Quinshon Judkins of the Ohio State Buckeyes runs against the Western Michigan Broncos at Ohio Stadium on September 7, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
COLUMBUS – Any questions about Ohio State getting off to a slow start in its season opener against Akron last week disappeared in a flood of yards, points and high-level offense and defense in a 56-0 win over Western Michigan on Saturday night at Ohio Stadium.
No. 2 OSU (2-0) had 683 yards of total offense, held an opponent scoreless for the first time in five years and never let Western Michigan (0-2) think it had a chance to be competitive in the game. The Broncos had only 99 yards of total offense and their only serious chance to get on the scoreboard was a missed 42-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter.
“We wanted to start fast in this game,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “It felt like we did that. I feel like we had a good mix today. A lot of guys touched the ball.
“To me, it goes back to our week of practice. We practiced physical and strong. I felt like we were about to come into a game that we were going to dominate like this. I kind of had that feeling going into the game. But it came down to the players playing really hard,” he said.
Quarterback Will Howard hit 18 of 26 passes for 292 yards and one touchdown. Quinshon Judkins ran for 108 yards on nine carries and scored two touchdowns and TreVeyon Henderson gained 66 yards on 10 carries and had two touchdowns.
Ohio State led at halftime and had a massive 406-94 edge in yards gained, which reflected its total dominance of the first two quarters.
Howard completed his first 10 passes and finished the first half 15 of 22 for 274 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for a touchdown, the first time an Ohio State starting quarterback had done that since Justin Fields in 2020.
Freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith had five catches for 119 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown reception and Emeka Egbuka had five catches for 98 yards.
Henderson started Ohio State’s scoring with a three-yard touchdown run on the Buckeyes’ first possession.
Four of OSU’s next five first-half drives ended in touchdowns.
A 70-yard pass play from Howard to Smith with four minutes left in the first quarter and a 23-yard touchdown run by Judkins three minutes later put OSU up by three touchdowns before the end of the first quarter.
Another TD run of 23 yards by Judkins pushed the lead to 28-0 with 8:28 left in the first half and Howard’s 6-yard run made it 35-0 at halftime.
Not everything was perfect for OSU in the first 30 minutes, though. An 80-yard touchdown run by Judkins was called back because of a holding penalty and cornerback Denzel Burke was banished to the sideline because of a targeting call.
OSU added three more touchdowns in the second half – on a 16-yard run by Henderson, a 12-yard run by James Peoples and a 55-yard pass play from Julian Sayin to Bennett Christian.
Howard said, “I think we were just settled in from the start. I think we played well tonight but the thing is there are still some plays we left out there, there’s still some meat we left on the bone.
“We have so much talent and so many guys who are doing so many good things but we still can grow and build on it and become a better team. We’re never satisfied.”
