Ohio State defeated Illinois 42-19 to open Big Ten play, led by a historic four-touchdown day from Jeremiah Smith and arguably the best performance of quarterback Julian Sayin’s career. The result: Illinois fired defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck on Sunday after just four games.
The No. 5 Buckeyes (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) have trailed for just 25 seconds this season, but there have been some concerning moments from a defense that gave up 462 yards against the Illini, the most since defensive coordinator Matt Patricia arrived last season.
Here are a few final thoughts before we move on to a top-15 matchup at No. 14 Iowa on Saturday.
Week 4's biggest winners and loser: Fans down south, classless act on field
Ohio State is blitzing more. Is it working?
It blitzed on 56.5 percent of dropbacks in a 48-10 win over UCLA last year. The next two highest percentages, per TruMedia’s accounting? The last two weeks: 52 percent against Kent State and 44.2 percent against Illinois.
Determining what is a blitz can be difficult because, as Patricia said last week, sometimes the Buckeyes can “blitz” with four depending on the numbers advantage and alignment. Linebacker Payton Pierce’s sack in the fourth quarter wasn’t necessarily a blitz, but it came from Ohio State showing blitz and dropping Riley Pettijohn into coverage, freeing up Pierce.
On my Sunday rewatch of the Illinois game, I tracked each time Ohio State sent at least five defenders at the quarterback. It confirmed everything I saw Saturday: Ohio State needs to adjust how it blitzes and execute better when it does.
Let’s give credit to Illinois. The Illini came in with a strong game plan. They challenged Ohio State’s man coverage and found the right holes in the zone coverage when Ohio State switched. Still, the Buckeyes could’ve done a better job of making pressures against quarterback Katin Houser count.
By my count, the Buckeyes sent five or more players on 13 of his 37 dropbacks, but one of them was called back because of an Illinois holding penalty. On those 13 plays, Illinois tallied 84 yards, two of which went for more than 20 yards. Ohio State forced four incomplete passes and did not register a sack on these plays.
Ohio State’s three sacks came from Kenyatta Jackson bulldozing a tight end, Pettijohn winning on a stunt on third down and Pierce coming free on a four-man rush.
So if Ohio State blitzed 13 times and didn’t register a sack, giving up positive yardage on seven of those plays, is that a good performance? Let’s call it a mixed bag.
Two of those plays were 1-yard catches, so I’d put those in the win column. One was a 33-yard blown coverage when Pierce couldn’t get in position to cover the running back in man coverage. Another was a 21-yard second down when Ohio State sent pressure in zone, and then there was the 13-yard fourth-down completion when Jermaine Mathews Jr., who had a good day overall, got beat in off coverage on an out route.
Four games in, Ohio State is still searching for an identity up front. It can’t sit back and traditionally rush four defensive linemen because it doesn’t have the top-end talent to help Jackson.
I thought its most consistent pass rush package came on third down with Khary Wilder and Pettijohn wreaking havoc on the interior of Illinois’ offensive line. I saw three plays when Patricia decided to run motion action up front using Wilder and Pettijohn. One of them ended in a Pettijohn sack, and the others were incomplete passes due to the pressure those two created.
Wilder led the team with four pressures on 11 pass rush snaps, while Pettijohn finished second with three pressures.
Ohio State is still far from a finished product on defense, and Saturday’s blitzing showed just that. But the third-down package is something it can continue to explore.
Is Ohio State’s run defense a concern?
Ohio State’s run defense has been bad in big moments, especially the second half against Texas when it gave up 4.3 yards per carry. Nothing compared to Saturday’s performance against Illinois, though.
The Buckeyes gave up 199 yards and 6 yards per carry. Per TruMedia, that included an average of 4.17 yards before contact, which is the highest number since it lost to Clemson in the 2019 Fiesta Bowl.
Two runs especially raised that average. First was the 37-yarder by Aidan Laughery where he bounced off multiple offensive linemen but wasn’t touched by an Ohio State player until he was more than 30 yards downfield. A few plays later, Jordan Anderson went untouched for a 22-yard touchdown when Illinois made a good call to motion over a player from right to left against Ohio State’s man coverage to get a numbers advantage on the right. It worked to perfection.
