Evaluating Ohio State football’s 49-14 win over Marshall: Buckeye Talk podcast

Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Stephen Means (00:33.166)

Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Steven Means, that’s Stephon Christening. Andrew not joining us on the post game, he had to deal with some stuff in the real world. So we’re living in the sports world, he had to live with some stuff in the real world. He will be back though, we promise. We did not lose him, he’s just dealing with some other stuff. Ohio State Beats Marshall to close out its non -conference schedule, 49 to 14, Will Howard 16 of 20 for 275 yards, two touchdowns.

An interception of Mecca, Bucca leads the way receiving five catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. Someone pointed this out during the postgame when we were talking with a Mecca Bucca. That’s his first 100 yard game since the Peach Bowl, which sounds crazy until you realize, yeah, he was like hurt for most of last year. So of course he didn’t get one. And even with what he did against Notre Dame, he didn’t have 100 yards. And then Quincheon Judkins 14 carries for 173 yards and two chest touchdowns. Stefan, just for like a comparison here.

Quinshaw Jenkins on like 22 carries at 163 yards coming into this game. So he essentially had his entire Ohio State production in 60 minutes of time. And yeah, Miss Marshall tried to play keep away from Ohio State, the time of possession. Marshall 36 minutes and 15 seconds, Ohio State 23 minutes and 45 seconds. So in 23 minutes and 45 seconds and in 57 plays, Ohio State totaled 569 total yards.

289 passing yards, 280 rushing yards and 49 points. So why are we not happy?

Stefan Krajisnik (02:06.687)

Well, I wrote about this post game of that was probably that was definitely as bad as we’ve seen Ohio State play this season and I don’t know if we’re gonna see them play worse than that this season I’d be pretty surprised and I don’t mean like It’s so weird to say that they played poorly because the offense was humming the defense, you know outside of that that first drive it’s really hard to blame them just because of

The offense was so explosive scoring so quick that, especially there in the first quarter and kind of the first half, the defensive felt like they were always on the field. It was hot. Like for all that they did well, they kind of just had like sloppy mistakes that we haven’t seen from them this year, right? Like penalties, the muff punt that wasn’t, you know, the punt return that almost was, and then Brandon and his slips, you know, Ryan day gets a penalty. Like there was just these and the Wilhauer interception as well. Like

There were just things that we haven’t seen that there haven’t been a lot of self inflicted mistakes by this team this season. It was the first time we saw that saw that. So it was the first time we were just sitting there like why is Ohio State keep doing this to itself? Like Marshall is not beating them. They’re beating themselves. And then you look up at the scoreboard at the end of the game. You’re like, Jesus, they won by 35, you know? So it’s just like, and I’ll get into it kind of right away. I told Steven that this is kind of a point I was trying to make on this pod of just like there are a lot of teams.

that if they played the game and here’s Michigan making, you know, I’m watching this live Michigan fumbling the ball and what could be a crucial mistake. Like there’s teams that make these mistakes that don’t overcome them. And I’m not talking just about Michigan facing USC or even LSU playing at UCLA. Like I’m talking about Notre Dame playing NIU. Like I’m talking about Penn State with Bowling Green. Like these are teams that whether you think they’re in that tier or not are supposed to contend.

for at least, you know, top four spot or like the final four, the playoff or something like that. Maybe they’re not national championship teams, but like the expectations are high and say what you will about Kentucky, SEC team on the road. get it. But like Georgia played a terrible game and almost lost at Kentucky. They won by one point and you’re walking out of this and we do it more than anyone. I’m just nitpicking and you look like

Stefan Krajisnik (04:23.871)

Man, we need to see them play a real team because these 30 point, 40 point, 50 point wins are, I think they’re just getting to us where all we can really do is nitpick and say, okay, you can’t do this here. You can’t do this there. And it’s just at a point where it’s like, yeah, they look sloppy at times today and there were some mistakes, but like, this is a proven roster that probably isn’t going to make a lot of these mistakes very often in the season. So I kind of look at it as like they got a lot of that out of the way coming off a bye week and a hot day where.

They still win by 35 and I’m going into the Big 10 schedule being like, it’s them in Texas right now. And maybe Georgia if they prove themselves just because they obviously have the roster. outside of Texas and Ohio State, everyone’s kind of flirted around in the early part of the season. it’s like, State just keeps cruising even when they don’t look great.

Stephen Means (05:12.942)

So let’s start with the good. There actually isn’t as much bad as I think. And I think after the rewatch, I’m gonna see even less bad. Here’s what my overarching thought of the actual game was. You could tell one team, both of these teams were coming off bi -weeks. One of these teams spent two weeks knowing this is the best team we’re gonna play all year. And so we’re gonna put our all into the game plan.

And I think the first quarter is how that played off because everybody jokes about this. The idea of like, man, you look really good when you’re on your script. Let’s see what happens now with the script plays are done. And it felt like that first quarter Marshall was really on its script. Marshall in the first quarter had the ball for 13 minutes and one second. Ohio State had the ball for one minute and 59 seconds. They ran sixth place. Marshall ran 25 plays. So it’s kind of hot out there. I think they had said it was like.

