Ohio State’s offense was not good against Nebraska.
There are more creative ways to say that, certainly, but that feels like throwing punches at a deceased stallion – or beating a dead horse – at this point. Put simply, the Buckeyes’ attack provided about as much downfield motion as a dead horse for long stretches of play versus the Huskers.
Against that backdrop, which has bred much fan pessimism about Ohio State’s offensive line and its capability to win at No. 3 Penn State on Saturday, one element of the Buckeyes’ offense stayed efficient and productive: its passing game.
Will Howard went 13-of-16 for 221 yards and three touchdowns, the only three Ohio State scored in its 21-17 win over the Huskers. The Buckeyes continue to have probably the best receiving corps in the country, and Howard has completed more than 80% of his throws in back-to-back air-tight games. If the offensive line can give him time to work through his progressions on the road, perhaps it’s something the team can hang its hat on again.
“I think, historically, the wide receivers at Ohio State have always been really talented,” Emeka Egbuka told Eleven Warriors. “So I think that's part of the reason. We have guys who work extremely hard, and God has gifted them with great abilities. So I think if our coaches put us in positions to be able to make plays when the ball is in the air, we're going to do everything we can to do that.”
Howard picked up 13.8 yards per pass attempt against Nebraska, more than the nation-leading 12.5 yards per pass attempt Army (on just eight pass attempts per game) has gained this year. He’s actively on pace to shatter Ohio State’s completion percentage record for a season, now up to 74% in 2024. His showing against the Huskers behind a beleaguered offensive line comes fresh off a 28-of-35 (80%) outing at Oregon with 326 yards, two touchdowns and one rushing score.
That’s not to say everything was perfect. Howard threw his fourth interception of the season against Nebraska, a head-scratching toss into double coverage that set up the Huskers in the red zone – only for the Buckeyes’ defense to make a goal-line stand. But a quarterback does also share some of the blame when a team goes 1-of-10 on third down and fails to move the chains on its first four (four!) possessions of the second half.
“I don’t think he’s forcing the action,” Ryan Day said of Howard on Tuesday. “He had that turnover, which was big in the game. But I feel like, for the most part, he's letting the game come to him. We did not do well on third down, and so we've got to do that. But that's everybody involved, not just him. But we need him to play well in this game.”
After six games of the Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith show, the Nebraska game brought a star turn for Ohio State’s third starting wide receiver, Carnell Tate. In his first career 100-yard performance, the sophomore hauled in four passes for 102 yards and a touchdown. He opened the scoring with a 40-yard touchdown bomb into the wind, then caught a 37-yard strike on an out-and-up to kickstart Ohio State’s go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
“I feel it was a blessing for me. The ball finally came my way a lot,” Tate said. “I made plays and got in the end zone, but ultimately, it wasn't a great offensive performance. We had our highs and lows.”
Will Howard Carnell Tate. pic.twitter.com/iuHHJsbjy1
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 26, 2024
Tate entered the contest a good way behind Egbuka and Smith in terms of production, he did miss the Buckeyes’ matchup with Iowa but through five games he was at 15 receptions for 232 yards and one touchdown.
“I knew the ball would come my way,” Tate said. “Each and every week, we have plays for each and all of us. It just really depends on what the defense gives us. If they give us one thing, now the ball goes away from me or comes to me.”
Smith continued to do things no Ohio State freshman wide receiver has done before. Long surpassing the longest touchdown reception streak to start a Buckeye career, Smith extended that mark to seven consecutive games and equaled Cris Carter’s freshman record of eight receiving touchdowns in a season, flying behind Nebraska’s secondary for a 60-yard touchdown romp.
Jeremiah Smith
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 26, 2024
Nobody could catch the freshman on this @OhioStateFB TD
(Brought to you by @ATTBusiness #ATTBusiness #NextLevelNetwork) pic.twitter.com/h0Ba7EiK3t
Now up to 35 receptions for 623 yards and eight touchdowns in 2024, Smith needs just seven more receptions, 26 more yards and one more score to break Carter’s freshman records in those respective categories. Day credited Smith’s maturity for his sustained success.
“His consistency and the way he practices is very mature for a young player,” Day said. “And now you're getting into the second half of the season, and sometimes some of those freshmen can start to fray a little bit. That's not the way he's been. I mean, he's been better every week, the way he's practiced, the way he's handling himself and his preparation on a week-to-week basis, taking care of his body, making sure he knows the game plan, getting himself ready to go play in these games.”
Tate’s two big catches and Smith’s touchdown accounted for 48.1% of Ohio State’s total offensive yardage vs. the Huskers in just three plays. Egbuka had a season-low three receptions for a season-low 20 yards, but he’s fresh off an Oregon game where he went a perfect 10-for-10 on targets for 10 receptions, 93 yards and a touchdown plus 20 rushing yards. On the year, he has a team-high 43 catches, 546 yards and six end-zone trips.
Given all these trends and their success airing things out, it might be surprising to see that – excluding three kneel-downs at the end of the game – Ohio State dialed up 23 runs as compared to 21 passes, with Howard sacked three times and scrambling twice to go with his 16 pass attempts. The Buckeyes averaged an abysmal 2.1 yards per carry running the ball.
Day and his staff feel that establishing the run is important for winning games, however.
“The number one goal is to move the ball down the field. And so that has to get done,” Day said. “But you also are looking to control the game by running the football and making sure that you're establishing the run and controlling the run and winning the rushing yards. But when you look out on the sideline, you've got to identify what's going on in the game, and if it's an adjustment that needs to be made or somebody just didn't execute it right, you're not just going to walk away from it.
“We were explosive when we shot the ball down the field. But that's just not always going to happen. We have to make sure that we're establishing runs, we're staying effective, and then, again, converting on third down because the more at-bats you have during a drive, the better you're going to be. When you're not converting on third down, you're not keeping drives a lot.”
Tate and Egbuka both put the onus on the wide receivers to involve themselves in the run game blocking along the perimeter.
“It's a huge emphasis on our part,” Egbuka said. “I think that whenever you see those run plays of 50 yards, 75 yards, it's always the wide receivers who are blocking downfield. It's always us who's going to really spring that play. Explosives are found on the perimeter. So I think just being physical and asserting our dominance is something that we try to do all season. I think we've done a decent job.”
The horizontal passes and screen game that Ohio State’ considers an extension of its rushing attack were also somewhat absent against Nebraska, which may have been an opponent-specific move. But with the offensive line struggling like it did, it could help to have ways to get the ball out to the perimeter quickly.
“You try to game plan based on what you're getting that week and obviously the game plan didn't work very well,” Day said. “So we’ve got to, obviously, reconsider it.”
Penn State’s defense ranks 19th in passing yards allowed per game (166.9) and is tied for sixth in passing yards allowed per attempt (5.7). That said, it has a new-look secondary that hasn’t been tested by anything resembling the trio of Egbuka, Smith and Tate.
Another high-efficiency outing from Howard – and maybe a game plan that leans on him and those wideouts heavier – could provide Ohio State a path to the offense it needs to win in State College on Saturday.
