Ohio State unleashed so much emotion in a top-three win at Penn State that it wouldn't have been surprising to see the Buckeyes come out flat as six-day-old soda against an overmatched Purdue squad. That was not the case.
Ohio State continued building on its successes in State College with a 45-0 steamrolling of the Boilermakers, taking strides in key areas both defensively and in special teams. The Buckeyes hit some lulls running the football but found their footing off some explosive gains by TreVeyon Henderson behind an offensive line that has finally stabilized.
Much like last week, there isn't much to nitpick in the "Stock Down" section of this report. Some defensive depth options proved lackluster as Ohio State experimented on that side of the football as a few shakeups around the country put all conferences not named the Big Ten or SEC in a bad spot for the College Football Playoff.
Stock Up
Pass Rush
It feels like the valve holding back all the pressure Ohio State's defensive front can bring has slowly been turned open since halftime of the Penn State game. The Buckeyes collected two sacks in the second half against the Nittany Lions and were in the lap of Purdue quarterback Hudson Card all afternoon this past Saturday, racking up four sacks with another five quarterback hits, a few of which led directly to incompletions.
Defensive ends JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer spearheaded the effort against the Boilermakers, each collecting half a sack while getting constant pressure. The duo also combined for the biggest defensive play of the day for Ohio State, with Tuimoloau forcing a fumble that Sawyer recovered and returned 11 yards for a touchdown.
SCOOP N SCORE JACK SAWYER @OhioStatefb makes it 38-0 vs Purdue
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 9, 2024
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Special Teams
The Buckeyes' first blocked punt since the 2022 season and another day without a miss from kicker Jayden Fielding underscored a great showing from Ohio State's special teams against Purdue. It's another phase rounding into form for the scarlet and gray as November rolls forward.
“Coach Day made a big emphasis that we needed some special teams to make some plays, especially this week,” safety Lathan Ransom, whose back-to-back punt blocks in 2022 were the most recent for Ohio State, said after the game. “So that definitely got the team going.”
TreVeyon Henderson
14.2 yards per touch is an absurd stat, but that's what Henderson had on Saturday, with six carries for 85 yards and three receptions for 43 yards. He ran over and around defenders as soon as his first carry of the day, when he made multiple Boilermakers miss en route to a 12-yard gain. His 19-yard touchdown run featured a bit of ingenuity from offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, lining up Henderson at receiver before he got a handoff for a sweep, and then pure speed from the running back to avoid a tackle for loss and outrace Purdue's defense to the corner of the end zone.
Treveyon Henderson to the house @ohiostatefb adds on another in the second half
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 9, 2024
(brought to you by @ATTBusiness #ATTBusiness #NextLevelNetwork) pic.twitter.com/17covUPm7w
Boredom
Ohio State's win over Purdue was boring in the sense that it was methodical. No major snafus, no chaos, just a systematic deconstruction of a weaker foe. Perhaps most importantly, no further injuries despite a scare with left guard Carson Hinzman. Every college football coach across the country would accept that kind of boredom in a conference game in November.
Ole Miss
The No. 16 Rebels cruised past No. 3 Georgia by three scores, 28-10, to firmly entrench themselves in the playoff conversation. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, have now suffered two losses after entering the season considered a national title contender and likely can't afford a third for their CFP hopes.
Alabama
One of the best environments in college football was turned to a funeral procession on Saturday as the No. 11 Crimson Tide walked into No. 15 LSU's Tiger Stadium and handed the home crowd a 42-13 humiliation.
Stock Down
Jack Position Experimentation
Ohio State's defense pitched a shutout and performed well overall against the Boilermakers. One of the few extended drives Purdue got going, however, was when the Buckeyes brought out a second-team defensive line that featured Mitchell Melton at Jim Knowles' old hybrid defensive line/linebacker position, the Jack. The Boilermakers made it all the way to the Buckeyes' 3-yard line on the series before missing a chip-shot field goal.
C.J. Hicks
More than halfway through his third season at Ohio State, Hicks still looks lost playing the linebacker position in space. He was fine when pointed downhill along the line of scrimmage in his 16 snaps on Saturday, but he graded out at just 50 on Pro Football Focus (however much stock one puts into that) and missed a tackle.
It's looking more and more like, at least from an outsider's perspective, there's not a fit for the five-star prospect in Ohio State's defense.
Noon kickoffs
As a reporter, a noon kickoff time is great for me. I get done working somewhere between 8 and 9 p.m. rather than sometime after midnight. It affords the opportunity to watch the evening slate of college football games.
But for fans? I think it's a travesty that Ohio State's only home night game this season came against Western Michigan in Week 2. I've been to a Penn State vs. Ohio State game at night in Beaver Stadium, the atmosphere is just different. The Shoe rocks a lot harder after the sun goes down, too. The mystique of football under the lights and the ability for fans to get psyched up and/or drink throughout the day makes night games some of the best college football environments. But instead, it's six consecutive noon games to close the regular season for the Buckeyes.
There are monetary reasons for the noon kickoffs happening (FOX wants to own the noon slot of college football), but when I watch Sawyer trying to hype up an Ohio Stadium crowd on third down only to be frustrated by a lack of noise, I feel some disgust that this is the way it must be. Based on the comments under Eleven Warriors' post announcing another noon kick against Indiana, I think many fans agree.
Miami
The Hurricanes had long been a paper tiger with a 9-0 record that featured one-score wins over Virginia Tech, Cal and Louisville, and a fourth-quarter comeback finally fell short for Miami in a 28-23 loss to a four-loss Georgia Tech squad.
Multiple Bids for ACC, Big 12
The ACC and Big 12 are guaranteed not only a CFP berth but a first-round bye for their conference champions, but the two conferences might struggle to get a second team in beyond that. There are four no-brainer Big Ten teams in the hunt with Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and Indiana plus another seven SEC teams with two losses or fewer, and it appears four or even five teams from the league could make the playoff.
Miami and SMU are the only one-loss teams in the ACC, while everyone in the Big 12 has at least two losses except for undefeated BYU. Four teams each from the Big Ten and the SEC, a guaranteed Group of Five team and Notre Dame, which is currently 8-1, would be enough to ensure only one school each from the ACC and Big 12 gets in.
