McDonald and Eddrick Houston made their presence felt up the middle. Holding Purdue’s running backs to 60 yards on 17 carries, the defensive tackle duo played a huge part in clogging up the middle. McDonald, especially, has really come on as the season goes along, and is starting to mirror the disruption of Tyleik Williams from a year ago.
Jayden Fielding
I have spent so much of this season railing against Ohio State’s special teams play — and rightfully so! However, this week it feels like it is only right to give a shout out to Buckeyes kicker Jayden Fielding.
Fielding knocked through a pair of 45-plus yard field goals on Saturday, including a career-high 49-yarder. That career-long came on an Ohio State drive that began with 47 seconds on the clock in the second quarter, giving the Buckeyes a 24-3 lead with three seconds remaining before halftime.
Hopefully that one minute drill and those long field goals can inspire some confidence in Fielding and the rest of this special teams unit moving forward.
The Bad
Offensive Line
Ohio State put up nearly 500 yards of offense against Purdue, but it did so with a very shaky performance from its offensive line.
Just looking at the box score, the two sacks allowed obviously jump out first. Julian Sayin was sacked twice against Purdue, and while that doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, it is notable when Ohio State had only allowed three sacks on the season prior to Saturday.
The blocking overall was also super inconsistent. On some snaps the Buckeyes gave Sayin a ton of time to work and dominated, and on others it seemed like everyone blew their assignments at once. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that Ohio State was without starting right tackle Phillip Daniels as well as rotational guard Joshua Padilla, however the majority of these issues did not stem from that right tackle spot.
The glaring weakness along this offensive line, as has been the case since day one, was once again Tegra Tshabola. The senior guard has noticeably struggled in almost every game this year, and has not yet looked like a player capable of getting the job done at this level.
His miscues against Purdue felt amplified even greater without Padilla to rotate in. Tshabola completely whiffed on his block that led to one of the sacks against Sayin in the fourth quarter. He also missed a key block on a screen pass that likely would have been a touchdown otherwise, but instead turned into a three-yard loss.
Among players with at least 20 snaps against the Boilermakers, Tshabola was the worst-graded pass-blocking lineman with a 51.6 grade, per PFF. Tshabola was also tied with Carson Hinzman as the worst-graded run blocker on the day at 62.8.
Tyler Bowen and Ohio State need to figure out a solution at right guard. The current starter is not getting the job done, and it is bad enough that it could severely cost them against greater competition.
13 Personnel
Part of this plays into the run blocking conversation, but I’ve seen just about enough of Ohio State’s 13 personnel package with Nate Roberts in the backfield this season.
The Buckeyes are having a hard enough time running the football as it is, and they are compounding the situation by telegraphing their run plays with these jumbo packages. If Ohio State wanted to run the ball with a fullback, they should have recruited a fullback. Instead, they are tossing a freshman tight end back there who has never played the position and has not been effective at all this season.
What makes these packages even worse is that the Buckeyes don’t even have particularly good run blocking tight ends on the roster. All three of Roberts (47.7), Bennett Christian (46.4) and Jelani Thurman (44.0) graded out terribly as run blockers against Purdue. Ironically enough, Max Klare was Ohio State’s highest graded run-blocking tight end on Saturday at 73.9, and he’s the guy they ask to go out and catch passes.
The formation is dumb and doesn’t work. It’s making the Buckeyes’ life needlessly harder in short yardage, especially down in the red zone, and it is taking wide receivers off the field for lesser players.
And that one play where they handed the ball off to Roberts at the goal line? Toss that one directly in the garbage never to be seen again.
The Ugly
Sayin’s Pick
Sayin’s interception against Purdue was probably the worst play of the season for the young quarterback, who has been otherwise incredible as a first-year starter.
Faced with third-and-goal from the 9-yard line, Sayin rolled out to his right with some pressure coming from up the middle. He had a good amount of time to scan the field, and then decided to throw across his body to the middle of the end zone.
The intended receiver wasn’t open anyway, but Sayin must not have seen defensive lineman CJ Nunnally drop back into coverage, as the ball was thrown directly into his hands.
They say one of the cardinal sins of playing quarterback is throwing across your body, and Sayin learned the hard way on that possession. It was a rare miscue from the extremely accurate redshirt freshman, who was otherwise 27-of-33 with 303 yards and a touchdown on the day.
Let it be a learning moment in a game that was never in doubt.
