One statistic that stands out when evaluating what went wrong for Ohio State’s offense against Indiana is how poorly the Buckeyes fared on third down.
Ohio State went 2-for-12 on third downs against the Hoosiers. Even more troubling than the overall number was that seven of those 10 failed third-down attempts came in 3rd-and-5 or shorter.
The Buckeyes struggled to make successful third-down plays by both ground and air against Indiana, going 1-for-6 on running plays and 1-for-6 on passing plays. That will make situational football improvement a major area of emphasis for Ohio State coming off of Week 1.
“When you get off schedule, and it's 3-and-9, 3rd-and-10, the percentages there go way down. But we expect on 3rd-and-3, 3rd-and-2, 3rd-and-1 to convert about 80% of the time. When we’re not, that puts us completely out of whack. And that happened today,” Ryan Day said after the game. “That can't happen moving forward.”
On a more positive note, Ohio State went 2-for-3 on fourth-down conversions. The Buckeyes converted a 4th-and-2 on their opening drive when Kyle McCord connected with Gee Scott Jr. for a 10-yard gain, setting up a touchdown run by Miyan Williams two plays later. The Buckeyes’ second fourth-down attempt proved unsuccessful when a play designed to go to Chip Trayanum ended up with McCord forcing a throw over the middle for an interception after Trayanum was knocked down. But in the fourth quarter, McCord completed a wheel route to Williams for a 12-yard gain on 4th-and-9, though that drive ended with a 22-yard field goal following a pair of incomplete passes by McCord on 2nd-and-goal and 3rd-and-goal from the 4-yard line.
Proctor starts, Hartford finishes at free safety
After transferring in from Syracuse with three seasons of experience as a starter, Ja’Had Carter didn’t see any action against Indiana on Saturday.
All those reps were instead taken by sixth-year senior Josh Proctor and freshman Malik Hartford, with Proctor starting the game and playing the entire first half. Proctor collected four tackles, with one tackle for loss coming on a big first-quarter hit delivered to Indiana running back Jaylin Lucas to bust up an option play.
“We figured that another option was coming, and I knew I had the pitch guy,” Proctor said. “I tried to beat the tight end to the side so I wouldn’t get blocked out. It felt good. I had to make sure I got the tackle at first, but it definitely felt good.”
Hartford took his place in the third quarter and played the majority of the second half. He made just one tackle, but it resulted in a third-down stop after a 2-yard completion from Indiana quarterback Brendan Sorsby to Andison Coby on 3rd-and-4.
Three running backs split load
Three running backs carried the ball at least seven times for the Buckeyes, while no running back had more than 12 carries against the Hoosiers.
TreVeyon Henderson started the game and rushed 12 times for 47 yards, Trayanum added eight carries for 57 yards in relief and Williams collected seven attempts for 25 yards and two touchdowns.
Trayanum proved to be the most efficient of the trio, averaging 7.1 yards per carry to Henderson’s 3.9 and Williams’ 3.6, respectively. But Day said after the game that Henderson will continue to be the starting running back, though he said that Williams and Trayanum will also continue to see regular playing time while Ohio State will look for opportunities to involve Dallan Hayden, who played only on Ohio State’s final possession against Indiana.
“Trey's the starter and Miyan’s right there and you could see what Chip can do,” Day said. “It's gonna be a long season, they're all gonna carry it, but Trey is the starter, Miyan’s right there and Chip’s right there as well. I don’t think Dallan got a bunch of work today either, he's gonna have to play; we only have one football, but all those guys are deserving.”
It only felt like fewer plays
One element that played a factor in Ohio State scoring only 23 points against Indiana was the new clock rules in college football, which keep the clock running after first downs except for the final two minutes of each half. As it turned out, though, Ohio State didn’t end up running substantially fewer plays against the Hoosiers as it did in an average game last year.
Throughout its 13 games in 2022, Ohio State ran an average of 67.4 plays per game. The Buckeyes ran 67 plays on Saturday, putting them just under that average – and at a higher number of plays than six of its 13 games a year ago.
