Ohio State opened up its Big Ten season with a decisive 31-6 victory over No. 21 Iowa.
The victory came largely thanks to the always formidable OSU defense:
“The key was when they started out trying to run the ball and we were able to stop them,” Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Heacock said. “Once that happened, that gave us some flexibility to turn those guys loose.“We put our ears back. We’ve got some guys who can go.”
And the offense helped out as well:
Ohio State came in with huge questions about its own running game, a shortage of big plays and inability to score touchdowns instead of settling for field goals.
“Any concerns they may have had offensively coming in, it looks like they cured them today,” Ferentz said.Antonio Pittman rushed for 171 yards on 28 carries for the Buckeyes (3-1, 1-0), with Smith adding 127 yards on 18 carries and TDs of 16 and 4 yards. They became the first Ohio State quarterback-tailback tandem to top 100 yards in the same game since 1976 when Jeff Logan had 112 yards rushing and quarterback Rod Gerald added 104 in a 49-21 over Michigan State.
Smith also completed 13-of-19 passes for 191 yards without an interception, although he did fumble three times and had another erased by a penalty.
Of course, there was a score to settle:
The Hawkeyes embarrassed the Buckeyes 33-7 last year in Iowa City. Maybe the similarity in scores wasn’t just a coincidence.“It’d be crazy to think that score from last year wasn’t in everybody’s brain,” Heacock said.
Or as Ohio State center Nick Mangold put it: “I hope Iowa left here today feeling the same way we did a year ago.”
Iowa’s loss was only the latest in what is looking to be an unpredictable Big Ten season this year. No. 14 Michigan lost its Big Ten opener to Wisconsin and Minnesota beat No. 11 Purdue in double overtime.
Next up for the Buckeyes are the Nittany Lions on October 8th.