110 degrees or something on the field. You’re missing one of your best offensive guys. The offense comes out and on the second play of its draw, first play of the offensive drive, Traveon Henderson gets like two yards on a run. The very next play, Mecca Buka takes a screen pass 68 yards for touchdown. Like, so now you’re on the bench, right? You’re just kind of sitting there watching. You have another drive where you get a couple first down and then Will Howard throws a 50 -50 ball essentially to

Jeremiah Smith and we can sit here and do the football thing and be like, okay Maybe he should have thrown it out. So Jeremiah Smith can run under it Maybe Jeremiah Smith could have ran a better route Maybe will Howard should have thrown a better ball or not throwing the ball at all I asked will Howard about it and this is his answer to this Sometimes things happen. Here’s was his explanation looking at the back. He he said sometimes things just happen He said he looked at the boundary and that was clouded so I couldn’t throw the boundary and

We were max protection, so we only had three routes. It was either that or my vertical wrap, and my vertical wrap was covered. So that was really the only option I had. The plan all week was to let that thing rip and put it out on a spot. I trust number four every day of the week, and he’s gonna make that play. Sometimes things happen. It’s football. We had to bounce back, and it’s part of the game. It’s about how you respond, and I think we responded really well. Nobody batted an eye. We just went back to work and kept going. Yeah, they went back to work and scored 49 points. So yeah, I just think

Stephen Means (07:39.382)

A football play happened and I don’t think it changes. They’re like punching that in the Will Howard that these wide receivers go get everything. And I think Will Howard has made that point to us for a couple of weeks now. Like, yeah, man, they’re telling us. Just throw it up there, man. F it, Jeremiah’s down there somewhere. F it, Emeka Buka Cardinal. But, sir, that’s what they’re telling them. So we can’t chastise Will Howard.

when he does it the first time it doesn’t work because maybe eight times out of 10, Jeremiah Smith comes down with that ball, which means there’s two other times out there when it’s either an incompletion or it might be a pick where even the pick was actually just a heck of a play on the Marshall defender where I think Jeremiah Smith still had his hands on the ball and the Marshall defender just ripped away from him. So maybe that throw, maybe bad route, maybe everything in between. But the point is you live with it because okay, they got you this time.

Let’s see how you work out the other five, six, seven, eight times. I throw it down there to Jeremiah Smith, which we saw it ends up with touchdowns in that situation. So I’m not as. Shame on you, Howard, for that. think there were some other plays where it felt like the connection with the Titans was awful. I am a little bit more shame on you with that, but I just think the offense, they wanted to start fast. Ryan Day said as much and Will Howard said as much and they started out fast with some explosive plays. But the alternative to that, the downside to that is.

Your defense is out there for 25 plays in the first quarter. so Marshall scores. Your defense is out there for 21 more plays in the second quarter and Marshall gets into the end zone a couple of times. I think you live with that offensively, even if it means maybe you need to clean some stuff out defensively.

Stefan Krajisnik (09:19.295)

Yeah, no doubt and we talked about this in the videos we uploaded of. Did it will Howard play you know a spectacular Heisman type game? No, not at all, but it’s hard to. It goes back to like what you were just saying there. It’s hard to knock him when all offseason we were saying even Ryan Day said it doesn’t need to be Superman. He needs to just make the place that are there and he did that for the most part. I mean 16 to 20 is about as good as you’re going to get in terms of completion rate and some of those.

Like there’s going be a lot of people who poke holes and you say, well, yeah, I mean, he threw a slam, like he didn’t do anything on that. Or he threw a bubble screen on that 68 yard touchdown. Like he didn’t do anything. That’s all he has to do. That’s all his team needs from him to do. Ohio State is now looking for a franchise quarterback for the next decade. Like an NFL team, they’re looking for a quarterback to lead them to a national championship at the end of the 2024 season. And what he did today was what they need. Like that, that type of performance wins you games. Now.

Is he going to face competition where that, you know, a screen isn’t going to win it for you every time. Like you’re to have to make some throws and tight windows. Sure. But he’s, he’s shown that he can do that. So I walk away from today being like, yeah, he wasn’t spectacular, but he kind of just did what in March and April, in June, July, like what we were saying he needed to do. And that’s enough for them to win. That’s enough for them on a weird, not great day to win by 35 against the sunbelt team.

Stephen Means (10:48.16)

I want to highlight the offensive line because we can’t. I did this rant with the special teams where it was and we’re going to talk about the specialty of South. This step on getting his full, full, full baptism into the Ohio State beat today. We but we can’t spend all that time that we would spend talking about things when they’re bad and then not highlight things when they’re good. Now, with that being said, Josh Fryer did get beat on a one on one.

Stefan Krajisnik (10:50.547)

Yes.

Stephen Means (11:16.492)

by one of the Marshall defenders who I think I highlighted even in the in the. Yeah, yeah, my greens are really good defensive. They got some good defensive linemen. Marshall’s good. They’re a good football team. A lot of respect for them as a group of five football team. Charles Huff is doing a heck of a job over there with Marshall. So he got beat on the one on one on the spin move and they gave up what was Will Howard’s only sack of the day. It’s I’m not excusing it, but it’s like, man, that happens sometimes. But overall, man. Ohio State.

Stefan Krajisnik (11:19.421)

You did, you mentioned it, he’s pretty good.

Stephen Means (11:45.998)

280 yards on the ground. Trevion Henderson, six carries for 76 yards and two touchdowns. That’s 12 .7 yards per carry. And then his day was kind of over. And I think some of this is cause they were letting Quinchon cook and get rolling and whatnot. also Trevion, we’ll see you next week. Quinchon 14 for 173, two touchdowns and that’s 12 .4 yards per carry. They were making holes in the run game, Stefan. We wanted to see that growth. We saw it from week one to week two.

