The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Ohio State’s 31-14 win vs. Iowa
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No. 5 Ohio State was faced with a real test in Week 5 with a trip to Iowa City to take on No. 14-ranked Iowa. The Buckeyes had not returned to Kinnick Stadium since a 55-24 loss back in 2017, and while Ryan Day was a perfect 2-0 against the Hawkeyes coming into the day, memories of that game still played on fans’ minds.
Things went very differently this time around.
Ohio State jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead following a turnover on Iowa’s third play of the game, and it was all Buckeyes from there. It was another big day for Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin; the defense made some key plays when it needed to, and the scarlet and gray ultimately moved to 2-0 in Big Ten play with a 31-14 win.
Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from Ohio State’s victory over Iowa.
The Great
Jeremiah Smith
There are no words left in the English dictionary to describe how great Jeremiah Smith is.
With his 11 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns against Iowa, Smith now holds the Triple Crown in the Ohio State record books. College football’s best player leads the Buckeyes all-time in receptions (207), receiving yards (3,381) and touchdowns (36), cementing his place as one of, if not the best player in program history.
Smith’s season has been nothing short of sensational through the first five games. With 823 yards on 44 catches and nine touchdowns, Smith is only 52 yards shy of matching the yardage of Ohio State’s WR2 in a full season in 2025 — a little guy by the name of Carnell Tate, who was pretty good in his own right — while already matching him in touchdowns.
The sky is truly the limit for JJ in 2026. He is the Heisman Trophy favorite by a wide margin, and while the Buckeyes have some clear deficiencies as a team this year, Smith’s excellence is able to cover a lot of it.
The Good
Julian Sayin
Coming off a stellar performance against Illinois a week ago, Julian Sayin was arguably even better against a tough Iowa defense on the road.
His offensive line did him little favors, which we will touch on a bit later, but Sayin still managed to complete 20 of his 27 pass attempts for 324 yards and three touchdowns. The second-year starter did a great job making plays while standing in the pocket and taking a hit, extended quite a few plays with his legs, and also worked the middle of the field.
Sayin completed eight passes of at least 15 yards and four of at least 20 yards, including a 57-yard touchdown to Smith in the third quarter as well as another 54-yarder earlier in the game. He felt in total command of the offense even in a hostile environment with a handful of issues around him.
The Two-Minute Offense
Ohio State has been excellent in the two-minute offense this season. The Buckeyes had scored in the final 15 seconds of the first half in each of their first four games, and that trend continued against the Hawkeyes.
After getting the ball at their own 16-yard line following an Iowa punt with 1:48 remaining in the second quarter, Ohio State proceeded to march down the field on a nine-play, 84-yard drive in 1:36 of game time.
The Buckeyes did a great job of mixing up the run and pass, with Bo Jackson picking up gains of 12 and 16 yards on the ground, Sayin picking up seven with his legs, and a 20-yard pass play to Devin McCuin. The drive was capped off by a 12-yard touchdown by Smith, who reached out and extended the ball over the goal line for the score.
Ohio State’s offense has seemingly been at its best this season when they play with tempo. It’s a bit odd that they don’t do it more frequently.
Takeaways
More often than not, the team that wins the turnover battle wins the game, and Ohio State turned a pair of Iowa turnovers into a pair of touchdowns.
The Hawkeyes’ first giveaway of the afternoon came three plays in, as Kenyatta Jackson got to quarterback Hank Brown for a strip sack picked up by Christian Alliegro at the Iowa 14-yard line. Two plays later, Sayin found McCuin in the end zone to take an early 7-0 lead.
Then, late in the third quarter, John Walker pressured Brown up the middle to force an errant throw, and Jaylen McClain was there to pick it off at Ohio State’s 30-yard line. From there, the Buckeyes put together a 10-play, 70-yard drive that ended with a seven-yard TD run by Ja’Kobi Jackson.