I don’t think Ohio State was outright bad against the run. On an important third-and-short, with Ohio State leading 28-13 on the first play of the fourth quarter, Will Smith Jr. won immediately in the middle for a tackle for a loss. That was one of Ohio State’s five tackles for a loss in the game.
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Of course, three of the tackles for a loss were sacks. Ohio State struggled to create negative plays against the Illinois run game. And when the running backs got to the linebackers and safeties, they did a nice job of bouncing from a covered-up hole to a second option that was open, leaving Ohio State defenders playing catch-up.
Everything needs to be looked at before playing an Iowa team that is going to run the ball and try to control the clock. Giving up chunk runs because somebody reads the wrong gap or the alignment is off could lead to a loss in a tough environment at Kinnick Stadium.
Smith scored TDs in all kinds of ways against an Illinois defense that had no answers.
Julian Sayin’s best performance
Smith deserves all the credit he got after his 217-yard, four-touchdown performance. I think Saturday was also Sayin’s best performance, as he completed 27 of 36 attempts for 367 yards and four touchdowns, while adding a touchdown on the ground.
After the game, coach Ryan Day said he challenged Sayin to use his legs more. He did so, running for 29 yards, converting five third downs with his legs and adding a 7-yard touchdown run.
The touchdown capped Sayin’s most impressive sequence of the day. With 1:32 left in the first half, he led Ohio State down the field, finishing the drive with a three-play sequence after Ohio State faced first-and-18 because of a holding penalty.
He hit Nate Roberts across the middle for 20 yards, found Phillip Bell in the seam for 23 yards and then, at the 7-yard line, when the passing play was covered in the end zone, got out of the pocket and ran into the end zone.
It was a big growth moment for Sayin, who has struggled to make a connection with players other than Smith this season, has struggled throwing in the seam much of his career and hasn’t made many plays with his legs.
On top of that, Sayin was also good against pressure. TruMedia said that Sayin was pressured on just four passes and completed two of them for 40 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown pass to Smith. That pass, a throw against one-on-one coverage that had to be perfect as Smith beat his man to the corner of the end zone, was the epitome of his growth Saturday as he took the hit while releasing the ball. Eight different players had a reception, and though Devin McCuin had just four receptions as the second receiver, his five targets were a result of the tight ends getting more work. Roberts’ four receptions on four targets were a career high.
If Sayin can build on Saturday, Ohio State’s offense, which scored on six of its eight drives, will give defenses trouble the rest of the season — including an Iowa defense that gave up a season-high 276 passing yards to Michigan.
Ohio State still needs to find more explosive plays in the run game, but the passing game is becoming even more of a strength.
Ohio State opened the conference slate on Saturday at home against Illinois. The Illibuck Trophy remains in Columbus after the Buckeyes took care of the Fighting Illini in a 42-19 win that felt a lot closer for most of the afternoon as Illinois won the third quarter.
A 23-point win seems comfortable, and in many cases it is, but there were plenty of plays that had me looking to do some fightin’ of my own.
Defensive Issues Persist
The primary negative takeaway from the game is that the Ohio State run defense is going to have to improve to just get to mediocre. Illinois could have kept the game closer longer had the Illini just run wide more often.
It started early, as Ca’lil Valentine went for nine yards on the first Illinois run. On the second possession, Aidan Laughery burst for 37 yards. The Illini’s first touchdown was a Jordan Anderson 22-yard run, as it didn’t matter who Illinois handed the ball to.
Nothing got cleaned up at halftime. The first play of the second half was another 9-yard run, and Illinois had an 11-yard run on its second drive of the second half after the Buckeyes had backed the Illini up near their own goal line.
Illinois ran for 199 yards, getting to the second level of the defense often. Laughery ran for 113 yards and averaged 10.3 yards per carry. Valentine averaged 4.7 yards per tote. Anderson averaged 10, but he only had two attempts.