Now what’s week three you thought Donovan Jackson back into the mix. This looks like a quality offensive line for Ohio State heading the victim.

Stefan Krajisnik (12:21.053)

Yeah, let me, I’m going to dig up this quote real quick that Will Howard gave us about the offensive line. It was about, wrote a story kind of about Seth McLaughlin, especially cause he’s kind of been a, know, kind of, I don’t want to say overlooked cause like when you got him in the portal, you knew what you’re getting. When you’re getting a starter from Alabama, but it’s like when you get Caleb Downs and Quinchun Jokins and Will Howard, it’s like, by the way, you’ve got this offensive lineman really good. And it’s just a center is another one of those positions where it’s like,

Stephen Means (12:44.514)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (12:48.595)

When you play really well, nobody really says anything. And then when you struggle, kind of he did with, maybe some of those snaps, it’s like the entire world notices and it can get ugly. So we got this quote from Will Howard saying, saw the offensive line rocking off the ball today. They were getting up to the second level very fast. The way that their front was set up. felt like Seth and some of the tackles could work up to the second level really quickly. That’s the difference between the second level stuff we’re referring to there. That’s the difference between Quinshawn.

getting hit at the line, falling forward and getting you a five, six yard gain and Quinshawn getting you a 15, 20, 86 yard gain, right? That’s the difference between Travion bumping out and getting you another 20 yards. This unit through three games has been vastly improved. Some of it’s getting healthy. Some of it is just playing together. And you’re right for all the blame we put on them for maybe some of those struggles early in the Akron game.

They’ve turned it around and frankly been a key to this offensive success, right? And the receivers do their job blocking as well. everything’s just kind of clicking for this offense right now. It just looks smooth. It looks kind of easy for them. But at the core is the offensive line in the center. And you wrote about it after the first game that if this team doesn’t win a national title this year or doesn’t live up to its expectations, the offensive line might be at the core of some of those problems. Through three games, I’m looking at this being like, if this team does win a national title,

We’re going be looking at it being like it’s because the offensive line made a huge jump from last season and through three games or at least through the last like two and a half games, they’ve looked the part.

Stephen Means (14:20.302)

They’re giving you something to believe in. This is not a, everything’s solved. This is the best offensive line in the country. No, obviously they’re going to start Big Ten play, but it’s, we could be having a very different tone right now. We could be going, no, Big Ten play is about to start and we still don’t know anything about this offensive line that makes you feel confident. There’s reasons to be confident about the direction that this offense is going through. I think, and I’ll say this and then there’s one more thing I want to bring up because I want to know if it’s a positive or not.

We’re going to save the negative for the other part of the other part of the spot. I am.

Trying to think of how to say this.

Stephen Means (15:07.01)

I think when we came into the year…

Stephen Means (15:12.448)

You could make a case that maybe us in the media were talking about Ohio State in a way that was almost like kind of a. On a kind of a side shot at the offense and maybe some of this is coming off of how last year ended, but I felt like the tone at times could feel like, this defense is so great. The offense just needs to not get in the way of that. And so because of that, I felt like.

This was a good day for the offense overall to maybe hush that a little bit because the defense wasn’t great to start the game off, but the offense, even when you’re only getting the ball six times, six for six plays in the first quarter, they turn those six plays in the points, right? They were aggressive. They were putting points on the board. And it almost reminded me of like 2022 where it was like, man,

The offense is great. Can the defense help out a little bit? And it wasn’t quite that far, but it was just, it was a good reminder that this offense is special. Like there’s a lot here, right? It’s, and Will Howard, but he’s really good. He’s really good at this media thing, man. I’ll tell you that much. The way he was talking about things, it’s like, man, it feels like every play here can go for a touchdown. And it’s like, yeah, man, Quinshaw Judkins started 86 yarders in the touchdowns. Trayvon Henderson is going for 40 yard touchdowns. Emeka, Buka, and.

Jeremiah Smith had 50 yard plus touchdowns. Cardinal Tate started getting involved there, which is funny because Stefan and I sit next to each other in the press box. Anytime I start bringing up the fact that Cardinal doesn’t have any touches, they immediately start spamming him the ball. like, yeah, there he is. Four for four on the day. Look at that. Four for four for 64 yards. Jeremiah Smith, three catches for 70 yards on four targets. Amaka Ibuka, five targets, five catches, 117 yards. And that’s what Brandon Ennis didn’t get to do anything offensively. we know he…

He had the muff punt, which got called off of the board because of a penalty. But then later on in the game, he almost takes one back to the house. Right. So it’s, I felt like today was a, a quality reminder that this is not a team where it’s like, elite, maybe historical defense. Hey, offense, please like don’t get in the way of that. No, I think this is just like a super, super complete team where it’s, if we ever see a day against a quality opponent,

Stephen Means (17:33.794)

where this defense looked the way it looked the first two weeks and this offense continues to build like this. That’s a problem for other teams and I don’t, just, today was a good reminder of that.

