Three Key Stats: Ohio State Racks Up Six Takeaways, Hangs Five Touchdowns on Vaunted Iowa Defense

Maybe Iowa fans will finally stop talking about 2017.

Spoiler: they won't, but Ohio State got a measure of revenge with a 54-10 blowout of the Hawkeyes at Ohio Stadium Saturday. The 54 points were the most scored against Iowa since 1995 (No. 4 Ohio State 56, No. 25 Iowa 35) and the most points surrendered by a Kirk Ferentz Iowa team.

Zero Touchdowns Allowed

The college football universe rarely agrees on anything, but you could ask anyone in that universe if Iowa's offense was a tire fire and get the same response: absolutely. The Hawkeyes entered Ohio Stadium having scored just seven offensive touchdowns on the season, which is bad, but when you consider Buckeye wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. came in with nine by himself, it kind of drives home how bad Brian Ferentz's unit has been this season.

Iowa's offense left the Shoe without crossing the goal line – scoring their only touchdown of the day defensively on a scoop-and-score – as a grooving Ohio State defense made an awful Hawkeye offense look like an awful Division III offense.

How bad did the Silver Bullets make Iowa look? Let's count the ways. The Hawkeyes finished 1/13 on third downs. Starting quarterback Spencer Petras tossed an interception on this first throw of the game. When he was benched in the second half, his replacement, Alex Padilla, was promptly intercepted on his first pass of the game. In all, Ohio State recorded six takeaways (after Iowa had entered the game with six turnovers on the season) and held the two quarterbacks to 81 passing yards. Oh, the Hawkeyes also put up 2.2 yards per rush.

The Ohio State defense held Iowa's offense to fewer points on the day than Ohio State's offense, Ohio State's defense, and Iowa's defense scored.

Yikes, indeed.

Nine Drive Killers

Ohio State snagged three interceptions in the game – marking the fifth-straight game in which the Bullets have a pick – to pair nicely with three fumble recoveries. The Buckeyes' second interception of the day was snagged by linebacker Tommy Eichenberg, who housed it from the 15 to give the Buckeyes a 26-10 lead at the half.

But that only tells part of the story. On three other occasions, Ohio State forced Iowa to turn the ball over on downs. That's nine drives that saw Iowa either turn the ball over outright or turn it over on downs. Pivotal moments that saw Ohio State say, “Nope!”

Iowa's other five drives? Four punts and a field goal.

It's hard to overstate days like Saturday were for defenses coming into their own.

Five Offensive Touchdowns

As bad as Iowa's offense is, the Hawkeye defense is elite. And that's a miracle when you consider how little that offense does to help its own defense.

The Hawkeyes were game early, scoring the first touchdown of the afternoon and holding Ohio State to four field goals, just 133 yards of total offense, and 1.6 yards per rush in the first half.

Then the Ohio State offense began to cook, with quarterback C.J. Stroud throwing touchdowns on four consecutive Buckeye drives spanning the early third to early fourth quarters. One to Harrison, one to Emeka Egbuka, one to Julian Fleming, and the final to Mitch Rossi.

In six games coming into the contest, Iowa's defense had surrendered just five touchdowns all season. Ohio State doubled that total in one afternoon.

This is important because the Hawkeyes might have the best pair of cornerbacks in the nation in reigning Big Ten defensive back of the year Riley Moss and Pro Football Focus darling Cooper DeJean. And the Buckeye passing attack turned them inside out.

Iron met iron, and Ohio State's iron was stronger.

Bonus Stats & Notes

Ohio State has scored 45 or more points in six-straight games, the longest streak in the Big Ten since Michigan had six such games in 1903 (against Albion, Beloit, Ohio Northern, Indiana, Ferris State, and Drake)… The Buckeyes have scored 20 or more points in 68 consecutive games, one off the all-time FBS record (Oklahoma 2016-21)… Stroud's four touchdown passes gave him his 12th game with four or more touchdowns in his 19 career starts… With 105 receiving yards, Julian Fleming became the third Buckeye to top the century mark in a game this season, and none of the three are Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Harrison, Egbuka)… Eichenberg's pick-six was the first defensive score of the season for Ohio State… Defensive ends Zach Harrison and J.T. Tuimoloau each notched their first sacks of the season Saturday… Ohio State's defense held Iowa to 158 total yards, the fewest they've given up since holding Indiana to 128 in 2021… Noah Ruggles' four field goals (all in the first half) tie for the second most in a game in program history… Ohio State improves to 41–4 under Ryan Day.