Grumpy Old Buckeye: Nitpicking Ohio State’s 42-19 win over Illinois

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Ohio State opened the conference slate on Saturday at home against Illinois. The Illibuck Trophy remains in Columbus after the Buckeyes took care of the Fighting Illini in a 42-19 win that felt a lot closer for most of the afternoon as Illinois won the third quarter.

A 23-point win seems comfortable, and in many cases it is, but there were plenty of plays that had me looking to do some fightin’ of my own.

Defensive Issues Persist

The primary negative takeaway from the game is that the Ohio State run defense is going to have to improve to just get to mediocre. Illinois could have kept the game closer longer had the Illini just run wide more often.

It started early, as Ca’lil Valentine went for nine yards on the first Illinois run. On the second possession, Aidan Laughery burst for 37 yards. The Illini’s first touchdown was a Jordan Anderson 22-yard run, as it didn’t matter who Illinois handed the ball to.

Nothing got cleaned up at halftime. The first play of the second half was another 9-yard run, and Illinois had an 11-yard run on its second drive of the second half after the Buckeyes had backed the Illini up near their own goal line.

Illinois ran for 199 yards, getting to the second level of the defense often. Laughery ran for 113 yards and averaged 10.3 yards per carry. Valentine averaged 4.7 yards per tote. Anderson averaged 10, but he only had two attempts.

Ohio State’s defense was also not sharp enough on third down, allowing Illinois to pick up six conversions on 14 attempts (43%), regardless of the distance to make. While Illinois has a good offense, it is not Oregon or USC or anyone the Buckeyes might face in the postseason if they can reach it yet again.

To make matters worse, the defense gave up a fourth-and-12 conversion, and Devin Sanchez committed multiple pass interference penalties (one on a fourth-and-4, after which Illinois scored a touchdown on the next play).

It’s kind of amazing Illinois scored only 19 points, because Ohio State’s defense is not close to the levels of the last couple of seasons.

Mathews’ Miscues

While I wouldn’t say Jermaine Mathews Jr. was terrible on the day, and in fact he was mostly fine, there were two plays that stood out in a negative light. One was a dropped interception on the first Illinois drive of the second half.

The other was a slip that allowed the Illini to convert a second-and-20 play for a first down. The second was probably bad luck, but the Buckeye secondary has dropped several potential interceptions over the last couple of weeks.

Don’t Start Falsely

Ohio State once again was prone to pre-snap penalties on its own home turf on Saturday. The Buckeyes survived them, but making the game situation harder at home against Illinois is one thing. Iowa on the road or a potential Big Ten championship game is a completely different animal.

In the first quarter, Jake Cook jumped early on second-and-4, costing the Buckeyes five yards, moving the ball from the Illini 38-yard line to the 43. Jeremiah Smith bailed him out with a 31-yard reception on the next play.

Austin Siereveld turned a fourth-and-2 situation into a fourth-and-7 with a false start. The Buckeyes went for it anyway, and Nate Roberts kept the drive alive with a reception. Roberts himself committed a false start penalty in the game, turning first-and-10 into first-and-15 after good Ja’Kobi Jackson run in the third quarter.

Devin McCuin dropped a pass right in his hands two plays later to make it third-and-9, and an incomplete pass put a halt to the possession. That drive’s end kept the Illini in the game in the third quarter.

Even Ohio State’s kicker got in on the false starting. Connor Hawkins, who only sounds like country music’s brightest new star, started his kick approach early on the extra point after Julian Sayin’s rushing touchdown in the second quarter.

The season is a third of the way over and these kinds of things should have been cleaned up by now. Again, the team was at home, rather than in a hostile environment like Happy Valley, Kinnick Stadium or the Los Angeles Coliseum.

I’m Not Mad About This One, Just Disappointed

Sometimes the things that irk me are simply when a player costs the team a cool play. That’s what happened when a holding penalty on Mason Williams wiped out a nifty one-handed catch and run by Bo Jackson right before halftime.

You’ll never erase that cool play from our minds, but wiping it out of football history is a crime against the sport.

Those are the things that made me yell Illi-BUCK! (or something that sounded kind of like that if you weren’t paying close attention) on Saturday. What stood out to you?

Of course, there were plenty of great moments as well and most of those involved Smith and Sayin, who were outstanding.

Next up: Ohio State takes on the Hawkeyes in a Saturday afternoon game in Iowa City, where every mistake is magnified.

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