Overview of the game
This past weekend The Ohio State Buckeyes took on the Minnesota Gophers, in primetime at the shoe. The main stories coming into the game were how would Ohio State’s offense look, and would it be more aggressive than it has been in the past couple weeks. The game started out with a Minnesota field goal after their drive stalled out in the red zone due to the elite Ohio State defense, then towards the end of the first quarter Ohio State finally got on the board thanks to a 1 yard C.J. Donaldson touchdown. Then in the second quarter Ohio State started to dominate scoring 2 touchdowns thanks to Jerimah Smith and Carnell Tate, and the defense not allowing any points. Then in the 3rd it was more of the same with the defense dominating and Bo Jackson getting a 5 yard rushing touchdown. Then in the 4th the defense continued to shut down the Minnesota offense, and getting 2 more touchdowns to cap off the win by Jerimah Smith and Lincoln Kienholz.
Key Players
The main contributors to the win were the Quarterback Julian Sayin, who went 23/27 for 326 yards and 3 touchdowns on the day, Then Carnel Tate also had an amazing game having 183 yards and a touchdown on 8 catches. Jeremiah Smith also had a good day having 6 yards and 2 touchdowns on 7 catches. And the whole Ohio State defense had an amazing day only allowing a field goal, and holding Minnesota to 94 passing yards and just 68 rushing yards, and also making Minnesota go 1/11 on 3rd downs. With all of this in favor of Ohio State they rightfully dominated the game against Minnesota
Final Thoughts on the Game
Overall I am very impressed, mainly with the offense because coming into this game we knew the defense was amazing. It was the offense that had some question marks. But this game answered many questions we had. The offense looked smoother and actually used the best receiving core in football and Julian Sayin looked elite in the pocket. Many fans were worried that the offense wouldn’t be as aggressive and play slower but thankfully the Buckeyes showed that is not the plan and they plan to be aggressive on offense in the future. Special teams also showed something for the first time all season, when they ran a trick play on a punt return with Brandon Inniss throwing it across the field to a waiting Lorenzo Styles, showing that Ryan Day has some plans to try and improve the special teams. But this game has been a big improvement going into next week against Illinois giving a ton of fans more confidence is what the buckeyes will be able to do next week.