Ohio State Football beats IU in uninspiring season-opener

The Ohio State football team was a 30.5-point favorite heading into the season-opening game against Indiana. Everyone thought that the offense would have no issues moving the ball against the IU defense. That ended up not being the case. Instead, it was the defense who stole the show.

Ohio State’s defense allowed just three points and didn’t allow any big plays. It was an encouraging effort from a unit that has been the Achilles heel of the Buckeyes for the last few years. The secondary was actually quite good, allowing less than 100 yards passing.

Meanwhile, Kyle McCord did not look good in his first game as a starter since 2021. His stats look better than he played, to be honest. He threw a terrible pick on a fourth down and ended up not throwing a touchdown pass. He finished 20/33 for 239 yards.

Despite Ryan Day saying Devin Brown was going to get meaningful snaps, he played just two series. He attempted two passes. It didn’t really make sense to not put him out there, even for a few series. Instead, McCord was left out there to struggle.

In the end, the Ohio State football team won 23-3. That was with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka combing for just 34 yards receiving. Ryan Day had a really bad day calling plays. He was too conservative with the play calling on fourth down and Ohio State didn’t convert twice.

As far as what this says for the rest of the season, I’m not sure. The quarterback has to play better. Personally, I’d like to see what Brown can do in a game setting. McCord hasn’t shown that he can move the offense consistently. This is a team that has too much talent at wide receiver to waste.

Day will have a lot of questions to answer about the offense. Miyan Williams did have two touchdown runs, which was good to see. But the offensive line’s run blocking was inconsistent too.