Stefan Krajisnik (17:48.063)

What’s fun too is every week we can just go into now being like, so what is Chip Kelly going to do this week? And this week, hey, we’re going to move fast and we’re going to score in 15 seconds. And Ryan Day was even like, coming into this game, we knew it’d be pretty tough for our defense because we were going to try to move fast. it’s like, what’s funny is we say like, yeah, he caught a screen. He took a 68 yards. Like it forces the defense back on the field. I think Ohio State.

Stephen Means (17:56.576)

You

Stefan Krajisnik (18:16.073)

Kind of came into this game being like, we’re to have some big touchdowns that are going to have some quick draw. Ryan Day made it sound like, this is kind of how we expected the offense to work today. it’s just like, Chip has to just be a madman from between Sunday to Friday of just scheming up for these games because every week is something different. And on a day where he’s coming out with explosive plays and moving fast and all this and that, we see the T formation at the goal line. And I can’t be sneak. It’s like.

Stephen Means (18:19.256)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (18:43.923)

Any given snap, any given drive, any given game, like you have no idea what chip is going to call. And I think that’s why this offense has been as good as it’s been. Yes, they have playmakers. Yes, Will Howard is good. Yes, the running backs are amazing, but they also have an offensive coordinator who is arguably one of the greatest offensive minds in football history. And you piece it all together and you’re like, all right, Michigan State, what are you going to prepare for? Because I feel like we’ve seen like three versions of this offense.

and they’ve played three non -conference games.

Stephen Means (19:15.01)

Dude, there was a point in this game where they had four tight ends and one wide receiver on the field and it was Brandon Ennis. There was another point in this game where they went four wide receivers and Brandon Ennis was the other slot guy. We did get two running backs today, but we didn’t really get two running backs. We got T formation. That’s not two running backs. That doesn’t count as two running backs.

Stefan Krajisnik (19:31.487)

Yeah, I wish and I said this out to our texters I wish people could have been in the press box when Quinchon runs out of the field and Stevens like I don’t think trade mount came off I don’t think and and they break the huddle he’s like my god, they’re both on the field and we’re like Steven finally gets his two running backs and then it’s the tea formation. He’s like what the hell?

Stephen Means (19:47.149)

Yes.

Stephen Means (19:51.63)

It was just like, all right, well, that’s that’s not chip. When I asked you that question, that’s not what I was asking for. But it’s fine. It’s fine. They pulled out the T formation. It’s fine. But it’s just they gave the wrong. They gave the wrong offensive mind this new weapons. That’s that’s what I’m thinking. Coming off of this game, you gave the wrong mind too many weapons and it makes it fun. And Will Howard was even saying as much he’s like.

Ryan Day’s obviously not gonna go there with that. He’s just gonna do the simple, called a good game, all that stuff, but Will Howard’s like, I have no idea what we’re gonna call next. It’s just kind of what it is. again, I just wanted to highlight those things. The offensive line looks great through three games. I think this was best case scenario of what you could get out of your offensive line. Unfortunately, your best offensive lineman had to miss two games. Fortunately, unfortunately, your offensive line was sick for most of August. Fortunately.

That sickness produced opportunities to build depth. Austin Ceravel, Carson Hinsman, Luke Montgomery, Josh Padillo in the interior, Zed Mohulski and George Fitzpatrick as tackles and they’re coming along nicely it sounds like. Unfortunately, that same best player missed the first two games of the year for what was, I think a soft tissue injury. Fortunately, Austin Ceravel got to play some football. And fortunately, he looked pretty good playing football.

in a way that if something happens to Donovan Jackson or Tegra Shabola again, you feel pretty good about putting Austin Cereba out there. In fact, he might have a role anyway. So good things came from that. And now Donovan Jackson’s back and he looked great today. He looked great, in my opinion. So.

Stefan Krajisnik (21:32.787)

There’s another one of those examples where like you didn’t really notice him and it’s like well that means he’s probably pretty good

Stephen Means (21:36.814)

You know, because he’s a guard. If you notice a guard, something’s drastically going wrong. But just good things came from a negative thing that happened in that situation. And so where did we get to best case scenarios? We got through these three games and you felt like, OK, there’s something to work with here on the offensive line. We can build on that. And I think they got there. So step one of the offensive lines, 2024 redemption tour check mark. I think they completed it to success.

One other thing I want to bring up here, because I want to know if you think this is a positive or not.

So Ohio State.

had one penalty on offense against Marshall. And it was on a second and 10 in a situation where Ohio State subbed with 21 seconds left on the play clock. And then Marshall did what every defense does. They tried to sub back and you know, it’s like a chess game sometimes and sometimes you can get a delay of game out of it. Ryan Day gets heated, calls a timeout and he is chewing out the ref once again.

Another thing he can’t really do if you’re calling plays because you got to worry about that. But instead he’s chewing out the ref. So here’s what he has to say about his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty because you have a penalty out of it and now it’s second and 25 and the drives kind of over after that. Like you’re not something crazy is going to happen for you to convert that. In fact, I think that’s the same drive that will however had a sack on because it was like third and long. There was 21 seconds on the clock when we subbed in.

Stephen Means (23:10.158)

They, my opinion, were really, really, really, really, it was four reallys and I counted them really, really, really, really slow getting in. When you make a sub at 21 seconds, you should still be able to run a play. We had to call timeout. I went out to the numbers. I didn’t curse, which I don’t think I believe, but he said he didn’t curse. But I was raising my voice saying there were 21 seconds on the clock. That has to be a delay of game on the defense. I guess I yelled too loud. I’m not sure why.

but that’s what happened. Here’s the reason I want to ask you about that, Stefan. You don’t want your coaches getting penalties that can put you in second and 25. I’m not saying it’s okay to get the penalty, but are you okay with fiery Ryan day, even if sometimes it costs you?

