As an offensive coach, Ryan Day had reason to be disappointed with Ohio State’s performance in its first game against Indiana. As a coach of the entire team, Day still had reason to smile.
The storyline likely to dominate the headlines in Columbus for the next week is Ohio State’s lackluster offensive performance against Indiana, as the Buckeyes scored only 23 points with just two touchdowns. But the story of Saturday’s game was the performance of the defense, whose dominance ensured that Indiana never threatened to upset the Buckeyes despite their offensive mediocrity.
Ohio State held Indiana to only three points, allowing the Hoosiers to cross the 30-yard line just once. The Buckeyes held the Hoosiers to only 153 total yards and 10 first downs on an average of 2.8 yards per play.
That’s precisely the kind of performance Ohio State’s defense needed to make a statement after allowing 87 points and 1,063 total yards in its final two games of last season. And it gave Day confidence about what the defense can help the Buckeyes accomplish all year long.
“I'm allowed to talk about the defense, so I want to smile,” Day said after the game. “If we play defense like this, we're gonna have a chance.”
As Day said to immediately follow that quote, there are “certainly bigger challenges ahead.” Like Ohio State, Indiana entered Saturday’s game without a firm starting quarterback, and it was clear to see why as Brendan Sorsby and Tayven Jackson combined to complete only nine of their 21 passing attempts for 82 yards. The Hoosiers were one of the Big Ten’s worst offensive teams in 2022, finishing the year 12th out of 14 teams in total offense and 10th out of 14 teams in scoring offense, and there was nothing on Saturday to suggest they’ll be any better this year.
That may have had something to do with Denzel Burke leaving Bloomington unsatisfied despite the impressive numbers in the box score.
“No,” Burke replied when asked if he felt like Ohio State’s defense had accomplished its mission Saturday. “We wanted to hold them to zero (points), honestly. Three’s too much for us. We want to be a dominant defense. We want to be a dominant force. We want to bring the Silver Bullets back.”
Burke said Saturday’s performance “was a good start” but that the defense has much bigger goals in mind.
“I feel like our defense could be the No. 1 in the nation. We just got to take care of the little things and really be disciplined, have good eye control and D-line do their thing up front,” Burke said.
Josh Proctor agreed with Burke’s assessment.
“Our goal is to dominate every time we come out here,” Proctor said. “We don't want any points allowed, we don't want a lot of yards allowed, and that's what we want to come out and play like, the Silver Bullets.”
“We wanted to hold them to zero, honestly. Three’s too much for us. We want to be a dominant defense. We want to be a dominant force. We want to bring the Silver Bullets back.”– Denzel Burke on Ohio State’s defensive expectations
One tangible area in which the Buckeyes certainly have room to improve upon their season-opening performance is making big plays. Ohio State did not have any interceptions or forced fumbles against Indiana, and it had only one sack.
Still, the defense had good reason to be proud of how it performed against Indiana. For one, the Buckeyes were thrown for a curveball with Indiana’s option-heavy gameplan, which Burke said was something Ohio State didn’t see on film. But they never looked flustered by it, limiting the two quarterbacks to just nine net yards on nine combined rushing attempts.
“It's kind of crazy because we didn't see that on film at all,” Burke said. “It just kind of shows our calmness and you know, adjusting to the things we haven't seen before, even on film. And I feel like we did a really good job of that.”
Perhaps most importantly with the way last year ended, Ohio State gave up almost no big plays on defense in the season opener. A 24-yard connection between Jackson and Cam Camper was Indiana’s only play of more than 20 yards in Saturday’s game, a stark contrast from the 16 combined plays of 20-plus yards the Buckeyes allowed against Georgia and Michigan.
Saturday was only a start for Ohio State’s defense, and how it performed against Indiana isn’t necessarily indicative of how it will perform against tougher competition. After all, the Buckeyes started last season by holding Notre Dame to only 10 points and held nine of their first 10 opponents of 2022 to 21 or fewer points before their abysmal finish to the year.
But considering Indiana’s 153 total yards were fewer than Ohio State allowed in any game last season, and that the three points the Hoosiers scored were the fewest the Buckeyes have allowed in any game since 2019, Ohio State had reason to leave Bloomington feeling the same way it’s felt all offseason that its defense has improved.
“I thought our defense played really well,” Day said. “It’s a different-looking defense. We get some good length out there, we got our hands on some balls early. They took some shots early, I thought we were there, ready to make the play. Defensive line was disruptive. So a lot to grow on.”
