Ohio State had a significant injury scare for the second week in a row in Saturday’s 49-6 win over Tulane.
After taking a hit along Tulane’s sideline at the end of a run in the second quarter of Saturday’s game, Ohio State running back Mike Weber landed awkwardly and immediately began favoring his right foot. After limping his way across the field, Weber did not return to the game, and was no longer wearing his pads when the Buckeyes came out of the locker room for the second half.
Following Saturday’s game, however, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said he expects Weber to be back on the field for next week’s game at Penn State.
“Mike Weber has a little strain on his foot,” Meyer said. “He should be fine for next week.”
Outside of Weber, the Buckeyes didn’t have any other notable injuries on Saturday, and have had very few injuries through their first four games of the season – with the major exception of Nick Bosa, who underwent surgery for a core muscle injury on Thursday. Starting defensive tackle Robert Landers was also held out of Saturday’s game with an undisclosed injury, but like Weber, he’s expected to be able to play against Penn State, too.
With Weber out of the game, Demario McCall – who had previously been moved to H-back/slot receiver – saw his first playing time at running back this season in Saturday’s game, carrying the ball four times for 26 yards and catching two passes for 36 yards. True freshman running back Master Teague also saw playing time in the fourth quarter, carrying the ball six times for 25 yards. Fellow true freshman running back Brian Snead, who did not make the trip to TCU for disciplinary reasons, did not play again Saturday.
Mack bounces back
Perhaps no Ohio State player drew more criticism for his performance in last week’s 40-28 win over TCU than wide receiver Austin Mack, who dropped four passes and also committed a holding penalty in the eventual win over the Horned Frogs.
On Saturday, though, Mack had no trouble catching the throws that came his way, snagging three receptions for 32 yards, including a spinning 14-yard catch in the end zone.
While Mack didn’t see nearly as many throws come his way against Tulane as he did against TCU – in part because Parris Campbell was Dwayne Haskins’ target of choice for much of the first half, and in part because Mack and the rest of the starters didn’t play as much in the second half – he took advantage of the opportunities he had against the Green Wave.
Mack said he tried to put his struggles against the Horned Frogs behind him as quickly as he could so that he could focus on playing better this weekend.
“We went over film Sunday, and then I put it behind me,” Mack said. “I know I’m a great player, and I know I can do better than how I performed, and there’s a lot of football left this season.”
Jordan on target
If any Ohio State player did draw more criticism than Mack after the TCU game, it might have been center Michael Jordan, whose ability to snap the ball was heavily scrutinized after he had issues with that crucial part of his position – specifically, with snapping the ball too low – throughout the game against the Horned Frogs.
In one half of play against Tulane on Saturday, though, Jordan didn’t have any noticeable snapping issues, and Meyer attributed that improvement to a week of practice in which Jordan – who is in his first year playing center after sliding over to that position from left guard – spent much of the week focused specifically on his snapping.
“He came up to me after every day of practice, because I got on him a little bit,” Meyer said of Jordan. “(Offensive line coach Greg Studrawa) does a very good job, we chart every snap, and he was very accurate this whole week.”
Meyer remembers late friend
While much of the spotlight surrounding Saturday’s game was placed upon Meyer, as he coached in his first game of the season after being suspended for the first three, Meyer had someone else on his mind in his first game back at Ohio Stadium.
Before he began talking about football in his postgame press conference on Saturday, Meyer pointed to a pin on his jacket and explained that he was wearing that pin in honor of Matthew Offers, a young Ohio State fan who died this past week – shortly after celebrating his ninth birthday – after battling congenital heart disease.
Meyer and his wife Shelley visited Offers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital just two weeks earlier, while serving his suspension before Ohio State’s game against Rutgers, and he wanted to pay tribute to his late friend on Saturday.
“He is a guy I've known for a couple of years,” Meyer said. “We go down to Nationwide Children's, and I got very close to his family, and I wanted to share that. So that's what that pin is for, and please keep that family in your thoughts.”
In a tweet following Meyer’s press conference on Saturday, Offers’ father expressed his gratitude to Urban and Shelley for their kindness toward his son.
Humbling that this man and his wife is honoring my son. https://t.co/KT60byVCtV
— Matthew Offers (@coachoffers) September 22, 2018
Backups get their time to shine
While the second half of Saturday’s game at Ohio Stadium certainly wasn’t the most enthralling half of football, as a 2-yard Tate Martell touchdown run with just 1:01 remaining in the contest was the only score of the half, Saturday was an opportunity for many of Ohio State’s backups to see more playing time than usual – and some of them took advantage by achieving milestones and/or making impressive plays.
Three Ohio State backups recorded the first sacks of their careers on Saturday: Baron Browning chased down Tulane quarterback Jonathan Banks for a 6-yard loss in the first quarter, Tyler Friday buried Banks for a 6-yard loss in the third quarter and Keandre Jones sacked Justin McMillan for a 1-yard loss in the fourth quarter.
On a day where none of Ohio State’s three starting linebackers (Malik Harrison, Tuf Borland and Pete Werner) recorded a single tackle, Jones was one of three backup linebackers to tie for the team lead with four total tackles, along with Dante Booker and Dallas Gant, while backup safety Jahsen Wint also had four tackles.
Booker’s four tackles including three tackles for loss and one sack, while Gant’s productive day came in a game where he saw the first defensive playing time of his career. Fellow true freshman linebacker Teradja Mitchell also saw his first defensive playing time on Saturday, though he did not record any tackles.
On the other side of the ball, sophomore walk-on wide receiver Garyn Prater and freshman H-back Jaelen Gill made the first catches of their Ohio State careers, while fellow true freshman wide receiver L’Christian “Blue” Smith saw the first playing time of his career.
While none of those players were made available to the media after the game, fourth-year junior defensive tackle Davon Hamilton – who achieved a milestone of his own on Saturday by making the first start of his career – was among those who were happy to see many of the Buckeyes’ younger players get their chance to make their mark against Tulane.
“We always try to teach the young Bucks to play hard, so it was a good opportunity for them,” Hamilton said. “It’s really a learning opportunity for them. So when they got the opportunity to play in big games at big times, they’ll know how to do it.”
