A few Ohio State-Washington postgame thoughts

Well, Ohio State’s 24-6 win at Washington played out about the way I thought it would.

I was thinking it would be something like 35-10 Ohio State, and if you consider the Buckeyes gave away about 11 points in the first quarter, that seems pretty accurate.

No matter the level of football, evaluating the guys on the outside isn’t that difficult.

Even against different levels of competition, the size and the speed at receiver, running back, quarterback, defensive back and linebacker is observable to a certain degree of accuracy.

So, yes, Washington has a good quarterback, running backs and receivers.

That much was proven against Saturday.

The biggest question going in was about the lines.

What advanced stats tell us about Ohio State-Washington

Could Washington hold up at the line of scrimmage?

And, to be honest, we had to ask the same thing about Ohio State, at least on offense for sure.

The odds the Ohio State defensive line is pretty good were quite high all summer.

Those were all highly recruited players, but they had to sit behind other highly recruited players who stayed in school for four years.

Turns out, they are not just solid but really good. As good as last year. Maybe better? Time will tell…

This Week in Ohio State Football: Washington

The jury is somewhat out on the Ohio State offensive line, but they were plenty good enough Saturday. That is a story that will continue to be told, but when the box was light, the Buckeyes pretty much had their way.

That is crucial to being able to manipulate opposing defenses that are going to do what Washington did, and that is try to avoid letting Jeremiah Smith kill them by himself or anyone else get behind them for that matter.

So Washington put it on Julian Sayin, but they did not attack him and try to play man coverage and see what he could do. They made him read it and find the open man. He looked kinda shaky at times early, but Ryan Day and Brian Hartline did a good job of finding him plays to get comfortable and move the ball. He seemed to get better as the game went on, and he avoided putting the ball in danger.

He also showed again he can really throw the ball all over the place if he has time.

They gave him a chance to read the defense and decide to hand off or throw in the third quarter, and he got into a good rhythm finding Smith and others to move the ball down the field.

Seeing the coaching staff get Max Klare involved on third down was meaningful, too.

Overall, Ohio State was just excellent in situational football after the early fourth down inside the five when the fullback blocked the wrong guy and CJ Donaldson couldn’t get by that unblocked linebacker.

Washington was able to get the ball into space a few times more than you might like to see. The Huskies had eight explosive plays, which is more than you’d like, but they were a combined 2 for 14 on third and fourth down. Whenever they really had to have it, they were pretty helpless because they just were outmanned physically at most positions.

The Buckeyes were sticky in coverage, tackled very well and just collapsed the pocket without getting reckless. What more could you ask for?

This might end up being the best Ohio State defense in a long time when you combine the talent, experience and scheme, but time will tell.