Three Key Stats: Marvin Harrison Jr. Goes Off, Ohio State Run Defense Shines in Win over Arkansas State

With Jaxon Smith-Njigba sidelined with an injury, Marvin Harrison Jr. put on a show Saturday.

Five minutes into No. 2 Ohio State's 45-12 win over Arkansas State, “Route Man Marv” hauled in his first regular-season touchdown, a 42-yarder. Harrison and quarterback C.J. Stroud weren't done there, connecting seven times for 184 yards and three scores in a little over three quarters of action Saturday against the Red Wolves.

Harrison's 26.3 yards per reception was good enough for seventh-best in school history. Not bad for the third start of his career.

3 Touchdowns

On his first touchdown, Stroud found Harrison on a dig, and then the receiver outran three defenders on his way to the end zone.

His second touchdown, also good for 42 yards, was a go that saw Harrison get three yards of separation between himself and the closest defender. That score put Ohio State up, 24-9, at the half.

Harrison's final touchdown was a dart from Stroud that he snagged amid pretty darn good coverage to make it 45-12 at the end of the third. Great throw, great catch.

Remarkably, it wasn't the first time that Harrison had a three-touchdown day in his young Ohio State career. The second-year wideout from Philadelphia found the end zone three times in Ohio State's comeback win over Utah in January's Rose Bowl.

Evidently that's pretty rare. Harrison joins Buckeye great Joey Galloway as the only receivers in school history with two career games with three or more touchdowns.

You do love to see it pic.twitter.com/Mx6YfsBF7d
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 11, 2022

Real recognize real.

1.6 Yards per Carry

A week after holding Notre Dame to 2.5 yards per carry, the Ohio State run defense was once again stout, limiting Arkansas State to just 1.6 yards per attempt Saturday.

Red Wolves running back Johnnie Lang, fresh off getting 124 yards on 13 touches in his team's opener, was swarmed all afternoon, finishing with 19 yards on 12 attempts (1.6 per). His backup, Mike Sharpe, managed a little better, but not much: 13 yards on seven runs (1.9).

Ohio State defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. led the charge, recording three tackles for loss. In all, nine Buckeye defenders made stops behind the line of scrimmage against the Red Wolves.

9 Penalties

In the opener against Notre Dame, Ohio State was penalized seven times for 75 yards. None were ultimately costly, but we can't say any of them were fun, either.

Saturday against Arkansas State, Ohio State decided to raise, finishing with nine penalties for 85 yards. Again, none of them proved costly as far as the final result is concerned, but a few of them had an impact on the scoreboard.

After the Ohio State defense forced their second consecutive three-and-out to start the game, Emeka Egbuka housed a 78-yard punt return to seemingly put the Buckeyes up 14-0 midway through the opening quarter. Nope. There were not one but two Ohio State penalties on the return, nullifying it and giving the Red Wolves new life.

Three plays later, Denzel Burke bailed ASU out of a 3rd-and-11 when he was called for pass interference. Arkansas State would tack on three points at the end of the drive.

That's a 10-point swing in a matter of minutes. Those points didn't matter Saturday, but they will at some point and you know Ryan Day and staff will work to get that cleaned up.

BONUS STATS

Ryan Day improved to 36–4 as Ohio State's head coach. Through 40 games, he's the second-winningest coach in school history (Urban Meyer, 37–3)… Ohio State averaged 10.0 yards per attempt Saturday, just off the record of 10.3 yards set against Minnesota in 2021… Emeka Egbuka finished with a career-high 118 receiving yards, recording the first 100-yard game of his Buckeye career… Ohio State has scored 20+ points in 63 straight games, closing in on Oklahoma's FBS record of 69 games (2016-21).