Ohio State is now +4 on turnover margin this season, with eight takeaways to four giveaways. The Buckeyes have yet to lose a fumble, and of their four interceptions thrown, three were by players not named Julian Sayin. Sayin’s lone interception was also on a Hail Mary at the end of the Texas game.
Improvements in the Run Game
Ohio State’s run game didn’t knock anyone’s socks off against Iowa, but it has been showing small improvements over the last several weeks.
The Buckeyes’ three running backs racked up 163 yards rushing on 37 carries against the Hawkeyes, good for a 4.4-yard-per-carry average. Ja’Kobi Jackson once again led the way with 14 carries for 72 yards (5.1 YPC) and a touchdown, while Bo Jackson notched 16 carries for 70 yards. Isaiah West added seven touches for 21 yards.
It’s pretty clear that this Ohio State offense is going to be more pass-first, especially with how well Sayin and Smith have been playing. That said, you still need your rushing attack to be serviceable, and it feels like they are at the very least at that point.
It will be interesting to see how the timeshare between the Jacksons continues. It was Ja’Kobi who saw the bulk of the snaps to begin the game against Iowa, but Bo felt like he was heating up a bit later on. Neither guy has been all that explosive, which has to be the next step in Ohio State’s rushing attack progression.
If the Buckeyes can find even a little bit of explosiveness in the run game, this offense will be tough to stop.
The Bad
Pass Protection
The offensive line, while generally fine, had some really tough reps in pass protection against the Hawkeyes.
Julian Sayin was sacked four times on the afternoon, and it could have been a lot more had the quarterback not done a great job of moving around in the pocket, extending plays with his legs and staying in there to make the throw while being hit on quite a few occasions.
The offensive line was expected to be an area of strength heading into this season, and it has not quite been that thus far. Against Iowa, especially, the unit had a tough time picking up pressure, with guys getting into the backfield way too quickly, way too often.
Ohio State returned four starters up front, and while they were missing starting tackle Philip Daniels on Saturday — who himself has also not been very good this year — the group has not dominated its opponents the way you would expect.
The blocking has been okay on a down-to-down basis, but there have been some real struggles up front through the first five games that need to be addressed.
Penalties
While the crowd noise didn’t do much to impact the final score of the game at Kinnick Stadium, it sure seemed to have an impact on Ohio State’s offense.
The Buckeyes received nine penalties in the game, with five of those being false starts. Devin Sanchez was called for pass interference twice, both of which were a bit questionable — especially the first one early in the first quarter — and Ohio State received an illegal substitution penalty on Iowa’s two-point conversion attempt, which they ultimately converted after being given a second chance.
Procedural penalties are especially annoying, and they can be a real drive killer. Day and his staff will want to get those cleaned up before they prove costly against a tougher opponent later this year.
The Ugly
Special Teams
Ryan Day has been the head coach at Ohio State for eight years now, and in none of them have they had anything resembling even competent special teams play. The unit, which specifically hired a special teams coordinator this offseason in a veiled attempt to take it more seriously, is an abject disaster.
Virtually nothing about the Buckeyes’ special teams is remotely functional. Ohio State routinely has issues simply even lining up the ball, getting flagged for a false start on a punt and also being called offsides on a kickoff.
Connor Hawkins missed another field goal, this one from 40 yards. Hawkins, who was brought in to fix the kicking problems having gone 18-of-22 at Baylor last season and 3-of-4 from 50-plus yards, has already missed a pair of field goals in his first seven attempts, the first of which (a 45-yarder) would have iced the game against Texas.
Punting, however, continues to be the worst offender. Ohio State needs to be able to flip the field in key moments, and Joe McGuire is very clearly incapable of doing that. The Buckeyes failed to pin Iowa deep when punting from near midfield, as McGuire’s 33-yard boot instead set them up at the 22-yard line.
There is no excuse for Ohio State to be this bad across the board on special teams. You cannot convince me they have ever practiced it, and it will not be at all surprising if the unit winds up losing the Buckeyes a close game this season. It is THAT bad.
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