There was good and there was bad in No. 4 Ohio State’s 59-31 win against No. 19 Purdue at Ohio Stadium on a Saturday afternoon that bled into a Saturday night. The Buckeye offense returned to its dominating performances of earlier in the year, scoring nearly at will. The defense, however, reverted back to some of its early-season struggles.
The Scarlet and Gray played a nearly flawless first half. Offensively, Ohio State dominated the Boilermaker defense that ranked inside the top 25 coming into the weekend. The Buckeyes scored touchdowns on all but one of their first half drives, and that possession still ended in a field goal. The second half wasn’t as much of a clinic from the home team, but the offense still put up 14 points, enough to match Purdue.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud had one of his biggest days of the year. The redshirt freshman completed 31 of his 38 pass attempts for 361 yards and tied a career-high with five touchdown passes. He would have had a sixth but a 49-yard scoring pass to Chris Olave was called back due to a holding penalty on tight end Jeremy Ruckert.
Stroud’s favorite target was wide receiver Garrett Wilson. After missing last week’s game at Nebraska, Wilson caught 10 of his 12 targets for 126 yards and three touchdowns. He also had a 51-yard rushing scoring, making him the first Scarlet and Gray player to have three receiving touchdowns and a rushing score in a game, per ESPN stats and info. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who set an Ohio State single-game record for receptions last week, caught nine passes for 139 yards and a touchdown. Olave also had nine receptions for 85 yards and a score.
The Buckeye rushing attack got back on track, accounting for 263 yards and three touchdowns. Running back TreVeyon Henderson had 98 yards and two touchdowns and Miyan Williams substituted in and went off for 117 yards on the ground.
Ohio State’s defense did not have the same level of success, despite a decent first half.
While Purdue’s passing attack has been among the best in the country this year, Buckeye fans will feel rightly disappointed to see their team give up 481 total yards, 390 through the air. While star receiver David Bell was contained to 103 yards on 11 receptions, this is still too much for a secondary that believed they were improving.
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Cornerback Denzel Burke, the freshman that drew the matchup with Bell, led the Scarlet and Gray with 11 total tackles and one pass defended. While Ohio State did not have any sacks, a product largely of dropping eight players into coverage, the Buckeyes did manage five tackles for a loss and recovered two fumbles.
After the game, our team writer Patrick Murphy was live, discussing the good and the bad of the Scarlet and Gray performance and gave his thoughts on what this four-score win means for Ohio State. You can watch a replay of the video above but make sure to like Bucknuts on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow Bucknuts on Twitter in order to watch these videos live and ask questions and comment during the video, as well as see more of our content.
