Ohio State Steamrolls Western Michigan, 56-0, For Second Win of 2024 Season

By Dan Hope on September 7, 2024 at 10:46 pm
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On a day when MAC schools upset one top-10-ranked team (Northern Illinois over Notre Dame) and came close to upsetting another (Bowling Green vs. Penn State), Ohio State ensured it would be in no jeopardy of suffering a similar fate with a dominant performance against Western Michigan on Saturday night.

The Buckeyes dominated the visiting Broncos from the jump in their first night game of the season at Ohio Stadium, putting up more than 600 yards of offense while completing their first defensive shutout since 2019 for an authoritative 56-0 victory to improve to 2-0 on the season.

  Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4  
#2 Ohio State 21 14 7 14 56
Western MICHIGAN 0 0 0 0 0
SEPT. 7, 2024 • Ohio STADIUM • Columbus, Ohio

After starting slow against Akron, Ohio State came out of the gates strong in its second game of the season, driving 55 yards in six plays to score a touchdown on its opening drive of the game. With four tight ends on the field, TreVeyon Henderson powered the ball up the middle for a 3-yard touchdown run, his first of the season.

Western Michigan put together a 11-play, 55-yard drive on its second possession to get down to Ohio State’s 25-yard line, but Broncos kicker Luka Zurak missed a 42-yard field goal attempt wide right.

Freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith made it 14-0 on Ohio State’s second possession as he outrun a pack of five Western Michigan defenders all the way to the end zone for a 70-yard touchdown.

Quinshon Judkins made it three touchdowns in three possessions for Ohio State as he ran right for a 23-yard score with Josh Fryar leading the way.

Judkins nearly made it 28-0 with an 80-yard touchdown run on Ohio State’s next possession, but the Buckeyes punted for the first time after that run was wiped off the board by a holding penalty against Gee Scott Jr.

He actually made it 28-0 one drive later when he ran for another touchdown, again from 23 yards out, following a cavalry of blocks from Josh Simmons, Austin Siereveld, Seth McLaughlin and Jeremiah Smith on his way to the end zone.

Will Howard’s first touchdown run as Ohio State’s quarterback, from six yards out, made it 35-0 after just six Ohio State possessions.

After punts on Ohio State’s final possession of the first half and first drive of the second half, TreVeyon Henderson extended Ohio State’s lead to 42-0 on its ninth possession of the night, running for a 16-yard touchdown two plays after Howard connected with Brandon Inniss for a 19-yard completion to convert 4th-and-8.

James Peoples scored Ohio State’s sixth rushing touchdown of the night on the Buckeyes’ next possession – with Devin Brown and the rest of the second-team offense in the game – to make it 49-0 with five seconds left to play in the third quarter.

Freshman quarterback Julian Sayin entered the game midway through the fourth quarter and connected with Bennett Christian for a 55-yard touchdown on 4th-and-1 on his first drive as a Buckeye for the eighth and final touchdown of the night.

Howard finished his second game as Ohio State’s quarterback with 18 completions on 26 attempts for 292 yards and two total touchdowns (one passing, one rushing).

Judkins finished with 108 rushing yards and two touchdowns on just nine carries while Henderson had 66 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. Smith finished with five catches for 119 yards, the fourth-most receiving yards ever in a single game for an Ohio State freshman.

Defensively, Ohio State earned its first shutout since its 42-0 win over Cincinnati on Sept. 7, 2019. The Buckeyes held Western Michigan to just 99 yards on 13 possessions, marking the first time since its 2017 game against Maryland, when it held the Terrapins to just 66 yards in a 62-14 win, that Ohio State held an opponent under 100 total yards of offense.

Ohio State now gets its first bye week of the season before finishing its non-conference slate against Marshall on Sept. 21 at Ohio Stadium.

Team Stats

OHIO STATE     WMU
683 TOTAL YARDS 99
273 RUSHING YARDS 28
39 RUSHING ATTEMPTS 31
7.0 AVERAGE PER RUSH 0.9
6 RUSHING TOUCHDOWNS 0
410 PASSING YARDS 71
25-33 COMPLETIONS–ATTEMPTS 8-17
16.4 AVERAGE PER COMPLETION 8.9
2 PASSING TOUCHDOWNS 0
30 1st DOWNS 6
72 TOTAL PLAYS 48
9.5 YARDS PER PLAY 2.1
3-10 3RD DOWNS 3-15
6-58 PENALTIES 1-2
34:36 POSSESSION 25:24
0 TURNOVERS 0

Game Notes

  • Austin Siereveld made his second consecutive start at left guard in place of Donovan Jackson, who did not play for the second week in a row despite being listed as available. Cody Simon returned to the starting lineup at Mike linebacker after missing the season opener with an undisclosed injury.
  • The only Buckeyes listed as out for the game were Devontae Armstrong, Jayden Bonsu, TC Caffey (who is out for the season) and Reis Stocksdale.
  • Denzel Burke was ejected from the game in the first quarter for targeting. Jermaine Mathews Jr. took his place in the lineup at cornerback.
  • The NFL’s Los Angeles Rams had two scouts in attendance for the game while the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots each had one.
  • 102,665 people attended the game.
  • It was the first time Ohio State ran for six touchdowns in a game since its 73-14 win over Maryland in 2019.
  • Kojo Antwi made the first catch of his Ohio State career in the fourth quarter.

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