Five Things: Defense Dominates, Offense Revs Up Late in a 54-10 Thrashing of Iowa

Ohio State's offense sputtered early, helping Iowa stay within 16-10 early in the second quarter but the Buckeyes closed the game on a 38-0 run to smash an overmatched Iowa program, 54-10, on a picture-perfect afternoon in Ohio Stadium.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud wasn't as dominant as the score would indicate yet still completed 20-of-30 passes for 281 yards and four touchdowns with one interception and a fumble returned for an Iowa score. Stroud dropped some dimes but yesterday also marked his fourth-straight game with at least one turnover.

With Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a pitch count and understandably a non-factor as he works his way back from injury, Stroud continued his connection with top targets Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka. The duo combined for 13 catches, 142 yards and two touchdowns against what was the nation's No. 3 pass defense.

The story of the game however was Ohio State's defense.

Yes, calling Iowa's offense a dumpster fire would be an insult to dumpster fires everywhere but Jim Knowles' defense did what you're supposed to do against bad opponents. His unit recorded six takeaways, including three interceptions, and stopped Iowa on 12 of 13 third down conversion attempts. The Hawkeyes never reached the red zone with their lone offensive score coming on a 49-yard field goal attempt.

With the win, Ohio State improved to 7-0 with a trip to Happy Valley set for next Saturday at noon. Before we go all-in on Penn State week, here are Five Things from a lopsided win over the Hawkeyes.

HAPPY HARRISON

Through Ohio State's first six games, defensive end Zach Harrison tallied eight stops, three quarterback hurries, one pass breakup and one forced fumble with zero sacks or tackles for loss. Make no mistake, he'd had some moments but yesterday was something different.

Against an Iowa offensive line struggling to find its way, Harrison was in the backfield all afternoon recording two tackles for loss, a sack, a pass breakup, a quarterback hurry and a forced fumble.

His pressure on Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras turned a 3rd-and-7 snap into a punting situation early and his forced fumble also came on a 3rd-and-5 snap, with Lathan Ransom recovering the loose ball at the Iowa 27. Four plays later OSU led 13-7.

Later in the first half on a 3rd-and-2 play, Harrison beat his man and diagnosed an end around resulting in a 3-yard loss. Iowa would biff a fake punt one play later giving OSU the football back.

Two possessions later, Harrison blew up another third down, getting his paw on a 3rd-and-10 pass resulting in another punt.

Overall, just a special afternoon for a guy that wants it as bad as anyone on the roster.

R-Z-3

Ohio State entered yesterday's contest scoring touchdowns in the red zone at a ridiculous 93.1% clip, reaching the end zone in 27 of 29 tries. That was of course No. 1 in the country.

Versus Iowa however, Ohio State scored touchdowns on just four of seven red zone trips, settling for field goals on three of four in the first half.

The first visit inside Iowa's 25 saw Miyan Williams take a 2-yard run to the house for a touchdown but on Ohio State's next red zone trip, Williams was stuffed on a 3rd-and-2 run leading to a field goal.

The Buckeyes' third try inside the red zone saw Dawand Jones flagged for illegal formation on first down. Now off schedule, a 2nd-and-6 run from TreVeyon Henderson went for a loss and on 3rd-and-9 it looked like JSN was interfered with in the end zone but a no-call led to another field goal.

Two possessions later, Ohio State reached the Iowa 8 but incompletions in the direction of Marvin Harrison Jr. paved the way for another field goal and a 19-10 OSU lead.

Stroud and company turned things around from there as the next three red zone trips resulted in touchdown passes, returning the world to its natural order.

Recording points on 7-of-7 red zone trips on the day kept Ohio State perfect in that category (36-for-36) but the season's red zone touchdown rate now stands at 86.1%.

YOU GET A TURNOVER AND YOU GET A TURNOVER

We've already discussed Iowa's offense being all kinds of stinky but Ohio State coming up with six turnovers is nothing to gloss over. In fact, as inept as the Hawkeyes have been, they'd only turned it over six times in six games coming into yesterday's game.

For Ohio State, its six takeaways were the most since the Buckeyes recorded six against Tulsa back in 2016. The half-dozen also doubled the takeaways Jim Knowles' defense logged over the course of the season's first six games (No. 110 in the nation).

Safety Tanner McCallister was central to the cause with two picks on the afternoon with the other coming via middle linebacker Tommy Eichenberg's pick six giving the Buckeyes a 26-10 edge late in the second quarter.

Zach Harrison's noted forced fumble was scooped up by Lathan Ransom in the first quarter. Taron Vincent pounced on a botched snap (and turned in a funky shimmy in front of a forgiving ref) and Kye Stokes forced a fumble late, with teammate Palaie Gaoteote jumping on it for the final turnover.

After failing to record a turnover in the first two games this season, Ohio State's defense has at least one in five straight.

RUN GAME COMES UP LAME

Ohio State's running game entered yesterday's contest averaging 6.0 yards per carry but it was nothing doing against the Hawkeyes.

The Buckeye rushing attack averaged just 2.2 yards per attempt against Iowa which stands as the second-worst mark since Day took over, trailing only last year's debacle in Ann Arbor (2.1 ypc). Adjusting for one sack, the Buckeyes still managed only 2.7 yards per carry.

Averaging 228 rushing yards per contest coming in, Ohio State managed 66 yards versus a stout Iowa front.

Ohio State's two-headed monster of TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams carried it 21 times for 57 yards (2.7 ypc). Six of those 21 attempts went for zero or negative yards.

Henderson appeared to leave some yards on the table, hesitant to take what little was there at times, yet still averaged 3.5 yards per carry on the day compared to just 1.9 for Williams on 10 tries. Willams' long rush of 13 yards was the gold standard for the day after OSU rushers had combined to register at least one run of at 25+ yards in each of the previous five games.

While the offensive line certainly didn't have its best day, I'm not sure the playcalling was elite either as Ohio State ran into the teeth of Iowa's defense on numerous occasions.

With Penn State's rush defense on tap - even if Michigan shredded it - Day and company will likely put heavy focus on ironing out some details this week.

I SEE YOU, JULIAN

I'm the first one to admit I was nowhere near bullish on Julian Fleming being a legit contributor this year. Of course, I never doubted the talent but the fact remains, the best ability is availability and I needed to see to believe he could stay healthy and productive.

That said, Fleming has been an important role player for Ohio State with JSN on the shelf for most of the season.

Complimenting the 13 catches, 142 yards and two touchdowns on 19 targets for Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka yesterday, Fleming caught just two balls on three targets but for 105 yards including a 79-yard touchdown strike.

He added a 26-yard reception giving the Buckeyes a 1st-and-Goal at the 8 early in the contest leading to Ohio State's first touchdown and a 10-7 lead.

Fleming now has at least one touchdown in all five games he's appeared this season and they've come in multiple ways as he's leveraged his size and strength in the red zone and also his speed as we saw with his long score yesterday.