Ryan Day: “We’re still looking for that complete game.”
Ohio State receiver Garrett Wilson celebrates his 21-yard first quarter touchdown catch to give the Buckeyes an early 7-0 lead over Purdue. Photo by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.
It only took a half of football for 4th-ranked Ohio State to put the kibosh on the 19th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers’ bid to play spoiler maker for a second week in a row.
By the end of the first 30 minutes of play, the Buckeyes (9-1, 7-0 Big Ten) held a commanding 45-17 lead and everything was going their way as they would go on to beat the Boilermakers (6-4, 4-3), 59-31 in front of 101,009 Ohio Stadium fans on Saturday evening.
Although, for Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, his football team still needs some work.
“I think when you look at the last couple of weeks, the offense hasn’t exactly been stellar (and) the defense played really, really well. And then this game, we score 59 points on offense and the defense gave up 31. So, the good news is that we’re kind of helping each other out but we’re still looking for that complete game,” he said in the postgame press conference.
The Buckeyes rolled up a season-high 624 total yards on 361 passing and 263 rushing.
However, the Scarlet and Gray allowed Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell to once again expose their pass defense as he completed 40 out of 52 passes for 77 percent, 390 yards and a single-game, career-high four touchdowns. The Buckeyes were also unable to pick him off nor sack him.
The Boilermakers finished with 481 total yards.
Within that first half of play, though, Ohio State asserted their dominance from the get-go. They went a perfect 7-of-7 on offensive possessions including their first six drives that went for touchdowns. Kicker Noah Ruggles knocked in his 16th straight field goal on their seventh drive with a 30-yarder in the waning seconds of the half.
Receiver Garrett Wilson looked like as healthy as a horse after missing last week’s game due to illness. By the end of the first, the junior piled up 118 total yards and plunked three scores on the board, which included a 51-yard touchdown run, on the way to a career-high four total touchdowns. He led the team with 10 catches for 126 yards and three receiving TD’s as well as the 51-yard TD scamper.
“Honestly, I just came out here tonight and did what I love doing,” he said. “I missed it last weekend being out there with my brothers. So to come back and be able to play like we did on offense and have the game I did, it feels good, for sure.”
Fellow receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba picked up where he left off from last weekend with seven catches for 103 yards and one touchdown in the first 30 minutes. He finished second on the day with nine receptions and led all receivers with 139 yards.
And quarterback C.J. Stroud did his best Billy the Kid impersonation in the first half, sharpshooting all over the place with 212 yards on 19-of-25 passing and three TD’s. He ended 31-of-38 for a career-high 82 percent with 361 yards and tied his career-high of five touchdown passes. He threw no picks and was never sacked.
Stroud gave credit to the offensive line for not allowing the Boilermakers, and more specifically, defensive end George Karlaftis to create too much havoc in the backfield.
“Yeah man, it’s kudos to the O-line. Our tackles did a great job, he’s a great player, a great D-end. He was a lot of problems on film that we were watching throughout the week. So it was a really big emphasis to stop his game. I feel like (offensive tackles) Nick (Petit-Frere) and Dawand (Jones) did a great job on him. I only got hit, like, one time, so when you have that type of confidence to step into your throws and things of that sort, it just all comes out to you,” Stroud said.
What really got them rolling was a 28-point unanswered scoring stretch after Purdue tied the game 7-7 midway through the first quarter. Less than two minutes after that game-tying TD, Buckeye running back TreVeyon Henderson notched his first score of the day with a three-yard rush into the end zone to make it 14-7.
Then the Buckeyes followed that up less than two minutes later with a Jerron Cage fumble recovery when Purdue running back King Doerue coughed up the ball at the OSU 43. Nine seconds later, the Buckeyes completed a one-play drive that consisted solely of a 57-yard Henderson TD run and the Scarlet and Gray found themselves up 21-7 with a little over five minutes left in the first quarter.
Stroud was 10-of-11 for 123 yards and one TD toss at the conclusion of the first 15 minutes.
The Buckeyes then plunked two more scores on the board to start the second quarter as Stroud found Smith-Njigba for a 20-yard strike and then Wilson on a 12-yarder 14 seconds later after recovering another Purdue fumble when receiver Jackson Anthrop was hit by OSU receiver Chris Booker on the kickoff and linebacker Palaie Gaoteote was there for the recovery.
That made it 35-7 Ohio State with a little over 13 minutes to play in the second quarter.
Purdue would answer back when O’Connell found receiver Broc Thompson in the back of the end zone as he turned around defensive back Sevyn Banks but could have gotten away with a slight push in the back. Nonetheless, it gave Purdue their second TD of the game and made it 35-14 with nine minutes to play in the second.
Less than two minutes later, the Buckeyes would score yet again, this time on Wilson’s 51-yard TD rush as he zipped in motion and took the handoff from Stroud under center after Stroud faked it on a run off tackle to Henderson and Wilson zoomed up the left side virtually untouched for the score.
https://twitter.com/BarstoolOSU/status/1459643464572977152
The two teams would trade field goals to end the half and would match each other in the second half at 14-14 for the final score.
OSU running back Miyan Williams led the team with 14 carries for 117 yards while Henderson had 13 carries for 98 yards and the two touchdowns.
Purdue receiver David Bell led the Boilermakers with 103 yards, matching a season-high 11 catches but was held without a touchdown.
Ohio State’s next game is at home on Nov. 20 against No. 7 Michigan State (9-1, 6-1) with the kickoff slated for noon and will be aired on ABC.