No. 3 Ohio State (7-0, 4-0) took advantage of three Minnesota (3-3, 0-3) turnovers and two Gopher missed field goals to post a 30-14 win in Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
The Buckeyes came into the game as heavy favorites over the Gophers but were not able to put any distance between themselves and Minnesota until the late stages of the game. Ohio State held a slim 17-14 lead at the half despite being outrushed by the Gophers.
What the Buckeyes lacked in a rushing attack was however more than made up for by the passing game. The Ohio State defense gave up 14 points in the first half but shut out the Gophers in the second half thanks partially to two missed Minnesota field goals, one from 32 yards out, the other from 48.
Minnesota was able to hold the ball for long drives to use up clock and keep the OSU offense off the field. The Gophers proved to be difficult to run on for an OSU offensive line that struggled all day in the running game and had problems with pass protection as well in the second half. You could make a case the Minnesota won the battle of the line of scrimmage, and in most football games that would lead to victory, but the OSU passing game was more than an equalizer.
Junior quarterback Dwayne Haskins had his second-straight passing game of over 400 yards and he also threw for three touchdowns with no interceptions. His first TD strike went for 42 yards to wide receiver Terry McLaurin to put OSU up 10-7 in the first half. He later hit H-back K. J. Hill with a 36-yard completion to make the score 17-14 at the half.
His third touchdown pass came on OSU’s final possession of the game, a 27-yard scoring toss to Hill. The Ohio State offense also put two field goals on the board in the second half to move the halftime score from 17-14 to 23-14, but the game remained in doubt late into the fourth quarter.
Minnesota’s second-to-last possession began at its own two-yard line trailing 23-14. The Gophers moved 67 yards to the OSU 31, but stalled there. A 48-yard field goal missed badly to the right, pretty much ending the game. OSU added the final touchdown pass to Hill with just 2:15 remaining on the game clock to make the game look less close than it really was.
Minnesota’s turnovers were very costly to their cause. The first came on an interception by Kendall Sheffield that led to an OSU field goal to put the Buckeyes up 3-0. Their second turnover, a fumble late in the first half, led directly to OSU’s second touchdown of the half on the touchdown pass to Hill. The final turnover came in the second half on an interception by Isaiah Pryor at the Minnesota two-yard line.
For the game, Haskins was 33-of-44 passing for 412 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Ohio State was held under 100 yards rushing for the first time since their 31-0 loss to Clemson in the 2016 College Football Playoffs.
Mike Weber was the leading Buckeye ball carrier with 51 yards rushing on 13 carries. Minnesota ran for 178 yards and put up 396 total yards of offense against a banged up OSU defense that struggled most the day but helped itself with turnovers and was helped by the two missed Minnesota field goals.
I agree with all the back and forth comments here. However, has anyone thought about the fact that this team is just not executing or playing with a chip on our shoulder? It’s the old Urban curse of having to face adversity before we get our shackles up and go kick the crap out of someone. Unfortunately I think it’s going to take a loss before that happens because this team seems to play to the competition-or below the competition. YES we are regressing in almost every facet of the game. Not dominating the line of scrimmage anymore on OL or DL. I also wonder how much coaching and scheming has to do with our lack luster wins and visible non-improvement? Maybe we are trying to be too aggressive on defense… Maybe our defense is just not capable of man coverage and we need to play zone. And what about offensive play calling for setting up the run? I am no expert, but it seems like teams with a LOT LESS talent than ours can run 3x better with less of a quarterback or running backs.