Indiana ran more than eight fewer plays than opponents did on average against the Buckeyes in 2022; the Hoosiers had 54 offensive plays on Saturday, while opponents averaged 62.1 plays per game against the Buckeyes last year. Indiana’s 54 plays this year would have been the third-fewest of any Ohio State opponent in 2022. But that doesn’t take anything away from Ohio State’s dominant defensive performance against the Hoosiers, as Indiana’s average of 2.8 yards per play was lower than every team except Iowa averaged against Ohio State last season.
Seven freshmen play in opener
Hartford wasn’t the only true freshman to make his Ohio State debut against Indiana. Other members of the 2023 class who saw action in their first possible games as Buckeyes included wide receivers Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss and Noah Rogers, offensive lineman Luke Montgomery, linebacker Arvell Reese and cornerback Jermaine Mathews.
Tate rotated in at wide receiver with the first-team offense and made his first catch as a Buckeye in the fourth quarter for a 15-yard gain. Inniss and Rogers both made their Ohio State debuts on the Buckeyes’ final possession of the game.
Montgomery saw playing time with the first-team offense as a sixth offensive lineman. Reese started on the kickoff coverage team and Mathews also saw regular action on that unit.
They were among 10 true freshmen who made the trip to Indiana along with tight end Jelani Thurman, quarterback Lincoln Kienholz and punter Joe McGuire.
Four Buckeyes make first starts
A quartet of Ohio State players made their first starts as Buckeyes against Indiana: left tackle Josh Simmons and center Carson Hinzman on the offensive line, and cornerback Davison Igbinosun and safety Sonny Styles in the secondary.
Simmons and Igbinosun were both starters at their previous schools in 2022 – Simmons at San Diego State and Igbinosun at Ole Miss – but played in their first contests as Buckeyes on Saturday. Hinzman saw his first collegiate action Saturday after redshirting as a true freshman last year. Styles played only occasionally on defense as a true freshman for 67 defensive snaps in 2022 but was a mainstay on the field with the first-team defense against Indiana.
Secondary a primary reason for victory
A brief look at Indiana’s passing numbers tell the tale of a dominant day for Ohio State on the back end of its defense.
The Hoosiers finished 9-for-21 – a measly 43 percent – through the air and gained just 82 yards against the Buckeyes. That’s 4.2 passing yards allowed per attempt, which would have led the nation by a full 1.1 yards in 2022 if it were a full-season number.
Denzel Burke recorded two pass breakups in the contest, showing early signs of a resurgent year following a 2022 campaign in which he allowed over three more yards per target than he did in 2021, per Pro Football Focus. Proctor and Hartford each added a pass breakup of their own.
“It was a good start to the season,” Burke said. “Still got a lot of things we’ve got to clean up on the field, but (I’m) really hopeful.”
Stover sets career-high
The longstanding narrative that Ohio State doesn’t throw to the tight end started to change last year when Cade Stover caught 36 passes for 406 yards and five touchdowns, and Stover’s production in the first game of 2023 showed it might be time to kill that narrative entirely.
Stover was Ohio State’s leading receiver against Indiana, catching five passes for a career-high 98 yards – 15 more than he had in any single game last season. He had Ohio State’s longest offensive play of the day when he had a 49-yard catch-and-run on a deep ball from McCord.
Cade Stover is going to be such a problem this year. @cstov8 x @OhioStateFB
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) September 2, 2023
: CBS pic.twitter.com/Q0DOmzoy6w
Collectively, Ohio State tight ends (108 yards on six catches by Stover and Scott) had one more yard than Ohio State’s wide receivers did against Indiana, as Julian Fleming, Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka and Tate combined for only 107 yards on 12 catches.
Additional notes
- Steele Chambers led Ohio State’s defense in the tackling department, recording six takedowns with four of them being solo, which was also a team-high.
- Sonny Styles finished with a team-high 1.5 tackles for loss among our total tackles.
- Jayden Fielding made the first three field goal attempts of his Ohio State career, one from 40 yards and two from 22 yards, as well as both of his extra point attempts in his first game as the Buckeyes’ starting kicker.
- Hero Kanu recorded his first career sack and Ohio State’s only sack against Indiana, taking down Sorsby for a 5-yard loss with 4:17 to play in the contest.
- Including the 2010 game that has since been vacated by the NCAA, Ohio State has now won 29 consecutive games against Indiana dating back to 1990.
- Ohio State has now scored at least 20 points in 75 consecutive games.