Stefan Krajisnik (23:56.703)

Yeah, I think so. And I don’t think he gets that penalty if it’s second and 10, four minutes to play on the road at Oregon in a tie game, right? Like I think he knows the situation and things of that nature when he gets that. And I think it was just one of those games where it’s like things are kind of like, you know, sluggish, sloppy, whatever you want to say. like, not that he needs like fire up the team in that case, because I think they were at that point, it was what 35, 14, maybe already something like that. Like it just seemed like a white, like a

Like, hey, everything today is kind of like working weird. Like I’m ticked off, you’re ticked off, like try to fire you up and like wake everyone up. And I think, and who knows, maybe it’s one of those things where I’m not exactly sure how things with officials work, but like that’s something maybe the officials look at and they’re like, Hey, like Ryan Day was really ticked off about this. Maybe it’s something that we should look at, right? Because it is kind of tough. mean, you do, you know, 21 seconds on a play clock and I see, know, you got to delay a game because the referee standing over the center. So.

I think it’s I think it’s a positive in the long term just that he’s that engaged on each play he can kind of be in the referee’s ear like it might buy you a call down the road or something like that or like I said like maybe it leads to a rule change like who knows it’s it’s a positive now if if we start seeing him getting out of control he’s getting penalties and untimely situations that’s a whole nother conversation but in this game in this situation it seemed to me like he was

Either just trying to send a message one way or another, whether it be to his team or to the officials or whatever it may be, or maybe it’s the opposing sideline of like, hey, this is really annoying. Stop doing this. It just seemed like it was an okay situation to do that in. So I don’t even know if it’s really a positive or negative. It was just kind of like, okay, you did it. Like, let’s see if anything comes from this, but don’t do it in a bad situation, please.

Stephen Means (25:32.557)

you

Stephen Means (25:40.11)

Second and 10 with 751 left to play in Ohio State’s pretty much already putting this game away, but they’re doing something offensively. I love it. I love fiery Ryan day. I wrote about fiery Ryan day this week because he had an incident like that two weeks ago as well. I like fire right today and not just because he’s yelling at the refs. He’s yelling at his coaches too. I don’t know if you noticed this Stefan, but there was a point in the game when and we’re going to talk about some of this when we talk about the defense after the break. That’s going to be where none of the negative is, but

defensive line rotations were a little weird. I can’t wait to see the PFF snap counts when we do this pod for Monday, but they were a little weird and there were times when you just like saw Ryan Day and Larry Johnson getting into it. And it seemed like, you know, a head coach who’s not in his play sheet anymore, trying to call play. So he’s a little bit involved in everything. It looked like a head coach who was trying to get the best players back on the field and key situations and like, Hey Larry, cut out your rotation, put these four guys back in the game and whatnot. And that’s what head coach do.

Which is supposed to do but I like that. I like tough love fiery Ryan day Did it cost you 15 yards in that situation? Sure, but two weeks ago when you did it against Western Michigan It didn’t cost you 15 yards. You just said your piece and you moved forward. So I’m with you. I It’s situational. You’re probably right. He if it’s a tie game against Oregon in that same exact scenario He’s probably not gonna do it. He’s not gonna go that far with it He might just like say his piece and then back off but right situation right time

And it’s again, another example of what he can do now that he’s not calling plays because you know who has to worry about getting out of second and 25 chipper Kelly upstairs. Ryan day can worry about that type of stuff because that’s what he should be doing as the head coach, as the CEO, as the game manager. That’s his job. Now don’t put chip Kelly in second and 25 every single time, but you know, protect your players, protect your coaches, protect your team and yell at your players.

yell at your coaches and yell at your team when the moment calls for it. And I felt like we saw a lot of those opportunities on Saturday.

Stefan Krajisnik (27:41.855)

I’m picturing Chip Kelly at a sheet, you know, waiting for the play be like, crap. We got to call timeout. All right. Looks at his place. She, what am I calling on second and 10 out of the timeout looks up, just flips over. He’s like, okay, what am I calling on second and 25?

Stephen Means (27:55.086)

All right. Well, thanks, Ryan. Thanks for putting me in this situation. But also Jim Knowles was probably in some of those explosive one play drives going. Thanks, Chip. We just got done. We’re still meeting about the last drive and now we have to go back out there. Thanks, Jim. Okay, we’re gonna take our first break here then we’ll come back and talk about the defense where I want to know if we should be overreacting to anything and what we should be reacting on a day where Ohio State gave up more points than it did in the first two games combined and we’ll get to that.

come back from the break on Buckeye Talk.

Stephen Means (28:29.358)

So Ohio State gave 14 points to Marshall in its third game of the season. I’m Stephen, he’s not Stefan Christ. Nick Andrew will be back. He’s dealing with a personal matter right now, but that’s more points than they gave up in its first two games. In fact, they gave up more yards than they did in their first two games as well. In the first half, think Western Michigan had 99 yards the entire game and Akron had like 170 something the entire game. Western Michigan Marshall, excuse me, have like 202 yards at halftime of this game. How much of this?

