Ohio State picked up its biggest win of the season on Saturday in Bloomington. For a lot of people, both locally and nationally, the game is overshadowed by Julian Sayin's injury. We'll have plenty of time to discuss how the Buckeyes move forward with that, as they don't play again until Halloween. Today, we're going to talk about how the Buckeye defense, which looked like an extreme weakness three weeks ago, now looks like it's championship-level.
Three weeks ago, Ohio State beat Illinois 42-19, in what was their worst defensive performance in years. They allowed the Illini to consistently sustain drives. The defensive line was getting worked, as Illinois was able to run for 7.5 yards per carry (sack adjusted).
Buckeyes defensive end and captain Kenyatta Jackson called the performance "unacceptable." It gave a lot of fans major concern as to how Ohio State would fare in shootouts, as they seemed inevitable with how the defense was playing. However, since that Illinois game, this Buckeye defense has looked like the Silver Bullets of the past few seasons.
Ohio State's defense has proven they have the goods
Ohio State followed up that performance by shutting down the Iowa Hawkeyes. They held Iowa to just 4.5 yards per carry. They did not cross midfield after the first quarter until their final drive. They held a Hawkeye team that loves to run the football to just 1.9 yards per carry.
They followed that up with an even more dominant performance against Maryland, holding the Terrapins to 2.8 yards per carry, which was the fewest they surrendered against a power conference opponent since last season against Rutgers. They held quarterback Malik Washington to 64 yards passing on 25 attempts.
The improvement was noticeable, but how would they fare against a great offense like Indiana? They have a good quarterback in Josh Hoover, two potential first-round draft picks at receiver in Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh, and a good offensive line. Not only did the Buckeye defense hold up, but it won the game for Ohio State.
Josh Hoover was certainly complicit in his own demise. When he wasn't throwing the ball to Charlie Becker, he was 11-22 for 131 yards. He was just slightly under 6 yards per attempt on those passes. While Hoover missed some throws, the Buckeye defense wasn't making anything easy. They shut down the Hoosiers' run game. They averaged 3 yards per carry on the ground. Their lead back, Turbo Richard, ran for just 46 yards on 16 carries.
The biggest difference between this year's Ohio State defense and the ones from the last two seasons is the difference in pure star power. Caleb Downs, Arvell Reese, and Sonny Styles are the kinds of players that don't come around very often.
They also had four other players drafted in the first and second rounds on that 2024 defense. This Buckeye team doesn't have that. I don't expect any Buckeye defenders to be drafted in the first round of the 2027 NFL Draft. However, this Buckeye defense is finding itself.
This defense is developing a good mix of young stars and veterans. The veterans have been holding up the front. Kenyatta Jackson is a leader of this team at defensive end. Eddrick Houston seems to be finally taking the next step to becoming a star at defensive tackle.
Ohio State is leaning on the veterans up front
They are able to rotate John Walker, James Smith, Jason Moore, and Will Smith Jr. up front to keep guys fresh. Qua Russaw started the season injured and didn't look good early, but he has added some pass rush skills in recent weeks. They have been an opportunistic pass rush with the help of Christian Alliegro and Riley Pettijohn at linebacker, and they have been the best rushing defense in college football over the last three games.
The defensive backfield has an incredible mix of youth and experience. Jermaine Matthews and Earl Little have been incredibly solid for the Buckeyes. Devin Sanchez is an incredible athlete, and while he has his flaws, the potential to be a shutdown corner is obvious. Jaylen McClain has starred this season, after being in Caleb Downs' shadow a year ago.
For as good as all of these guys are, none of them was the best player on the field Saturday. The Buckeyes MVP was true freshman Jay Timmons. He had seven tackles, two pass breakups, and a forced fumble on Saturday. You can make the case that he single-handedly won the game with one sequence.
On the second play of the second half, he got beat by Indiana wide receiver Davion Chandler, but he caught up to him from behind and stripped the ball. Earl Little recovered the fumble, and Ohio State got a field goal to go up by six. On the next drive, the Hoosiers were able to drive the ball into Ohio State territory, looking to take the lead.
On first down, they set up a quick pass to Tyler Morris, who was tackled by Timmons in space at the line of scrimmage. If he missed that tackle, the play likely would've gone for a first down. On second down, Hoover takes a shot to Charlie Becker in the end zone, which was broken up by Timmons.
On third down, Timmons makes the tackle to set up a 4th and 4. The Hoosiers elected to go for it, and Jaylen McClain came off the edge on a blitz and sacked Josh Hoover. Timmons could've swung the game by as many as two touchdowns by himself in a game that was decided by four points.
In this era of college football with super-conferences and the 12-team playoff, you have to be able to win in multiple ways. Ohio State showed us that in 2024. If/when Julian Sayin comes back, Ohio State is an offensive team. They have the best passing offense in college football, and that will be how they prefer to win games.
With Luke Fahey at quarterback for, as Ryan Day said, the next several weeks, they will need more defensive performances like yesterday. They are a little banged up, but they have a bye week coming up to get healthy. They will need to bring it every week to support their young quarterback and hopefully get Julian Sayin back by the end of the season with all of their goals in front of them.
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