Three Key Stats: Ohio State Holds Indiana to Just 151 Total Offensive Yards, Buckeye Defense Tallies Five Sacks and Will Howard Completes at Least 80 Percent of His Passes a Sixth Time

By George Eisner on November 23, 2024 at 9:00 pm
Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon
Cody Simon
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Hoosiers? Daddied. Cigs? Extinguished. Mission? Accomplished.

Ohio State secured its second win over a top-five team this season in three tries after taking down Indiana by a convincing 38-15 final score this weekend. While the Buckeyes still must overcome more challenging obstacles to achieve the goals ahead of them, the performance still demonstrated how far OSU has come from the team's first loss in October.

We offer three key stats from the big win for the Buckeyes over an undefeated opponent in Columbus on Saturday.

Indiana Finishes with 151 Yards of Total Offense

Ohio State held Indiana to 83 yards rushing and just 68 yards passing in the Hoosiers' first loss of the season. Only against Western Michigan in September have the Buckeyes held an opponent to a shallower tally of total yards in a game, when the Broncos failed to break the century mark in a 56-0 shutout. But fans require some grander context to truly appreciate the brilliance of OSU's latest performance.

Indiana's final output on Saturday was the lowest total of offensive yards Ohio State has conceded to a Big Ten opponent since the Buckeyes played the Hoosiers in a 54-7 domination during the 2021 season. IU posted only 128 total yards that game, as recently medically-retired now-Michigan quarterback Jack Tuttle then led the Hoosiers in passing attempts but completed only four of his seven throws for 41 yards and Indiana's lone touchdown of the day in the first quarter.

More impressively, Saturday's latest win over the Hoosiers saw the least amount of yards conceded to a ranked opponent since Ohio State's win over then-No. 21 Iowa during the 2005 season. The Hawkeyes managed just 137 total yards on the afternoon and negative nine rushing yards as the Buckeyes cruised to a 31-6 victory in which they never trailed.

Of course, the alarmingly low total yards number against Indiana deserves a footnote or two. The botched punt by James Evans towards the end of the first half resulted in what technically went down as a loss of 23 rushing yards for the Hoosiers. An absence of such a self-inflicted error would have seen Indiana achieve a triple-digit rushing total on the afternoon and probably put Indiana in a far less compromising position heading into the locker room.

Even so, one would expect more consistent and solid execution from a team that entered the game undefeated and ranked in the top five, despite the somewhat wet conditions in Columbus. It also seems hard to argue Ohio State's overall defensive production was merely a product of the Hoosiers sabotaging themselves.

Speaking of which...

Buckeye Defense Records Five Sacks

Silver Bullets, never leave us. Five sacks on the afternoon for the Buckeyes matches the team's season high in the 2024 campaign, tying the previous best in the season opener against Akron. That also represents more sacks than OSU had in any regular season game last year, and the most posted in any conference game since the team's 2022 win over Maryland.

One of the key letdowns in the loss to Oregon earlier this year was the failure of the pass rush to finish off any pressure on Dillon Gabriel with quarterback sacks. It proved to be just the third game under Jim Knowles in which the Buckeye defense could not bring down the quarterback in the backfield once on a passing play. In wake of the game, many fans and national college football analysts — including Nick Saban — said OSU's defensive approach needed become less "antiquated."

Knowles must have took that advice to heart, because the Buckeyes deployed a variety of stunts along their defensive line against Indiana to cause chaos among Kurtis Rourke and his offensive line.

The last time Ohio State recorded five total sacks against a ranked opponent in the regular season was in a 28-17 win over Penn State during the 2019 slate. Chase Young recorded three by himself that afternoon in one of his signature performances down the stretch towards finishing as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.

That year also represented the last time the Buckeyes recorded multiple sacks in The Game against TTUN. Ideally, Ohio State next weekend can break the trend of the last handful of years.

Will Howard Continues to Complete 80% or More of His Pass Attempts

Although not garnering hype among national college football spectators similar to that of other players at his position such as Dillon Gabriel or Cam Ward, Will Howard on Saturday continued to quietly put forth one of the most impressive seasons for any quarterback in OSU history. The greatest cigarette-smashing signal caller since Smokin' Jay Cutler completed all but four of his 26 passing attempts for two touchdowns and just one deflected interception on the afternoon.

That completion percentage of 84.6% represents Howard's most efficient game in a Buckeye uniform to date. It was the sixth game for Howard out of 11 starts this year in which he has finished with a completion percentage of 80 percent or greater. According to Eleven Warriors researcher Matt Gutridge, that is the first time any Buckeye quarterback has ever achieved such efficiency across as many games in their entire career.

Putting this metamorphosis of efficiency into even more remarkable perspective, across the 32 career games Howard played at Kansas State in which he made more than one passing attempt, he achieved a completion percentage of above 80 percent only once. Although Howard easily finds himself now surrounded by more offensive talent than at any other point in his college career, the success he currently enjoys serves as the latest reflection of Ryan Day's ability to develop and get the most out of his quarterbacks.

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Ohio State Blows Out Indiana, 38-15, for Second Top-Five Win of Season

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