Do we just credit Marshall had two weeks? They’re a pretty quality team. They schemed up some good stuff. Earl Stone, a pretty quality quarterback, which he also got hurt in the game and that their whole game plan went out the window. Once he got hurt, I think Braylon Braxton and Cole Pittington, who is yes, son of a former NFL quarterback. They came in and played some snaps as well. How much do you just say kudos to Marshall for a quality game plan that got Ohio State for 30 minutes versus

Maybe we saw some holes get poked in Ohio State that they need to get fixed quick.

Stefan Krajisnik (29:32.185)

What’s cooler than his name being Earl Stone is that his name is Stone Earl, which makes it all the better.

Stephen Means (29:35.68)

No, I’m calling him Earl Stone. I know it is Earl Stone. Sorry about that stone.

Stefan Krajisnik (29:40.543)

It was a combination. It seemed like just a perfect combination of not great for Ohio State, at least when the defense was struggling because it’s like they missed Ty leak and you’re facing a spread offense whose quarterback can run the ball and it and they have had two weeks to prepare. So it’s like it’s a combination of like everything you said where it’s just like the perfect storm of putting Ohio State in a really tough spot. So.

I think the defensive tackle depth was maybe not as strong as we thought it was last week. The depth and depth is always a funny thing because it looks great when Ty Hamilton and Tyler Williams are both in the game and you’re like, wait, look at what Katie McDonald’s and look what hero canoe is doing. And then it’s like, okay, now one of them is thrusted into starting role. And you’re like, wait, like I think back to like, remember like the Zeke Pollard thing of everyone’s like, Pollard is better, Pollard is better. And then Zeke leaves and Pollard becomes a starter. And you’re like,

We like Paul when he was the backup. We don’t we don’t want to be the starter. It’s just kind of like that situation where it’s something it’s got to develop a bit more because we say how thankless the position is. I mean, it was pretty clear at certain points in this game that Tyleek and Ty Hamilton what they do is not thankless or at couldn’t be because their key parts to what this defense does. They make life easier for the defense events. They make life easier for the corners to save these the linebackers like

Stephen Means (30:56.974)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (31:07.849)

This defense, I don’t want to say they go as those two go, but it’s a much better unit when those two are both healthy and playing. And I think we kind of saw Marshall attack that a bit and you’re pointing out at yourself being like, okay, if he’s not healthy, we got to figure something out because teams are going to go after it. And when you start facing teams that can really run the ball, like Michigan’s going to try to run up the middle. Oregon, you know, I know they, can throw it around a bit, but like they can run the ball up the middle as well. Like.

There’s things that teams are going to do if you’re not healthy there or if your depth isn’t great there to try to expose it. And it’s something that, you know, in the coming weeks, now Tyler Leakes healthy, he comes back, everything’s fine. It’s a whole other conversation. But if he’s missing an extended period of time, it’s something that you’re looking at being like, all right, like there’s some teams in the big 10 that can go after that. Do you have a way to respond? Do you have to change up schemes? Do you have to just hope that Kaden takes another step forward? Hero takes another step forward? Or what’s that look like?

moving forward for this team as long as tight league has hurt.

Stephen Means (32:08.888)

I didn’t like Ryan Day’s on title league Williams in his status. I went up to title league after the game just to see how he was doing and it was just kind of like, yeah, sorry, I should be back soon. But Ryan Day said he was day to day and he said, I don’t know when we’ll have an update there. I don’t like that because I’ve seen that story before with other prominent players, Jackson, but the Jigba trade Van Henderson where it like it was day to day.

We’ll have an update for you later. And then the update never really came and it obviously sprawled down a hill. I’m not going to go.

I thought the defensive tackle depth. I think we all misread it when Ryan Day, who brought it up on Tuesday again, but Ryan Day had talked about it at times during the fall camp. Jim Knowles had talked about it during fall camp. Larry Johnson talked about it during fall camp. And I think Stefan, we were always having the conversation in the guise of, man, that might be deep this year. There’s a lot of guys, right? Ty Leak Williams and Ty Hamilton and Caden McDonald and

Hiro Kanu and Jason Moore and Taiwan Malone, maybe Will Smith. We talked about it as if it was a positive. It was an optimistic look. When I think the message that they were trying to give was, yeah, Tai and Tai Leek are awesome. Kaden MacDonald looks like he’s a beast. Everybody else, listen man, we need them to come along, but they’re not solidified yet. And I think that’s what played out against Marshall. Now Marshall also took advantage of it.

Marshall ran a lot of QB draws in a way that I think if 91 would have played, they wouldn’t have been able to run those plays. And to your point, we found out we knew Tyler Lee Williams was good. Clearly he was a Borland all American level player a year ago, but we saw just how good when you take him off of the field and there are guys who aren’t as good as he is and can’t do that job the same way. And so not alarmed, but I am on the lookout for it because if

Stephen Means (34:10.382)

Ty Leek Williams is day to day. Well, Donovan Jackson was day to day and he missed two games. So I said this in a video and you said it as well. This could either be like Cody Simon where he’s back on the field next Saturday. We’re like, okay, this is fine. They still need to build depth there, but at least your best guy is back. Or maybe he also misses Michigan State. Maybe he also misses Iowa. Maybe he also misses, or who knows? We don’t know. They don’t have an update other than day to day right now. And I didn’t like what I saw without him.

