Michigan State’s first drive on Saturday looked promising.
Ohio State booted the ball out of bounds on the opening kickoff to set the Spartans up at their own 35-yard-line, and Payton Thorne completed a 20-yard pass on the second snap of the game. Then on 3rd-and-7 from the Ohio State 41, the Michigan State quarterback took a shot to the end zone to draw first blood on the Buckeyes.
Thorne had plenty of time in the pocket to deliver a strike and saw his man streaking down the middle of the field. It was a tight window to begin with, as two Buckeye defensive backs trailed Michigan State wideout Jayden Reed, but Lathan Ransom’s recovery speed erased it entirely.
Helping over from the boundary side, Ransom got ahead of Reed and dove to make the interception on an overthrown ball from Thorne.
First career interception for Tucson native and Ohio State safety Lathan Ransom!
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) October 8, 2022
(Via ABC) pic.twitter.com/S3hqSLApQ5
Ransom recorded the first pick of his career, Ohio State created its sixth turnover of the past four games and the Buckeyes held Michigan State without points on eight of their subsequent 10 drives through the rest of the 49-20 blowout.
“(Ransom’s play) was huge. I mean, you seen what he did first drive of the game,” Ohio State safety Ronnie Hickman said after the game. “That was huge for us. They were kind of moving the ball better than we expected. But for him to do that is huge.”
Before the Michigan State game, Ransom was coming off of a quiet two-week stretch. The third-year defensive back didn’t play against Wisconsin due to injury and returned to see just 18 snaps against Rutgers the following week. But Ransom supplanted Josh Proctor for the first time in a game in which both were available on Saturday, and the move paid off early.
But the interception wasn’t just a good sign for Ransom. Ohio State has now created turnovers in each of the past four games after failing to tally any takeaways in the first two weeks. To illustrate just how important turnovers are for the Buckeye defense, consider this fact: In the last six losses the Ohio State program has suffered dating back to 2017, the Buckeyes have only recorded takeaways in two of those games and just two total.
“Overall, I think our defense is playing very, very well. I think Tommy (Eichenberg)'s playing at a high level, the D-line's been playing (well), the safety play's been excellent.”– Ryan Day
Ohio State's propensity to take the ball away from opposing teams dovetails with its mostly stellar performance through the first half of the season, which Ryan Day noted following the Michigan State win.
“Overall, I think our defense is playing very, very well. I think Tommy's playing at a high level, the D-line's been playing (well), the safety play's been excellent,” Day said. “I think Ronnie Hickman has been a really good leader for us. Tommy's shown good leadership. And I think when you talk about winning on the road, leadership has to show up. Veteran guys have to play veteran. I have to watch the film, but it looked like that happened today.
“They did a great job of stopping the run. I thought the defensive line was strong, Tommy and the linebackers were excellent – just across the board, our guys just played strong. When you have that type of back and forth and that balance on offense and defense and they play against each other, you can see what we did there in the first half.”
But it’s not as though the Buckeyes didn’t face more adversity after Ransom’s interception.
On Ohio State’s second offensive possession, C.J. Stroud through the first pick-6 of his career, handing Michigan State seven points on a silver platter. Stroud and company quickly reset to score a touchdown in just three plays on the very next drive, but the Buckeye defense still had to snuff out any signs of life for the Spartan offense to stifle any momentum on the ensuing possession.
Michigan State picked up 37 yards on its next drive, its third-most of any drive all game, but it wasn’t enough to put points on the board. Meanwhile, Ohio State’s six offensive possessions after the Stroud interception all resulted in touchdowns, effectively putting the game out of reach for the Spartans even before halftime.
“The sky's the limit. We're not even fully healthy, so I think we just got to use this bye week to get fully healthy defensively and offensively,”– Ronnie Hickman
“It's part of the game. Stuff happens all the time, everyone doesn't play perfect, but you got to be ready to go when your number's called,” said Hickman, in reference to Stroud’s early pick-6. “So we take pride in sudden change and not giving up a touchdown. Because it's pretty easy for offenses, once they turn the ball over, then they get the ball out and it can kind of get bad out. But you know, we take pride in going out there.”
Another promising sign for the Ohio State defense is how it’s created turnovers. Nickel safety Tanner McCalister, Hickman and Ransom have all picked off passes, a positive indicator for Jim Knowles’ “safety-drive defense,” but both the defensive line and linebacker corps have gotten in on the action as well.
Against Toledo, veteran defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste forced a fumble recovered by second-year defensive tackle Mike Hall. Against Rutgers, senior pass rusher Zach Harrison helped create two turnovers, stripping the ball from Scarlet Knight quarterback Evan Simon in the first half and deflecting a pass for a Steele Chambers interception in the second.
Knowles’ defensive philosophy involves “playing offense on defense,” and the Buckeyes have been doing that in recent weeks.
“Coach Knowles wants us to have a fast defense. He wants us to play with vision on the quarterback, and I just think each week we're taking strides and becoming better at that specifically,” Hickman said.
Knowles’ defense has been successful thus far despite several injuries that have kept several starters either out entirely or limited on a game-to-game basis. But now Ohio State has a bye week to get healthy before beginning the back half of its regular season schedule, and Hickman thinks the Buckeyes will play their best football after that point.
“The sky's the limit. We're not even fully healthy, so I think we just got to use this bye week to get fully healthy defensively and offensively,” Hickman said. “But defensively, specifically, we know what we can do. We've shown some of the flashes of what we can do, but there's so a lot of work that has to be put in.”
