COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State hadn’t seen a pass offense like Purdue’s in 2021. That’s what head coach Ryan Day could hang his hat on Saturday afternoon.
Purdue came into Ohio Stadium with the No. 8 passing offense in the country, averaging 332.4 yards per game, 7.41 yards per pass and 10.50 yards per completion. Really, it’s all the Boilermakers do offensively, coming in as the only team in the Big Ten to not average 100 yards per game rushing.
Purdue is one-dimensional, and Ohio State knew it. But Ohio State was still unable to stop it.
Coming off a picture-perfect day against a porous Michigan State offense a week ago, redshirt senior quarterback Aidan O’Connell continued that momentum in Columbus: completing 40 of his 52 pass attempts — the second time in three weeks an opposing quarterbacks attempted 50 or more passes against the Buckeyes defense — for 390 yards and four touchdowns.
Day said his defense tried to be preemptive, dropping eight in coverage and utilizing a three-man rush, leading to no sacks and no quarterback hurries.
Instead, with the extended amount of time in the pocket, O’Connell shined, spreading the ball around to David Bell, who led the team with 11 receptions for 103 yards on 18 targets; Milton Wright, who brought in 98 yards on seven catches, including a 29-yard touchdown reception on a post over the head of Ohio State safety Bryson Shaw; Broc Thompson, who brought in a 12-yard touchdown reception and Jackson Anthrop, who recorded the first multi-touchdown game of his career, bringing in seven catches on nine targets for 66 yards.
Facing Purdue, Ohio State allowed 31 points: the most points it has allowed since its loss to Oregon in Week 2.
If Anthrop’s first touchdown would be any indication of the day Ohio State’s pass defense would have, it was going to be a long day.
Lined up in a bunch formation to O’Connell’s right, the redshirt senior wide receiver found a hole between cornerback Denzel Burke and linebacker Steele Chambers in the zone, taking the pass and beating safety Ronnie Hickman to the end zone for Purdue’s first touchdown of the day.
Ohio State sophomore linebacker Cody Simon gave Purdue credit, calling O’Connell talented and commended the game plan.
“We know they are going to attack our issues,” he said. “They have a really good offensive coordinator, the quarterback knew what he was doing.”
So where did O’Connell and head coach Jeff Brohm attack?
The middle of the field: that space between the linebackers and the safeties, those holes in the zone Simon described as Ohio State’s weak point, something he said each defensive scheme around the country has, something opposing offenses try to exploit.
“For us, it’s just to know our issues and really just to limit them as we can. They got some big plays and we need to work on that,” Simon said. “We’ll get back on the film and correct that stuff.
“For us, it’s just to know our issues and know how to defend them.”
Through the personnel changes, the schematic changes and the play-calling changes, Ohio State’s issues haven’t changed. What Anthrop, Bell and Wright exploited were the same things Nebraska wide receiver Samori Toure, Penn State wide receivers Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington, Indiana tight end Peyton Hendershot, Tulsa wide receiver Josh Johnson and Oregon running back CJ Verdell exploited.
The game plan for opposing offenses against Ohio State’s defense remains the same each week: if given the time in the pocket, focus on the middle of the field, find holes in the zone, taking advantage of the quick completions given to them with the Buckeyes’ focus on rallying to the ball after it’s caught.
Coming into the game a hair under 60% in terms of a completion percentage — sixth-highest in the Big Ten — the Buckeyes allowed O’Connell to complete more than 76% of his throws.
When asked about the yardage and the points allowed, Shaw said it wasn’t about the game plan. It was about execution.
“I thought Coach (Matt) Barnes, Coach (Kerry) Coombs, the whole defensive staff gave us the right plan. I just thought some of us didn’t do our jobs, including myself,” Shaw said. “We’ll get it corrected. We’ll get on that film, get it corrected. Just executing the calls better. We’ll be fine, we’ll be great.”
But Ohio State hasn’t been great in the defensive backfield, outside of Burke on the outside — who saw as much action as he’d seen all season with a career high 11 tackles and a broken-up pass — and Cameron Brown.
If anything, the defensive backfield has been consistently bailed out by generated pressure up front, showing its face in the run game with five tackles for loss, including a fumble recovery by defensive tackle Jerron Cage, and a high-powered offense.
“Certainly, you don’t want to give up 31 points in a game. I think when you look at the last few weeks, the offense hasn’t been stellar, the defense has played very, very well,” Day said, commenting on the past three games where Ohio State recorded 30 tackles for loss and 14 sacks.
“The good news is that we’re helping each other out. We’re still looking for that complete game, even though we have had some complete games. But that’s part of winning football in November: playing winning football every week. You have to help each other out.”
On Saturday afternoon, the Ohio State secondary needed all the help it could get.