Ohio State’s defense was also not sharp enough on third down, allowing Illinois to pick up six conversions on 14 attempts (43%), regardless of the distance to make. While Illinois has a good offense, it is not Oregon or USC or anyone the Buckeyes might face in the postseason if they can reach it yet again.
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To make matters worse, the defense gave up a fourth-and-12 conversion, and Devin Sanchez committed multiple pass interference penalties (one on a fourth-and-4, after which Illinois scored a touchdown on the next play).
It’s kind of amazing Illinois scored only 19 points, because Ohio State’s defense is not close to the levels of the last couple of seasons.
Mathews’ Miscues
While I wouldn’t say Jermaine Mathews Jr. was terrible on the day, and in fact he was mostly fine, there were two plays that stood out in a negative light. One was a dropped interception on the first Illinois drive of the second half.
The other was a slip that allowed the Illini to convert a second-and-20 play for a first down. The second was probably bad luck, but the Buckeye secondary has dropped several potential interceptions over the last couple of weeks.
Don’t Start Falsely
Ohio State once again was prone to pre-snap penalties on its own home turf on Saturday. The Buckeyes survived them, but making the game situation harder at home against Illinois is one thing. Iowa on the road or a potential Big Ten championship game is a completely different animal.
In the first quarter, Jake Cook jumped early on second-and-4, costing the Buckeyes five yards, moving the ball from the Illini 38-yard line to the 43. Jeremiah Smith bailed him out with a 31-yard reception on the next play.
Austin Siereveld turned a fourth-and-2 situation into a fourth-and-7 with a false start. The Buckeyes went for it anyway, and Nate Roberts kept the drive alive with a reception. Roberts himself committed a false start penalty in the game, turning first-and-10 into first-and-15 after good Ja’Kobi Jackson run in the third quarter.
Devin McCuin dropped a pass right in his hands two plays later to make it third-and-9, and an incomplete pass put a halt to the possession. That drive’s end kept the Illini in the game in the third quarter.
Even Ohio State’s kicker got in on the false starting. Connor Hawkins, who only sounds like country music’s brightest new star, started his kick approach early on the extra point after Julian Sayin’s rushing touchdown in the second quarter.
The season is a third of the way over and these kinds of things should have been cleaned up by now. Again, the team was at home, rather than in a hostile environment like Happy Valley, Kinnick Stadium or the Los Angeles Coliseum.
I’m Not Mad About This One, Just Disappointed
Sometimes the things that irk me are simply when a player costs the team a cool play. That’s what happened when a holding penalty on Mason Williams wiped out a nifty one-handed catch and run by Bo Jackson right before halftime.
You’ll never erase that cool play from our minds, but wiping it out of football history is a crime against the sport.
Those are the things that made me yell Illi-BUCK! (or something that sounded kind of like that if you weren’t paying close attention) on Saturday. What stood out to you?
Of course, there were plenty of great moments as well and most of those involved Smith and Sayin, who were outstanding.
Next up: Ohio State takes on the Hawkeyes in a Saturday afternoon game in Iowa City, where every mistake is magnified.
Jeremiah Smith had the best performance of any player in college football in Week 4.
The Ohio State wide receiver was officially recognized as the week’s best player in college football, as the Associated Press named Smith its national player of the week on Monday.
Smith caught 12 passes for 217 yards and four touchdowns in Week 4, leading the nation in all three categories to lead Ohio State to a 42-19 win over Illinois. He set career-highs in all three categories, with his four touchdowns tying Ohio State’s single-game school record.
His performance cemented his standing as the biggest star in college football and propelled him to the top of the Heisman Trophy race. As of Monday afternoon, Smith has the best betting odds to win the Heisman (+260 on DraftKings/+280 on FanDuel).
Smith’s dominance even led Illinois to change defensive coordinators, as Bret Bielema announced Sunday that Illinois and Bobby Hauck had “mutually agreed” to part ways.
By Chris Lauderback
It wasn't quite a Mona Lisa but No. 7 Ohio State overcame an uneven defensive performance thanks to huge afternoons from Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin on the way to a 42-19 win over Illinois to begin B1G play in Ohio Stadium.