Ty Hamilton is very good, but it’s because he’s paired with Ty Lee Williams. I think Ty Hamilton is the quality nose, but he’s not disruptive the same way that Ty Lee was. think Kayden McDonald played pretty well today too, but that’s still not enough guys. And we can talk about the defensive backs. They gave up some stuff too. They weren’t great in coverage. I didn’t think the pass rush was always there. Kayden Curry obviously got free for a sack, but he also got the Denzel Burke type of targeting call where it was literally with 12 seconds left in the first half. So it’s like,

Shame on you, you missed 72 seconds, 72 minutes or something like that. You missed 30 minutes and 12 seconds. You’ll be back next week. But the defensive tackle depth, I didn’t think it would be a problem, because I think we all read it as, man, they’re building depth there. But instead, it’s like something to keep an eye on, something to watch, because they want six, and it feels like they have half of that right now. And I’m not sure where that gets you if you still have three by December.

And those guys are worn down because Ty Hamilton and Ty League Williams have had to play 40 plus snaps every single.

Stefan Krajisnik (35:45.341)

Yeah, it’s going to be important to get Tyleek back. And maybe some of it too is like, know, Kaden and some of the other guys are getting increased reps and it’s not the same thing as the offensive line, but it’s like we saw them, like they took some time to mesh, you know, when you had some new guys in there getting some more reps in game one against Akron. So who knows, maybe next week, even if Tyleek’s out, maybe the defensive tackles look a little bit better. Now they’ve got, they’ve got, you know, some more reps, some more snaps under their belt. So it’s just a situation where it’s like, I’m not looking at it being like,

no, this could break Ohio State. This could ruin their defense, but it’s just something where it’s like, if he’s going to be out a little bit, got to see a little bit more improvement to give me confidence. Like they don’t need to look amazing against Michigan State to get a win, but I want them look a little bit better than they did against Marshall.

Stephen Means (36:33.582)

So I’m just gonna say everything else I thought was no big deal. I thought some of this was it was hot and this is a lazy take. I know that I feel lazy saying it but it was super hot and they were rotating guys. I really can’t wait to see the PFF snaps on some of this because it felt like James Laurinaitis was really rotating those linebackers. like Cody Simon wasn’t out there though. I think Cody Simon had like three or four tackles today and it felt like there were times when you looked out there and it was all very recent. was Sonny Styles which listen the two guys on this pod

We’re all for our very getting more snaps. We love that. We want to see more of our race, but CJ.

Stefan Krajisnik (37:10.271)

There was a point during warmups today where Arvel and Jeremiah were sitting next to each other. Steve and I were like, yeah, that’s good. This is good.

Stephen Means (37:13.742)

Yeah. What happened? Yeah, this is our heaven. Listen, this is our heaven. So no problems with that whatsoever. it felt like this. Some of this just felt like last non -conference game, Big Ten play starts next week. They kind of went heavy and deep on the rotations in some spot. One, just to keep guys fresh because it was, as I said, I think reported like 110 degrees down on the field today. So that’s part of this. And so it was kind of weird.

Again, the defensive backs, not the best ad about Jordan Hancock didn’t have his best day. Denzel Burke gave us some stuff as well, but overall he gave up 14 points and you eventually figured out Marshall, but we do have to talk about the one thing, Stefan. You have not had an opportunity to talk about yet because you live in a world where the special teams is awesome. You live in a world where the special teams might score points. You have not lived in the world that the rest of us have been living with and the special teams unit for the last couple of years here again.

I thought it was a good job by Ryan Day not giving up on Brandon as after the muff putt. I thought it was no different to me. The muff punt was no different than Jeremiah Smith dropping his first target. It’s like, okay, he has proven to us in practice and over time that that’s not the norm. So you deal with it. And he didn’t make that mistake again. In fact, he almost took one home. Here’s what he had to say about Jayden fielding being replaced by Austin Snyder at halftime for the kickoffs after three straight kickoffs in a row that ended up out of bounds.

And he got pretty aggressive and fiery with this too. I like aggressive and fiery Ronday. We can’t have that. That’s putting our defense in a terrible position. Having three out of bounds and three drives that start on the 35 yard line, that’s completely ridiculous. We’ve got to get that fixed however we do that. We’ve got to get to the point where you want to, we get to the point where you want to let somebody play through it, but then at another point we’ve got to make a change. And they said they’re going to be reevaluating that going forward, which I think that just means Austin Snyder is going to be their kickoff guy.

going forward here because typically when Ryan Day says we’re going to reevaluate something, they’ve already reevaluated something and made a decision on it. We just haven’t seen it live yet. But I love the fact that he points out at some point, you just got to let guys play through it when they make mistakes. That’s why you let Will Howard play through an interception. That’s why you let Brandon is play through a muff punt. That’s why you play play through Jeremiah Smith dropping a pass. But I don’t know how on alert are you that we’ve been talking so highly about the special teams?

Stephen Means (39:36.566)

Maybe they’re not completely fixed the way we thought they would be.

Stefan Krajisnik (39:41.383)

It’s another one of those things where it’s like, we’re about to find out if that’s the outlier or if it’s the norm where the first two games where the special teams look really good, what we should expect or was that the outlier where the errors they made today, the outlier or is that what we should expect moving forward? It’s, it’s hard when you’ve had two good games, one bad game in that area to really kind of make a conclusive, I guess, opinion on it.

