Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins, right, outruns Marshall defensive back J.J. Roberts to score a touchdown during the first half on Saturday in Columbus. (AP Photo | Jay LaPrete)
COLUMBUS – Quinshon Judkins says he and the rest of Ohio State’s running backs run with bad intentions.
Bad intentions and good results. And no results have been better so far this season than what they did in OSU’s 49-14 win over Marshall on Saturday at Ohio Stadium.
Judkins ran for 173 yards on 14 carries to lead the Buckeyes’ ground game, which averaged 9.0 yards per carry.
He scored two touchdowns – one on a career-best 86-yard run and the other on a 6-yard run. TreVeyon Henderson rushed for 76 yards on 6 carries and scored on a 40-yard touchdown run and a 14-yard touchdown run.
No. 3 Ohio State (3-0) rolled up 569 yards of total offense – 280 yards on the ground and 289 yards in the air. Quarterback Will Howard was 16 of 20 for 275 yards and two touchdowns and Emeka Egbuka was the top receiver with 5 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown.
“I think the mindset of me and my teammates as a whole is to play with bad intentions. Every time I get the ball I’m going to try to score,” Judkins said.
OSU coach Ryan Day said, “I just appreciate how hard he plays. He has home run ability. You can coach Quinshon hard. He almost appreciates that when you coach him hard you’re trying to get him better.”
Ohio State led 28-14 at halftime after Marshall scored its two touchdowns on its first and last possessions of the first half.
The Thundering Herd (1-2) took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards on 13 plays to grab a quick 7-0 lead on a 1-yard run by Ethan Payne.
It took OSU only two plays to tie the game when a 2-yard run by Henderson was followed by a 68-yard screen pass for a touchdown from Will Howard to Emeka Egbuka.
The Buckeyes eventually ran off 28 unanswered points but even an optimistic assessment of the first half wouldn’t have called it a dominating effort by them after a touchdown in the final seconds of the half drew Marshall to within 14 points.
“We had to come back and bounce back. It’s about how you respond. We didn’t bat an eye and went back to work,” Howard said.
“When the run game is clicking like that it makes my job easy. When you can present a balanced attack like we did today it opens a lot of things up,” he said.
Ohio State’s second touchdown was set up by a defensive stop on fourth down that gave it a first down at Marshall’s 45-yard line. Six plays later a 1-yard sneak by Howard put OSU up 14-7.
The lead increased to 21-7 on Judkins’ 86-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, and then to 28-7 on a 14-yard touchdown run by Henderson with 3 ½ minutes left n the first half.
With the help of roughing the passer penalty by Caden Curry, which that included targeting, Marshall cut the lead to 28-14 on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Stone Earle with six second left in the first half.
Ohio State’s defense tightened up in the second half and held Marshall scoreless. And the defense added three more touchdowns – on a 40-yard run by Henderson, a 53-yard pass from Howard to Jeremiah Smith and a 6-yard run by Judkins.
“We made some plays but there are definitely things we’ve got to learn from and correct,” safety Lathan Ransom said.
Marshall had 203 yards of total offense in the first half and only 61 yards in the second half. The Buckeyes’ defense played without standout defensive tackle Tyleik Williams because of an injury. Day said Williams is “day to day.”