The Buckeyes amassed 518 yards of total offense but allowed 462 to an Illini squad that tallied nearly 200 rushing yards on six yards per carry and racked up 15 plays of at least 10 yards.
Despite the leaky defense and an offensive attack that was largely held in check over the final 30 minutes, Ohio State built an early 14-0 lead and led by at least two touchdowns throughout the second half.
The win pushed Ohio State to 3-1 overall on a weekend that saw No. 6 Indiana win by just six over Northwestern at home, No. 4 Ole Miss get boat raced by 24 at Florida, No. 12 USC lose by 14 to at home to Oregon and No. 13 Penn State drop a 4-point decision at home to Wisconsin.
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Next up for the Buckeyes is a big time clash with Iowa in Kinnick Stadium next Saturday at 3:30 but before we turn full focus to the Hawkeyes, here are Five Things from yesterday's 23-point victory over Bert Bielema's Fighting Illini.
SAYIN SOMETHING
Over the last few weeks in this here column, I've lamented picking Julian Sayin as my Heisman winner, as the signal caller struggled with accuracy (for him), performance in the clutch and finding the open man.
I also noted it was early September and there was plenty of time for Sayin to fully show improvement in all the areas in which he focused on during the offseason.
Yesterday against the Illini, Sayin put it all together as he completed 27-of-36 passes for 367 yards and four scores with another touchdown and 29 yards on the ground.
During a 19-play (!), 96-yard touchdown drive that we could look back on if he goes on a heater, Sayin was sensational with both his arm and legs as Ohio State built a 21-7 lead with 4:12 left in the second quarter.
Sayin converted three straight third down with his legs, moving the chains on a 3rd-and-7 with an elite 8-yard scramble that saw him shrug off a pair of tacklers before a couple successful quarterback sneaks on back-to-back 3rd-and-1s.
Later in the drive, on 4th-and-7, he calmly found tight end Nate Roberts for eight yards. Three plays later on 3rd-and-10, he stood in the pocket, stared down a blitzer and unleashed a dart to Devin McCuin for 14 yards before taking a hard shot. On the next snap, Sayin hit Jeremiah Smith for a 9-yard touchdown. Smith's footwork in the end zone stole the spotlight but it was a great throw to culminate maybe Sayin's best series at Ohio State.
After Illinois kicked a field goal on the ensuing possession to make it 21-10 good guys, Sayin went back to work with 1:32 left leading a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown march to make it 28-10 with 15 seconds left before intermission.
Sayin completed 5-of-6 throws on the drive including a 20-yarder to Roberts and a 23-yard strike to Phillip Bell before finishing it off with a 7-yard touchdown run ending in a dive to the front left pylon that electrified the Buckeye faithful.
Overall, Sayin's performance gave fans a ton to be excited about heading into the meat of a gauntlet that starts next weekend in Iowa City.
4 SCORE
It's officially (beyond?) time to debate if Jeremiah Smith is a top-2 player in Ohio State football history. I said on yesterday's After Carmen it's Archie, Orlando and Jeremiah in that discussion and for the moment, I'd probably still have them in that order but there's a lot of season left and if you have Smith higher than No. 3 on your list right now, I'm not hating.
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The dude looked like a man among boys yesterday as he piled up 12 catches for 217 yards and four touchdowns.
For context, it was just the seventh time an OSU pass catcher went for at least 200 yards and only the fifth instance of one recording four touchdowns in a game. Only Jeremiah and Terry Glenn can say they had at least 200 receiving yards and four touchdowns in the same game while wearing the scarlet and gray.
His 7-yard grab made it 7-0 early, a 72-yarder made it 14-0, his noted 9-yarder to make it 21-7 was the highlight of the day and a 26-yarder made it 35-13 early in the fourth quarter.
The 72-yarder was fun - he had this defensive back in hell the entire way, with the zig-zag at the end serving as a cherry on top.
And then there's this one. I mean what in the world - the body control, spatial awareness, concentration, footwork. Like, c'mon. Total alien shit.
He's the best player in college football and I'm not sure it's all that close.
