Five Things: Passing Game Lights It Up As Ohio State Cruises Past Arkansas State in the Shoe

On a day when No. 1 Alabama nearly lost to unranked Texas while No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 19 Wisconsin and No. 25 Houston all lost to unranked foes, hindsight says No. 3 Ohio State's less-than-perfect 45-12 win over Arkansas State probably feels a little better this morning than it did yesterday afternoon.

Ohio State's offense did sputter again at times, tallying four 3-and-outs in 12 total possessions, but the passing game certainly bounced back after a middling performance in game one against Notre Dame.

Despite again missing all-everything receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, quarterback C.J. Stroud had a big day throwing for 351 yards and four touchdowns as the Buckeyes racked up 538 yards of total offense.

The 33-point margin still had its share of fits and starts but Ryan Day and company will gladly take a 2-0 record into next weekend especially against the backdrop of a 2007-ish day for a host of other big name programs as seven squads ranked in the AP Top 25 woke up sporting Ls this morning.

With that, let's get to Five Things from yesterday's win over the Red Wolves.

GETTING OFF THE FIELD

Jim Knowles' defense had a strong bend-but-don't-break flavor yesterday afternoon. That was certainly true on third downs as the Buckeyes held the Red Wolves to 5-of-20 on third down conversion attempts. Two of those five came in the last three minutes against second and third-string defenders.

The Red Wolves managed just one conversion in nine first half tries.

For the game, Ohio State held its opponent to 3.6 yards per third down play which came in handy as the Red Wolves needed seven yards on average to move the sticks.

The strong performance came on the heels of Ohio State holding Notre Dame to just 3-of-13 on third down a week ago. As a result, over the first two outings, the Buckeye defense has surrendered just eight third down conversions in 33 tries.

That 24.2% third down stop rate plays very nicely against last year's defense when the Buckeyes ranked No. 100 in the country allowing teams to move the chains 42.1% of the time.

RED ZONE REVENGE

If you read any of my stuff during the offseason, you're no doubt aware just how shitty Ohio State was in defending the red zone last year. The Buckeyes ranked No. 124 in the country, allowing touchdowns once teams reached the red zone an incredible 74% of the time.

After holding Notre Dame to one field goal and one touchdown in the red zone last week, the Buckeyes were even better yesterday holding the Red Wolves to zero touchdowns and three field goals in four trips inside the 20. Arkansas State finished the game at the OSU 6-yard line as time ran out giving the Buckeye defense their first donut inside the red zone this season.

Similar to their third down effectiveness, it was largely bend but don't break in the red zone. On Arkansas State's first trip, facing a 3rd-and-5 from the OSU 12, Tanner McCalister forced an incompletion leading to a 29-yard field goal trimming Ohio State's lead to 7-3.

The Red Wolves had 1st-and-10 at the OSU 12 on their second red zone trip but J.T. Tuimoloau blew up the series forcing an incompletion with a QB hurry on first down before a 3-yard tackle for loss on 2nd-and-15 backed Arkansas State up even further. Two plays later, another Dominic Zvada field goal cut Ohio State's cushion to 17-6 with 13:33 to play before halftime.

After the OSU offense went 3-and-out, Arkansas State went back to work and had 1st-and-10 at the OSU 15 before Mike Hall destroyed a 2nd-and-4 play for a 4-yard loss leading to another field goal, closing Ohio State's lead to 17-9.

Through two games, Ohio State has allowed points in five of six opponent red zone trips but it has only allowed one touchdown, good for a touchdown allowance rate of 17%. It's a small sample size to be sure but it beats the hell out of allowing 74% of red zone trips to find the end zone.

2 + 18 = 302

Ohio State's passing game looked a bit disjointed last week without Smith-Njigba but it was a different story yesterday as Stroud leveraged Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka to carve up the Arkansas State secondary.

Harrison was the star of the game with seven grabs for 184 yards - that's 26.3 yards per catch - including three touchdowns on 11 targets. Last weekend, he had just five catches for 56 yards (11.2 ypc) on 11 targets.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pounder made his presence known early as he snared a pass from Stroud on a crossing route and raced 42 yards for six on Ohio State's first possession.

On Ohio State's next offensive possession, Harrison hooked up with Stroud for 45 yards to the Arkansas State 23-yard line. Two plays later, TreVeyon Henderson's 8-yard touchdown run gave the Buckeyes a 14-3 lead.

After back-to-back ASU field goals cut Ohio State's lead to 17-9, Harrison went back to work, this time hauling in a 42-yard dime from Stroud putting the Buckeyes in front 24-9.

Harrison capped the game's scoring late in the third quarter via 30-yard touchdown connection with Stroud on a 3rd-and-5 snap. This one was a beauty.

Route Man Marv's THIRD touchdown of the day was a beaut.pic.twitter.com/49JgvQ5oEy
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 10, 2022

After leading the Buckeyes with nine grabs for 90 yards last week, Egbuka did his thing against the Red Wolves with four catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. The sophomore from Washington state did most of his damage in the third quarter as he cradled a Stroud throw off a rollout for 44 yards to set up a Henderson touchdown run before he took a short pass from C.J. and raced 51 yards for his own score to make it 38-9 Ohio State. He also added a 27-yard run on the drive capped by Harrison's ridiculous 30-yard touchdown grab.

Together, the duo's 11 catches represented 58% of the receiving corps production on the afternoon while their 302 yards accounted for 82%.

DIRTY LAUNDRY

Probably the most frustrating aspect of yesterday's win came as Ohio State racked up nine penalties for 95 yards.

Two came on offense with Harrison's illegal formation taking Ohio State from a 1st-and-Goal at the ASU 8-yard line back to the 13. Getting off schedule proved problematic as the Buckeyes settled for a field goal and a 17-3 lead.

Seven flags came against the defense / special teams with Teradja Mitchell's illegal attempted leap over the ASU punt protectors turning a defensive stop into an extended possession and eventual field goal. A declined penalty on the same play combined to erase an Egbuka 78-yard punt return touchdown.

Denzel Burke, among his other issues on the day, was flagged for pass interference on a 3rd-and-11 snap, Taron Vincent picked up a personal foul on the way to the locker room at halftime and four different Buckeyes - Jerron Cage, Zach Harrison, Jack Sawyer and Tyleik Williams - jumped offsides due to James Blackman's hard counts.

Through two games, Day's squad's racked up 16 accepted penalties for 170 yards. Not great.

HALL YEAH

A week after wrecking Notre Dame's offensive line, redshirt freshman defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. was back at it yesterday registering three tackles for loss and a sack along with a handful of other disruptive penetrations that didn't make the stat sheet.

He broke through on a 2nd-and-8 snap early on to record a 4-yard tackle for loss, forcing ASU into a 3rd-and-12 it couldn't convert leading to a field goal.

His biggest play of the day however came on 4th-and-1 at the OSU 40 as he again destroyed his man and came up with an 8-yard sack, turning Arkansas State over on downs and ensuring the Buckeyes would take no worse than a 24-9 lead into intermission.

Through two games this season, Hall has seven stops, five tackles for loss and two sacks.

The rest of the defensive line combined has five tackles for loss thus far and nobody but Hall along the front four has a sack. Hell, Zach Harrison paced the 2021 defensive line with eight tackles for loss.. in 12 games.