If there was any question that Ohio State wanted to make a statement against Indiana, the Buckeyes left no doubt about their intentions in the final minute of Saturday’s 38-15 win.
Ohio State certainly didn’t need to score again when it got the ball back at Indiana’s 40-yard line with a 16-point lead and only 1:53 left on the clock. TreVeyon Henderson knew that when he broke through the middle of Indiana’s defense for a 39-yard run and slid down at the 1-yard line. That would have allowed Ohio State to run out the clock with a pair of kneel-downs, but the Buckeyes decided they wanted to score instead.
The Buckeyes called two straight power-run plays for Will Howard, and the Ohio State quarterback crossed the goal line on the second attempt to turn what would have been a 16-point win into a 23-point victory, putting an exclamation point on the Buckeyes’ most impressive performance of the season to date as they earned their second victory this season over a top-five-ranked opponent.
The Buckeyes add on another late @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/IU8KeifdAq
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 23, 2024
“We wanted to put an exclamation point on that thing and kind of remind them what the Buckeyes are about,” Howard said. “I got a ton of respect for those guys. That was not in any way disrespectful. We were just trying to put an exclamation point on the game. And it was just, we were on the one-yard line. Let’s go score.”
While Howard said Ohio State didn’t intend any disrespect with its last touchdown, it was clear even before Saturday’s game started that the Buckeyes felt they had a point to prove this week. It was clear the Buckeyes had heard some of the bold comments Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has made since he was hired to lead the Hoosiers last December, while they also drew bulletin-board material from national media members who picked against them this week, and they felt like they needed to not just beat Indiana but dominate the previously unbeaten Hoosiers.
“We heard a lot online and we obviously kept everything to ourselves and we just went out there and showed it,” Ohio State defensive end Caden Curry said. “And we just wanted to leave no doubt.”
Ohio State dominated Indiana in every phase of the game and could have won by an even bigger margin than it did. Offensively, the Buckeyes scored on five of their nine drives but should have scored on seven as they finished without points on two first-half trips into the red zone. Defensively, the Buckeyes held the Hoosiers to only 151 total yards – a third of their average of 453 yards per game coming in, with 59 of those yards coming on the Hoosiers’ fourth-quarter touchdown drive after Ohio State had already started subbing out some of its defensive starters with a 31-7 lead. On special teams, the Buckeyes scored their first punt return touchdown in 10 years while they also gave the offense the ball at the 7-yard line to set up a short touchdown drive when Caden Curry tackled Indiana punter James Evans after a fumbled snap.
Ryan Day said the Buckeyes put an emphasis on making sure they played their best football of the season on Saturday, and that’s exactly what they did.
“That’s the way you’ve got to play the game of football. That’s the mentality we have to have. We know that we want to be playing our best football,” Day said. “We also know what was at stake. If we don’t win this game, there’s no chance to go to Indianapolis and play for the Big Ten championship.”
It was clear from the comments of every player who met with the media on Saturday – and that others made on social media – that the Buckeyes felt good about what they accomplished against Indiana, and they should. The Hoosiers had dominated just about everybody they played until they played the Buckeyes, and Ohio State put itself in a great position to make both the Big Ten Championship Game and the College Football Playoff with its performance against the Hoosiers.
google him ..#BTA
— Tyleik Williams (@tyleikk) November 23, 2024
Went how we thought it would go There is no way you TV personalities actually watch film
What was I missing?
GoBucks!
— Brian Hartline (@brianhartline) November 23, 2024
But the Buckeyes must quickly turn their focus toward making an even more important statement next week.
While Ohio State’s 10-1 start has put it in position to accomplish all of its goals this season, its first opportunity to actually accomplish one of its three major goals comes next Saturday, when the Buckeyes will look to avenge three years of demons and finish their regular season with a rivalry game win over Michigan.
On paper, the Buckeyes are a clear favorite to beat the Wolverines, who are just 6-5 this season, including a loss to the same Indiana team that Ohio State just blew out. But the Buckeyes know they’d be foolish to take their rivals lightly.
“I can’t speak about what they got going on in Ann Arbor. They’ve got their own problems, being 5-5 (at the time of the interview) or whatever their record is. But this is the one that means the most to Buckeye fans, to Buckeye players, to the whole state of Ohio,” said Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka. “So we know that as a team. And this is what we came back for.”
Just because the Buckeyes played great against Indiana doesn’t guarantee they’ll play at the same level in The Game. They only have to look back three years for an example of that, when they earned a 56-7 win over seventh-ranked Michigan State only to suffer a 42-27 loss in Ann Arbor one week later.
There’s no question, though, that the Buckeyes will be even more motivated to play their best football and make a statement next week than they were this week.
“I don’t think there’s going to be much celebrating going on from anybody,” Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer said of Saturday’s win over Indiana, “because everything that we’ve worked for since I’ve been here, the agony of defeat that we’ve been in the last three years, that’s pushed us to this moment right here that we got coming up this Saturday. That’s for all the marbles.”