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Oct. 6—COLUMBUS — Ohio State did all the things it does well and did all the things Iowa does well even better than the Hawkeyes could do them on its way to a 35-7 win on Saturday at Ohio Stadium.
The Buckeyes (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) started slowly and led only 7-0 at halftime over Iowa (3-2, 1-1 Big Ten) but scored four unanswered touchdowns — three of them set up by turnovers by the Hawkeyes — in the first 19 minutes, two seconds of the second half.
Iowa’s reputation is, and has been for a long time, that it will run the ball and stop the run. But OSU met the challenge of doing that even better than the Hawkeyes.
Ohio State outgained Iowa 412 yards of total offense to 226 yards. It out-rushed the Hawkeyes 203 yards to 116 yards and came close to doubling them in passing yards, 209 to 110.
“I think this will give us a lot of confidence moving forward. It was a big challenge to our whole team about physicality and toughness and I think we answered that,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said.
OSU quarterback Will Howard hit his first 11 passes, finished the game 21 of 25 for 209 yards and threw four touchdown passes. Three of the TD passes went to Emeka Egbuka and the other came on another spectacular one-handed catch by freshman Jeremiah Smith.
Ohio State’s dominance expanded as the game went on. The Buckeyes could have taken control of the game in the first half when two turnovers and a failed attempt to get a first down in a fourth-and-two situation held them back.
OSU scored on its first possession of the game on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Howard to Egbuka.
But it didn’t score again until the second half, with turnovers being one of the big reasons for that. Smith fumbled at Iowa’s 28-yard line after a 23-yard gain and Howard threw an interception at Iowa’s 40-yard line in the final minute of the first half.
“On defense,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/no-3-ohio-state-pulls-143400845.html
Author : The Lima News, Ohio
Publish date : 2024-10-06 14:34:00
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