It looks like this is our lot in life in 2015—spurts of outstanding play followed by bouts of ineptitude, leading to a stressful game-watching experience. But 5-0 is nothing to sneeze at.
It was a battle of unbeatens, as Ohio State and Indiana both entered the game with 4-0 records. Indiana boasted the country’s top rusher and an outstanding offense. Meanwhile, Ohio State seemed to clear up a lot of their offensive issues last week, although a few underthrown passes ruined what could have been a very lopsided score.
Would Indiana be a thorn in Ohio State’s side for the third time in four years under Urban Meyer? Could the Buckeye offense continue its upward trajectory and finally put together a complete game? Would the Silver Bullets continue to dominate the opposing team’s passing game? Could Cardale Jones bounce back from those underthrown passes?
Yes, not really, sometimes, and not completely, no. The Hoosiers led at halftime and wouldn’t go away once Ohio State took the lead. The Buckeye offense took a long time to get going and turnovers and the red zone were problematic again. The defense gave up 402 yards and produced no turnovers but did shut down Indiana for stretches, primarily in the third quarter, when they forced punts on four straight possessions. Jones was 18/27 for 245 yards with a touchdown and an interception but struggled throwing in the red zone again, missing open receivers on consecutive plays at one point.
Here are your talking points from a really annoying 34-27 win at Indiana:
WATER COOLER PREP (EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW…IN ONE PARAGRAPH)
The Buckeyes trailed 10-6 at the half due mostly to shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly on offense. Ohio State scored 28 points after the break, highlighted by runs of 55, 65 and 75 yards by Ezekiel Elliott. Michael Thomas caught a 23-yard TD pass. Ohio State showed a lack of confidence in Jones down the stretch, opting to run in consecutive third-and-long situations and giving Indiana a chance to get back into the game. Eli Apple knocked away a pass into the end zone on the last play to preserve the win.
GIVE THAT MAN A BUCKEYE LEAF (PLAYER OF THE GAME)
Elliott was bottled up most of the first half, but broke out with 159 yards in the third quarter and finished with a career high of 274 on 23 carries (11.9 YPA). He scored on touchdown runs of 55, 65, and 75 yards and caught two passes for 12 more yards. Elliott broke the game open with explosion plays when the Buckeyes were otherwise challenged to get anything going consistently on offense.
DID YOU SEE THAT?! (PLAY OF THE GAME)
All of Elliott’s long runs qualify here but I’ll go with the first one, which seemed to ignite the team on both sides of the ball. Elliott bounced a middle run to the left side and then outran the entire Indiana defense, making a #ZekeLeap over the last defender to have a shot at him at the goal line. Take a look:
SLOBBER KNOCKER OF THE GAME
On second-and-8 from the Ohio Stat 14, Joey Bosa beat the right tackle and destroyed Nate Sudfeld. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a sack, as Sudfeld was in the process of releasing the ball. Indiana did manage to score its first touchdown just a few plays later, but Sudfeld will still be feeling that smackdown by Bosa this morning and probably well into midweek.
Honorable mention goes to the suplex Bosa put on Divine Redding in the second half.
TALK IN THE AFTERMATH
Most of the responses afterwards looked like this:
It was ugly. But we got the W
— Curtis grant (@_CurtisGrant14) October 3, 2015
Just bad ball all the way around ... Lucky to get out of there with a win.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) October 3, 2015
That game ended the only way it could. It was born stupid and it died stupid.
— John Leahy (@jleahy09) October 3, 2015
But then there's our DJ:
Get dumped then, Hoosiers. #NeverShook
— D.J. Byrnes (@marion_ohio) October 3, 2015
JIM TRESSEL'S LEAST FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE GAME
Not many people realize Jim Tressel has the fourth largest spoon collection east of the Mississippi. Tressel collects souvenir spoons from all over the world and adoring fans send him dozens every week. He was about to hang a Niagara Falls spoon in one of his display cases near the end of the first quarter, while listening to Paul Keels call the game.
On fourth-and-5 from the Indiana 42, Cameron Johnston trotted onto the field to punt. He hit his kick well and Vonn Bell was in the perfect position to down it at the Indiana 1-yard line. Tressel paused, excitedly (only Jim Tressel can pause excitedly, by the way). But then Bell bobbled the ball and it fell into the end zone for a touchback. Tressel clenched his fist and bent the spoon in half.
WHEN YOU SANK INTO YOUR CHAIR (THE MOMENT BUCKEYE FOOTBALL DISGRACED YOUR FAMILY)
Ohio State led by 10 and took over at its own 38-yard line with a chance to put the game away. On first down, Cardale hit Jalin Marshall for a first down and the receiver spun to try to turn a nice gain into a bigger play. Instead, he fumbled while falling out of bounds and Indiana recovered at the 49. Since Marshall had earlier fumbled at the end of a big pass play, it was particularly disappointing to see his lack of ball security rear its ugly head a second time.
WHAT YOU TEXTED YOUR FRIEND AT THE END OF EACH QUARTER
First: “We look pretty assy.”
Second: “Strike that. We don’t look pretty assy. We look very assy.”
Third: “Less assy. Zeke is still good.”
Fourth: “This team makes me drink way more than I should.”
IT WAS OVER WHEN
Apple smacked the ball away from Ricky Jones in the back of the end zone on a desperation fourth-down heave by backup quarterback Zander Diamont, who began the play by chasing down a wayward snap and scrambling to his left. The ball was headed for Jones’ hands but Apple—who had been flagged for pass interference twice in the game—made the smart play by knocking it down. It was the last play of the game. That’s right. Ohio State-Indiana came down to the last play.
Next up is homecoming against Maryland (2-3, 0-1) at noon next Saturday. The Terrapins lost at home to Michigan yesterday, 28-0. Those two wins came against Richmond and South Florida and the other three games were lopsided losses to Bowling Green, West Virginia and TTUN. Maryland is not a good football team. However, Ohio State can afford to take no opponent lightly.