Also, shout out to Arthur Smith getting JJ another 16 targets.
Through four games, Smith now stands at 33 receptions (8.3 per game) for 617 yards (154.3 per game) and seven touchdowns (1.8 per game).
If the Heisman Trust or whoever runs that stuff these days has any stones, they'll only invite Jeremiah to NYC in December.
THE JACKSONS
Ohio State's run game will likely never be spectacular this year - too many of these guys simply don't break enough tackles - but the Bo Jackson / Ja'Kobi Jackson duo was solid yesterday combining for 125 total yards on 5.2 yards per touch.
Ryan Day challenged the running back room to run violent in his Tuesday presser and for the most part, I think Bo rose to that challenge while Ja'Kobi always runs with bad intentions.
I felt like Bo finished his runs especially in the first half and he remains a solid threat as a receiver out of the backfield. He only had three grabs for 16 yards but had another nice catch and run wiped out by a holding penalty.
If he could just make more dudes miss or break some tackles at the second level, this offense could take off.
For his part, Ja'Kobi led the squad with 10 carries for 56 yards and a score. He also carried it twice on third down, going for five yards on 3rd-and-1 and then 15 yards on 3rd-and-4.
Nobody will mistake these guys for TreVeyon and Quinshon but if Ohio State can get a combined 125+ yards on 5+ yards per touch from them, that won't be mistaken for elite but it could be enough to keep defenses from totally selling out to stop Sayin and Smith.
FRONT SICKS
I wrote last week how the front six of Ohio State's defense flat out doesn't have any elite players, at least at this point, and yesterday was just the latest illustration as the Illini ran for 199 yards on 6.03 yards per carry.
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Aidan Laughery chewed up 113 of that on 10.3 per try and the Illini fared well on third down rushing for 50 yards on 8.3 per attempt, moving the chains on four of six carries.
The worst of that saw Laughery get loose for 18 yards on 3rd-and-10 and quarterback Katin Houser go for 25 yards on 3rd-and-7 late in the contest.
Defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr., by far the most talented guy up front, had his moments and I thought defensive tackle John Walker played well at times as the duo combined for five stops and a sack.
Jason Moore got some run this week as a DT that might step up (one stop), freshman Khary Wilder didn't play much but registered a quarterback hurry, Will Smith had a TFL, Beau Atkinson had a couple stops and half a sack, Qua Russaw made a cameo with two stops, and James Smith and Eddrick Houston both finished with one tackle.
Hey, I like the depth in the rotation up front but Matt Patricia would certainly love to see a few guys step in a way that makes it harder to take them off the field.
At linebacker, I do think Christian Alliegro is quietly solid and he posted six stops with a PBU yesterday. Payton Pierce also had six stops and half a sack. Pierce's backup, Riley Pettijohn, had three stops and continued his playmaking penchant with a pair of TFLs. TJ Alford also recorded three stops with a PBU.
All of these guys are absolutely serviceable in my view but will any evolve into an elite defensive force? I'm holding out hope for Pettijohn to do exactly that.
But right now, this front six looks like most programs would expect after losing Kayden McDonald, Caden Curry, Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese to the NFL. As I said last week, we have to remember it's still September.
SECONDARY LEAD
While the defensive line and linebackers continue to be a work in progress, the secondary remains the strength of the defense.
The group wasn't perfect yesterday as Katin Houser threw for 263 yards with a touchdown but it held Houser to a 57% completion rate and came up big in the game's biggest moments.
Safety Jaylen McClain had his best game of the young season with a team-leading eight stops and four PBUs - one of those coming on a huge 4th-and-4 from the OSU 20 to turn the Illini over on downs and preserve a 28-13 lead.
Devin Sanchez had a busy afternoon with seven stops and three PBUs, fellow corner Jermaine Mathews Jr. also had seven tackles and a trio of PBUs, Earl Little Jr. posted six stops and Jay Timmons, before leaving with an apparent hamstring issue, posted one stop and a PBU.
Combined, the secondary boasted the top four tacklers on the day and recorded about 45% of the team's total stops (yikes) plus 11 of the 12 PBUs.
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