Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has said in multiple games this season that he wants his team to throw and land the first punch in a game. Against Illinois, the offense did that, and then did what they had been struggling to do as of late. They kept throwing punches until the bell rang.
The Buckeyes blasted the Illini in the battle for Illibuck. They were led by the two players who they’ll need to be as huge in every game they want to win this year. Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith were huge for Ohio State.
Julian Sayin was 27 of 36 for 367 yards with four passing touchdowns and had seven carries for 29 yards with another rushing touchdown. Sayin is 83 of 115 for 1,206 yards with 10 passing touchdowns and another two rushing touchdowns.
The Sayin-to-Smith connection never looked better than it did against Illinois. Jeremiah Smith had 12 catches for 214 yards and four touchdowns. Smith had over a hundred yards and three of those touchdowns in the first half. This season, Smith has 33 catches for 617 yards and seven touchdowns.
Buckeye Nation will be happy to know Ohio State has made an effort to get Smith the ball. Jeremiah Smith has 46 targets this season (the national leader is at 49), and he sat out the second half of the Kent State and Ball State games. Smith became the first Ohio State player with over 3,000 career receiving yards.
As he adds to that record, he closes in on the career receptions and touchdown catches records. He’s 10 catches from owning that record and two touchdowns from owning that record. Ohio State does need a solid WR2 to help Smith. Ohio State needs a player to step up and seize that spot to help Smith stay hot. None of them have yet, but Brandon Inniss, Devin McCuin, Brock Boyd, or Chris Henry Jr. need to be that guy like Emeka Egbuka was in 2024 and Carnell Tate was in 2025.
The Buckeye offense was right at their season averages in their 42-19 win over Illinois. So far this season, they average 45 points per game; they had 42 against Illinois. They average 156.8 rushing yards, 365.3 passing yards, and 522 total yards per game. They had 151 rushing yards, 367 passing yards, and 518 total yards against the Illini. The Buckeyes looked sharper against Illinois than they have in any of these first four games.
OSU also showed improvements as a team. Last week, the Buckeye offense struggled on critical downs. They were 1 of 8 on third down and 2 of 4 on fourth down. This week, they bounced back strong. They were 8 of 12 on third down and 2 of 2 on fourth down against Illinois.
The Buckeyes having allowed only five sacks in the first four games isn’t bad, especially when you consider that Texas sacked Tennessee 10 times over the weekend. The Bucks didn’t let Illinois get to Julian Sayin once, which no doubt contributed to him having his best game of the season.
As I’ve said, they’ll need their duo of Sayin and Smith to be just as good next week in Iowa City against the 4-0 Hawkeyes. Iowa has looked like an at-large playoff team this season, and always plays Ohio State like one in Kinnick Stadium.
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