Ohio State Buckeyes: 5 takeaways from the win over Iowa

“That was the challenge coming in was 60 minutes of inside drill to figure out where we are running the ball and stopping the run,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “We have a reference point moving forward. I think you see a lot of confidence moving forward. It’s a big challenge to our entire team about our toughness. I thought we answered that. We’ll watch the film and figure it out. That’s a team that feels like they got challenged and they answered that.”

The mission is far from accomplished, but the coach was happy with what he saw after a few tense moments in the first 35 minutes or so.

Here are five things to know about the game Ohio State won 35-7:

1. Ohio State moved the ball but couldn’t finish drives in the first half.

The Buckeyes went 88 yards for a touchdown on their first drive then turned the ball over on downs at the Iowa 41 on their next possession.

Jeremiah Smith then fumbled a the Iowa 28 to snuff out a second scoring chance, Ohio State later punted from the Iowa 41 and Will Howard threw an interception near midfield when the Buckeyes were hoping to tack on another touchdown in the final two minutes.

That sent them to the locker room with a 7-0 lead that felt like it should have been bigger.

“I was pissed at myself because I feel like it’s uncharacteristic putting the ball in harm’s way like that,” Howard said. “I want to be safe with the ball in my decision-making. I’d like to hang my hat on that, but at the end of the day, man, you just got to flush it and move on. You can’t dwell on it too long in the moment.

“We’ll go back right now, and I’ll go watch the film, and I’m going to be critical — as critical as possible — and say, ‘Can’t do this, got to be better.’ But in the moment, it’s very, very, very important to just move on and brush it off.”

2. The third quarter was a disaster for Iowa.

The Buckeyes outscored the visitors 21-0 in the third quarter, thanks in no small part to a pair of damaging turnovers by Cade McNamara.

The former Michigan quarterback lost a fumble at his own 19 then threw an interception in Ohio State territory that was returned 45 yards to set up another short touchdown drive for the Buckeyes.

That made it 28-0 in the blink of an eye.

“The bottom line is you have to play clean football against a team like this,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz.

McNamara, who also lost a fumble in the fourth quarter before being benched, finished 14-for-20for 98 yards. He was sacked three times.

3. Ohio State’s big-play threats eventually took over.

Smith got behind the defense for a 53-yard catch that set up a highlight reel, one-handed touchdown grab in the third quarter, doubling Ohio State’s lead to 14-0.

That breathing room seemed to help them get into a groove as the hosts never looked back.

Howard hit Emeka Egbuka for a pair of touchdowns after that — both instances the senior was able to beat one-on-one coverage — and the Buckeyes pulled away.

“One-on-one, they’re open,” Howard said. “I’ve said that. I have all the trust in the world in those guys. I’ve seen them do it in practice. It makes my job easy when I can throw a ball to Emeka on that last touchdown that we had — wasn’t a great throw, honestly. I’ve got to be a little quicker with it, and I left it a little inside. Emeka made a great play.

“Things like that, just giving guys chances. J.J., that one-handed catch is stupid. You just let them go make plays, man, and it’s fun to watch.”

Howard ended up completing 21 of 25 passes for 209 yards with four touchdowns and the interception while Egbuka caught nine passes for 71 yards and Smith finished with with 89 yards on four catches.

Quinshon Judkins led the ground game with 78 yards on 13 carries while TreVeyon Henderson added 61 yards on 11 carries and Howard ran for 28 yards.

4. Kaleb Johnson had a rough afternoon.

The Hamilton High School graduate made some headlines when he talked about looking forward to getting a chance to beat the Buckeyes in his return to his home state.

They mostly bottled him up until the fourth quarter when he scored on a 28-yard run against the second-team defense.

He had another 28-yard run earlier in the game, giving him 14 runs of 20 or more yards on the season and five touchdown runs of 25 yards or more, but the nation’s No. 2 rusher entering the weekend finished with 86 yards on 15 carries Saturday.

He was still Iowa’s primary weapon, though, accounting for more than 40% of Iowa’s yards from scrimmage on the day.

Sonny Styles led the Ohio State defensive charge with seven tackles, including two for loss, while fellow linebacker Cody Simon added six stops and recovered a fumble.

Safety Caleb Downs also had two tackles for loss, and end Jack Sawyer had 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble.

5. Day was already looking ahead to next week when the game was over.

Day admitted the Buckeyes walked a balancing act this week.

While they respected Iowa, the second-biggest game of the regular season (after Michigan) is on tap next week when Ohio State travels to Oregon.

“They’re all big, but just the way the schedule has played out, the competition has ramped up each week,” Day said. “Here we go. This is gonna be a great opponent and we’re looking forward to traveling across the country and playing them.”

The sixth-ranked Ducks already beat Michigan State soundly Friday night, so the matchup promises to be between top 10 teams.

“As you can imagine, it didn’t take too long for us to set our focus on Oregon, but we will watch the film tomorrow,” Day said. “We’ll learn from it. We’ll call up the champions, identify those and make sure that we recognize the hard work that was done to win this game because we have a lot of respect for Iowa, Coach Ferentz and the way they do things. It’s a veteran team that’s played a lot of football.”