Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, center, celebrates his touchdown against Iowa during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday in Columbus. (AP Photo | Jay LaPrete)
By Jim Naveau
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 there was energy and on offense it was like if we just take care of the football we can turn this thing around and get going. We really wanted to come out and have a great drive to start the second half,” Day said about the mood at halftime in OSU’s locker room.
“It is good to face a little adversity and see how our team responds,” he said.
Ohio State got that early second-half score to go up 14-0 when it covered 86 yards in 14 plays and scored on a 4-yard pass from Howard to Smith two plays after Smith had pulled in a 53-yard reception.
On Iowa’s first play after the touchdown, defensive end Jack Sawyer sacked quarterback Cade McNamara and forced a fumble, which Cody Simon recovered at the Hawkeyes’ 19-yard line. Three plays later, Ohio State went ahead 21-0 on a 4-yard run by Howard.
Six plays later Davison Igbinosun intercepted a pass and returned it to the 50-yard line. Eventually that led to Egbuka’s second touchdown of the game and made it 28-0.
On the first play of the fourth quarter McNamara fumbled as he was being sacked by Ty Hamilton at the 29-yard line. Ohio State took advantage of that short field to take a 35-0 lead on Egbuka’s third touchdown catch.
“They are team that is built on toughness, running the football, playing good defense. We knew it was going to be a battle early on,” Sawyer said. “They came in here and swung pretty hard at us. We took a shot or two and were able to finish them off.
“When you’re playing like that, getting turnovers, it sparks the offense. It helps us (the defense) and gets us fired up,” he said.
Kaleb Johnson scored Iowa’s only touchdown on a 28-yard run with eight minutes left in the game. Johnson, who came into the game averaging 171 yards a game, was held to 86 yards by OSU’s fired up defense.
Looking back at the first half Howard said, “The confidence I have now, especially with the guys around me, I’m not going to let things like that shake me. In the moment what you have to do is move on and I think I did that and we as a team did that.”
And now the Buckeyes will move on to a match-up of nationally ranked teams at Oregon next Saturday night.
