On a cold night in the ‘Shoe, Ohio State rode strong defense and another fast start by the offense to crush Illinois, 55-14 and improve to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in league play. The win sets up a showdown next Saturday night in East Lansing as the Buckeyes hope to exact revenge after falling to Michigan State in last season's B1G championship game.
J.T. Barrett had just a so-so game as he missed Jeff Heuerman and Dontre Wilson who were wide open and then threw a couple balls into traffic that he was lucky to get back. He seemed to settle down in the second quarter as he ended up (playing only the first half) 15/24 for 167 yards and two scoring throws and adding another 38 yards on the ground. The coaching staff limited Barrett to only seven carries, knowing he’ll need to carry twice as much, on a healthy knee next week. I was surprised to see Curtis Samuel get the start over Ezekiel Elliott, but Samuel didn’t disappoint, with nine carries for 63 yards and two touchdowns. With no injury to Elliott and nothing to indicate he was in the doghouse for something, this may have been Coach Meyer’s way of rewarding a player who was working extra hard in practice. Elliott still had a good game, with 69 yards, and for the first time I saw how Elliott and Samuel can complement each other in the running game, while taking some of the wear and tear off of Barrett. Samuel seems to bring a “home run” element to the backfield that Elliott hasn’t shown, while Elliott has more of the “workhorse” ability. It was also good to see Devin Smith get more involved in the passing game. After recording just four catches over the past three games, Smith hauled in three receptions for 72 yards and two touchdowns. The three catches were his most since four against Cincinnati and the 72 yards served as his best outing since the season opener when he had 94 against Navy. On the season, Smith has just 16 receptions, good for 3rd-most on the team, but his seven receiving touchdowns lead the squad, as does his 27.2 yards per catch.
The defense picked up where they left off last week in Happy Valley. There were 11 tackles for loss, four takeaways (two interceptions and two fumble recoveries), three sacks, three quarterback hurries, big hits and the starters held Illinois under 150 yards before departing (243 total). Joey Bosa showed again he is a man among boys as he continues to munch on opposing quarterbacks. Bosa is now first in the conference and sixth in the nation in sacks, a shoe-in for first-team All-American if he keeps it up. But let’s not forget Steve Miller’s performance against the Illini. Often forgotten, Miller played in the Illinois backfield a lot, set the edge well on outside runs, made several bone crushing hits, and forced a fumble on a sack. He set a career high with three tackles for loss, equaling Bosa's three on the night and finished with four tackles. The Buckeyes continued their dominance against the run, allowing a meager 106 rushing yards to the Illini. Backup quarterback Aaron Bailey provided a spark when he came in for Reilly O’Toole, running for a team-high 39 yards from the quarterback position. But the Illini had a hard time getting anything going on the ground, as the team averaged just 2.5 yards per carry against Joey Bosa and a surging linebacker unit. Ohio State’s pass defense continues to improve under co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash, and against Illinois, the unit was dominant. The Buckeyes surrendered just 58 passing yards in the first half—56 of which came on one pass.
Starting quarterback Reilly O’Toole was benched midway through the second quarter, but backup Aaron Bailey didn’t have much success either. The Illini finished with just 137 passing yards and one touchdown. Ohio State's defense came up with two interceptions, both of which came in the first half against O'Toole.
The surging Ohio State team will now see what they are made of this coming Saturday night at East Lansing for the game of the year in the conference.
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