Has Meyer created an atmosphere of appreciating wins TOO much? Because I’m sorry, but repeated UGLY wins feel like losses & inch us ever closer to the inevitable loss that awaits. (everyone was predicting we would roll PSU–I knew better & actually thought we would lose that game. But again there was the adversity & we temporarily rose to the occasion. Problem is that our luck is running out & some Saturday soon one of Haskins late 4th Q TD passes will be picked off and winning ugly will give birth to losing ugly 😉
the lack of run-blocking and linebacker play on what should be pretty simple fixes is scary and some of the worst of the last 30 years…that said–..the 2nd half adjustments seem to work, our pass game is as good as ever-since Joe Germaine days….and we are winning ….washington and penn st just took 2nd losses, gerogia actually played a team with a pulse and got smoked by 20 pts against the former osu back-up Joe Burrow (good job Burrow!)…..notre lame barely got by at home to a weak pitt team that lost by 800 pts to penn st.—-im just sayin that as mch as osu needs some fixing it’s not ALL gloom n doom when you look at other top 10 teams going down or almost going down—-texas barely beat a stinky baylor team at home….ucf barely beat memphis….(UCF is’t even a top 20 team imo anyway…)…but yes….to beat the elite we HAVE to run the ball better and cant give up THAT much in big play yardage…the elite teams will take advantage and score more than 14 pts….next week at purdue could be wayyyyyyy closer than we like if some improvements aren’t made asap–i hpe we get all the defensive players back next week..i know Bosa wont be but REALLY need him by the MSU game….msu winning just made this harder for OSU…and go Wisconsin
Todd- perfect!
Perhaps we can swap Chris Ash for Greg Schiano after the season. Otherwise, it really doesn’t matter how you win as long as you win. I have to give credence that there are three starters on the D out and that just makes for a very incohesive unit. So, I do believe that this is the number 3 team in the nation – if you believed Georgia was number 2. There’s really no team (including Alabama) that has been dominant against decent opponents this year (since Alabama has not played anyone) – so the jury’s still out but please name me three other teams that are better?
The defense looks absolutely lost, and we have regressed over the last month. When a true freshman, *walk-on* QB just 5 games removed from high school walks his team up and down the field at will, a freshman tailback runs wild on us behind an offensive line with one senior, three sophomores, and a freshman, and two of the three receivers who burn you are true freshmen, you know you are in BIG trouble. And we are. It is officially time to hit the panic button on defense. We need someone who can coach the DBs to cover slant plays, and another who can make certain that the linebackers are actually on the field during the game. It seemed at times that we were playing only 8 or 9 players on defense, with the linebackers having gone AWOL.
And, on offense, the line appears to be regressing, with the running game turning into the current “clown show” – the term Meyer used in the past for the receivers but is certainly applicable here. Run blocking nearly non-existent, pass protection poor, and backs who can’t seem to find any openings anywhere. How well is that going to work against MSU who is giving up only 33.8 yards per game on the ground and TTUN who is giving up just under 100?
Playing like we did today, we are far, far from a team that could compete for the national championship, and we may be quite lucky to even win the Big Ten East. Watch out next week at night in West Lafayette. We could be in for another 55-24 decimation game.
BG- my criticism of the defense is well documented. It boggles my mind that it took THIS long for Hilliard to see time. Baron Browning- a physical freak- looks like he’s not sure what sport he’s playing out there. That being said…if you were told before the game that Minn would score 14 points, would you have taken it? I would have. And, if we are somewhat honest with ourselves, we would have forecast a 45-14 drubbing and been okay with it. The defense was NOT the problem today…
Gonna be real interesting to see how the voters treat UGA, who is getting beaten like a rented mule, and Notre Lame. At least OSU won by double digits today. We’ll see who the voters try to trump up this week…
While I’m on it, wonder if Notre Lame will get cracked by voters by looking like garbage vs a mediocre team?
Dave- I don’t think the defense was the issue at all today. 3 missing starters, 3 turnovers and zero points in second half isn’t the problem.
Real problem #1- Offensive line run blocking/penalties. Wow.
Real problem #2- Voting doubters will look for ways to move OSU down despite double digit win. (The same people who ignored Clemson circling the drain for weeks, will likely punish us immediately).
Does anyone here really think OSU deserves to be #3 in the country? I sure don’t. We should be about #6 or #7. Georgia is losing to LSU. I hope they don’t move us up to #2.
Don- dont’ look now, but 7 (Wash) and 8 (State Penn) just lost. Voters will elevate Texas and UM if the skunks beat Wisky….
And if there is any consistency at all, UGA should be pummeled in the polls for being destroyed by a team ranked 11 under them.
