COLUMBUS, Ohio — The ball sat at Iowa’s own 7-yard line after an Ohio State punt, and everybody knew what the Hawkeyes were going to do late in the first half.
Run the ball.
Iowa ran 27 times in Saturday’s 35-7 loss to No. 3 Ohio State, and in that moment, it did what everybody expected. On first down, Jaziun Patterson was met in the backfield by linebacker Sonny Styles, who shot the gap perfectly. On second down, Cody Simon made the tackle at the line of scrimmage. Iowa threw a pass to the flat on third down and punted on fourth down. It’s a sequence that speaks to the evolving identity of this Ohio State football team.
For years, Ryan Day’s program has heard the “soft” label because it couldn’t win the biggest games in the trenches. Three consecutive losses to Michigan, a loss to Georgia and even last year’s loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl proved Ohio State wasn’t where it needed to be up front on one side of the ball or the other.
But Ohio State made plays when it needed to against Iowa, a physical team and the best opponent the Buckeyes have played thus far. They held Iowa to just 116 rushing yards and star running back Kaleb Johnson to 86 yards, down from his average of 171 yards per game.
Ohio State also dominated along the offensive line. The Buckeyes ran for 203 yards, making them the first team to go over 100 yards on Iowa, and averaged 5.1 yards per carry, well over Iowa’s 2.4 average. All told, Ohio State had nine tackles for loss to Iowa’s two.
It was impressive. It was dominant. It was the answer every Ohio State fan wanted after having questions about the offensive and defensive fronts all offseason. Ohio State can win games at the line of scrimmage, and that’s going to bode well for the Buckeyes going forward — starting next Saturday night at Oregon.
“I think we showed some toughness today. Guys were physical up front on both sides of the ball,” Styles said. “But you have to keep getting better every week. This game is over. It’s a new week.”
Ryan Day challenged his team to win in the trenches. Run the ball and stop the run, it’s simple enough. It’s what every team aspires to do, but it can be easier said than done against a team like Iowa.
The Hawkeyes have been known for their run defense for years. They have finished in the top 15 of the country every season since 2018. Even when Ohio State beat the Hawkeyes 54-10 in 2022, it averaged just 2.2 yards per carry.
The Hawkeyes run a two-gap defensive scheme, which means the defensive tackles are tasked with grabbing the offensive guards and moving them to one of the primary or secondary gaps, allowing the linebackers free runs at the running back. That can be difficult to prepare for, especially when you mix in Iowa’s talent and preparation.
But it wasn’t a problem for Ohio State on Saturday.
New offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is part of the reason Ohio State is so good up front. He’s known for getting the most out of his running backs and offensive lines. Kelly, who was the head coach at UCLA for six years before joining the Ohio State staff, finished in the top 20 in rushing in each of his last four years with the Bruins. Ask around the program and people will tell you that the way Kelly schemes to his personnel on a weekly basis helps the Buckeyes.
Credit should be spread around, too. Offensive line coach Justin Frye has received heavy criticism from the Ohio State fan base in recent years for missing in recruiting and producing mixed results on the field. This preseason, the Buckeyes were hit with a nightmare scenario when an illness went through the entire offensive line during camp, which forced them to rotate players from the second and third teams in with the starters. Frye pushed his unit, and that time helped build depth — though the development at the top of the depth chart has been noticeable too.
Tackles Josh Simmons and Josh Fryar were liabilities last year, but they’ve shown off their athletic ability this season. Guard Donovan Jackson has been worthy of his preseason All-American billing, while the newcomers at right guard Austin Siereveld and Tegra Tshabola have meshed well.
Add in Alabama transfer Seth McLaughlin at center, and Ohio State has a line it can trust.
“Everyone for the most part has had a lot of playing experience,” Jackson said, “and the guys who don’t have it, we knew they were very talented and would come along with us.”
The question for the offensive line after a month wasn’t whether it could block in space or move. It was whether it could overpower people. And it did on Saturday.
“Those guys are playing their butts off,” quarterback Will Howard said. “We say we want to have our offensive line get two and our backs get two every play, but I think our line is getting four and our backs can get 60-plus.”
That energy spills over to the defensive side. When the offensive line comes off the field, some of the first people to find them are the defensive linemen.
“They know what we’re capable of, so when we put it on the field, they’re like, ‘Look, that’s what you gotta do,’” Jackson said.
The cliche “iron sharpens iron” has been talked about at Ohio State when it comes to the wide receivers and the secondary, two of the best positions on the roster. The same can now be said at the line of scrimmage.
Partial credit for Ohio State’s offensive line improvement goes to the defensive line. The talent is obvious, as defensive ends JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer will be NFL Draft picks next year, along with defensive tackles Tyleik Williams and Ty Hamilton.
There’s been another theme going through this Ohio State team since the offseason: toughness. It wants to be the toughest and hardest-playing team in the country, and Saturday’s performance backed it up.
Ohio State isn’t perfect. It’s turning the ball over too much, with five in five games, and it can struggle against quarterback runs and sometimes start slow on offense. There are things to fix before next week’s presumed top-five matchup at Oregon, and it knows that.
But after Saturday, there’s one more thing we know about Ohio State: It can win games up front.
When the defense was on the field, Styles could hear a voice that didn’t belong to any of the coaches. It was running back Quinshon Judkins running up and down the sideline yelling, “Hit them in the face. Keep hitting them in the face.”
Ohio State won on Saturday because it never stopped hitting Iowa. And that alone is a strong statement heading into Oregon.
(Top photo of Tyleik Williams: Joseph Maiorana / USA Today)