What I will say about the Muff pun and our textures mentioned a few times, some of them were obviously for a good reason, you really upset about it. It feels like an excuse just like you did with the heat there, but the sun was very clearly in Brana Innis’ eyes. Like he literally, when he came back out to feel the next punt, had his like hands in the air, he’s like, looking at the side, he’s like, I don’t know what to do. Like he looked like it was going to be impossible. And it was kind like, know, at the time of day where it was, the sun was kind of right there.

Stephen Means (40:18.903)

I know.

Stefan Krajisnik (40:37.067)

It just as long as it doesn’t happen again. And I think that’s what the situation was with with a kickoff out of bounds where it’s like the first kickoff out of bounds. You’re like, okay, like whatever you tried them back out there and you try it again. And obviously a kickoff out of bounds is not as, you know, I guess consequential as a muff pun, but as soon as you do it three times, you’re like, all right, like you’re done, you know, and it’s like one muff pun. All right. Like you have the sun in the eye, whatever move on.

The second you get a second one, the moment you get a second one, it becomes a little bit of a different conversation. So it’s just one of those things where it’s like, Ryan obviously trusted him and tried back out there a second time. He didn’t make a mistake again in the game. mean, the only thing that really happened was when he got tripped up on what could have been a long return or slip, tripped up, whatever it was. He’s earned the right to get another chance. And I think he was fine. And the chances he got after the muff. And sometimes it’s like, all right, like it’s just like the.

It’s kind like a life lesson of like sometimes things happen. You’re like, all right, like I got bailed out here. Better not let that happen again. You’d rather that wake up call happen on a play where there’s a penalty to get back than it happened in a crucial situation. So I think Brandon’s fine. I told Steven we’re sitting there. Brandon’s been playing so well, these three non -conference games where it’s like, it’s kind of odd that we’re walking out of it without him scoring a touchdown. And I told Steven, I was like, he’s got no touchdowns in non -conference play. And he’s kind of like the fourth, fifth receiver on team.

Stephen Means (41:53.699)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (42:03.423)

There’s going to be a game, a big 10 game, maybe an important big 10 game. Like maybe it’s an Oregon, a Penn State or Michigan, something like that, where he’s going to catch an important touchdown. And we’re going to be like, the broadcast is going to be like his first touchdown of the season comes into fourth quarter against Oregon. And we’re going to be like, yeah, we kind of saw this coming. It was going to happen at some point where he was going to make a big play and score touchdowns. So he’s a big play waiting to happen. And as long as it’s not becoming a frequent mistake, he’s the guy you want out there returning punts and having the ball on his hands.

Stephen Means (42:35.864)

I think my optimistic take because we’re being optimistic here. The last special teams issue Ohio State had it nipped it in the bud and it was by replacing its kick returner with Brandon Nittes. And let’s assume that they’re going to do the same thing here by fixing it very quickly while also being mindful of the fact that we understand the last three years, they didn’t fix issues and they got worse and they got worse and that got worse.

They seem to have fixed the first special teams issue very quickly here. And it seems like they fixed the other one. So we will let it be at that. And obviously we’ll keep an eye on it over the next couple of weeks when they play Michigan State next week. So we’re finishing this pod. And the thing is, Stefan has not looked me in the eye on this pod for about 10 minutes here. The reason why is we are wrapping up this pod as Michigan just welcomed USC to the big 10 in the most big 10 way ever. I formation goal line, run the ball touchdown. Really?

Stefan Krajisnik (43:34.495)

When Michigan got the ball back with like four or five minutes to go, needing like an 80 yard drive to score a touchdown, I’m thinking like, all right, like good for USC. Like you’ve got yourself to a point where Michigan has to throw the ball. Like this is where you want to be against them. And then they just break a big run. You’re like, okay, now you put yourself in a spot where Michigan is just going to run the ball and it’s the only way they can score. And now you’ve let them do that.

Stephen Means (43:57.25)

You let them do the one thing they can do, and they can barely do it well right now.

Stefan Krajisnik (43:59.773)

Yeah. And then just the Kirk Cousins play at the end of the game, not Kirk Cousins -Falcons, I respect the Falcons and Kirk Cousins, but the Kirk Cousins playoffs with the Vikings where fourth down crucial play and you throw it short of the stick so you don’t get the first out of the completed pass. Come on, Lincoln Riley.

Stephen Means (44:15.842)

Right,

Very unserious program, very unserious program. But OK, well, we cover a serious program who won their game 49 to 14 on Saturday. They don’t wrap up this post game pod with Stefan and Stephen will be back on Monday for the rewatch, which I think will be pretty interesting because we’ve got some things to talk about as Ohio State enters Big Ten play next weekend. It’s only trip to Michigan this week. They play Michigan State next weekend and then Iowa the week after that and Oregon. We’re in it. Big Ten play is here. Ohio State wraps up his non -conference schedule.

having given up 20 points, 20 points in the non -conference schedule. Meanwhile, it scored 157 points in its non -conference schedule. First time since 2019 that they didn’t play a marquee non -conference opponent. And the first time in 2019, they didn’t even have an early Big 10 game on their schedule as well. So a favorable schedule, but they took care of business the way they were supposed to take care of business.

49 to 14 over Marshall. Get the text 614 -350 -3315. Two week free trial, 399 after that. For Stefan, for Andrew, I’m Stephen, and that was Bugites All.