Longtime Fan…I agree Offensive line blocking/penalties bad….but Defense wasn’t an issue today?You did watch the game the game, didn’t you? Defense looked the worst i have ever seen it, ever…..they were out of position all day, missed tackles, could not cover anyone.. same issues as previous. The only reason Minnesota didn’t score was because they shot themselves in the foot..We didn’t actually slow them down… I am very discouraged by lack of effort and digression of this defensive unit…..including coaches…..we have a serious problem if we can’t stop ANYONE…..or even slow them down….Horrible, pathetic unit..There are not enough adjectives to describe the weak-ass performance of this defense this year
Russ- I always- ALWAYS- watch the game. I said the D wasn’t THE issue. Minn scored 14 points on a team missing 40% of its defensive starters. Given what we’ve seen from the D this year, that is a WIN. Do I like them? Not really, but they weren’t the reason the game was close…
By the way, be careful of Wanstedtting yourself (it’s a new word, regarding the former Pitt and Chi head coach). It’s hard to defend yourself by saying “if it wasn’t for those 3 turnovers and 2 missed FGs, it would have been a great game”. Does the D need lots of work? YES. But they weren’t playing for the O line in double duty today, right?
Longtime: the defense was not THE issue, as in the only issue, but clearly they were a big issue. Granted they only gave up 14 points, but the big plays continue to be given up by players completely out of position. There is no reason at this point in the season to be as lost as they are, and there is no excuse for the coaches not to have this fixed by this time in the season. The reason we only gave up 14 is we were playing against extremely inexperienced players (a WALK-ON freshman QB for instance). And if I told you before the game that a true freshman running back would put about 160 yards and two touchdowns on us, would you think that was acceptable?
As I wrote before, the offensive line and the clown show that was our running game once again was a huge issue too. The passing game was good when protection was there, but that is about the only bright spot today, except for perhaps our second team kicker Haubeil looking good.
Our defense is made up of very highly rated recruits, and is very deep but has underperformed all year. We were 57th going into this week in total defense behind the likes of Northern Illinois, Georgia Southern, Charlotte, Akron, and Miami of Ohio, so today was not an anomaly. With our talent we should be a top 25 defense easy.
I love the Buckeyes, and I will take wins any way we can get them – hopefully 8 more of them this year. We had plenty of shaky games in 2002 and it worked out pretty well. But our margin for error is just about zero with ND and Bama pretty much assured two spots in the playoffs. And if our defense plays this poorly against a good team (and TCU seems not to be, and PSU likewise is not as good as thought) we will have another Clemson (or more recently Iowa) blowout on our hands.
As a last point, I will just steal this from Mr Orr’s post game article from this site:
“Minnesota averaged 7.1 yards per play. Freshman running back Mohamed Ibrahim rushed for 157 yards, and averaged 6.8 yards per carry. True freshman quarterback Zack Annexstad threw for 218 yards, and averaged 9.5 yards per attempt.”
And this from an offense ranked 110th out of 129 teams going into the week. Somehow I can’t find a way to be satisfied with that performance, even though we were missing some starters.
BG- I’ll try to keep this brief, it’s obvious by the length of your replies that the defense is really under your skin:
1) Turns out the D never was “deep”. That was a bill of goods sold to you and me by our head coach…
2) OSU’s margin for error was zero from the first whistle this season. It’s one of the hard parts about being an OSU fan. Remember games where we would win by THIRTY points last year, and drop in the polls?
3) At NO point in my replies did I say I was “satisfied” with OSU’s defense. This year’s D is a pale shadow of most OSU defenses in my memory. My original point was that the defense’s performance was not the worst issue to come from this game-period, paragraph. I am much more concerned about the O line’s atrocious performance with run blocking. This was my point, nothing more.
This defense is pathetic! Schiano has to go. He’s had seven weeks to figure out their problems and they actually look worse each week. Let’s get a D-coach who can instill some disciple into this D. Guys are out of their gaps, missing tackles left and right and committing stupid, costly penalties. That’s all on Schiano.
Absolutely, Schiano has to go. We know the talent is there. They aren’t developing this talent. If this offense had an average D to work with, we would be worthy of making the playoffs. But if there is no improvement, I would rather not be humiliated by a team that has both an offense and a defense. I honestly cannot remember seeing an OSU D as bad as this.
2012 D was pretty bad. That was Meyer’s first year at OSU.
We were 34th in the country in total defense in 2012. We were 57th going into this week.