by After a sloppy start, the Ohio State football team defeated Marshall, 49-14 at home. The game was the Buckeyes final non-conference test of the 2024 season.
Surprisingly, it was Marshall who got off to the hot start. On the first drive of the game, the Thundering Herd marched right down the field and capped the drive off with a one-yard touchdown run by running back Ethan Payne for the first touchdown given up by the Buckeye defense all season. Ohio State didn’t stay down for long, though, as two plays later, Buckeye quarterback Will Howard found wide receiver Emeka Egbuka for a 68-yard catch and run touchdown.
Things looked to have turned around for the Buckeyes after a quick Marshall punt, but Howard fired a deep ball in the direction of freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith that was intercepted by Josh Moten to bring the momentum back in the direction of the Thundering Herd. The pick was Howard’s first of the season.
Back near their own endzone, quarterback Stone Earle and Marshall drove into Ohio State territory, but on a 4th-and-1, Earle tripped and the Thundering Herd turned the ball over on downs. With good field position, the Buckeyes turned to running back Quinshon Judkins, who, on the first three plays of the drive, picked up 41 yards on his own to pierce through the Marshall defense. Howard then used his big frame to power it into the end zone and give his Buckeyes a 14-7 lead in the second quarter.
With things going their way, Ohio State caught a break at the end of the next Marshall drive, when the Thundering Herd punted to returner Brandon Inniss, who bobbled the ball and was scooped up by Marshall at the Buckeyes ten-yard line. However, an illegal formation call negated the play, and Inniss and Co. dodged a major bullet. The very next play, Judkins took a handoff 86 yards to the house to extend the Ohio State lead and add to his big first half.
After another Marshall punt, Judkins’ running mate in the backfield, TreVeyon Henderson got in on the action, running for 31 yards and a touchdown. Egbuka was instrumental on the drive as well with 44 receiving yards as the Buckeyes continued to pull away.
To end the half, Marshall put together an impressive drive that was helped by a targeting call on a roughing the passer penalty from edge rusher Caden Curry. With just six seconds to go, Earle found wide receiver Elijah Metcalf for a 13-yard touchdown to cut it to 28-14 going into the break.
The Buckeyes looked strong coming out of the half, completing a six-play drive that ended with a 40-yard touchdown run for Henderson. Then, after a combined three punts by both teams, Howard began Ohio State’s third drive of the quarter with a slant pass to Smith who broke free and took it to the house to make the score 42-14. At the start of the fourth quarter, Judkins ran another one in to extend the lead in what would be the last drive featuring the starters. From there, backup quarterback Devin Brown entered and no more points were scored by either team the rest of the way.
Despite Howard’s early mistake, he still had a decent statline with 275 passing yards, three total touchdowns (two pass, one rush), and the one interception. However, Buckeye fans will be wanting more going forwards from their new quarterback. On the bright side, the running game looked incredible with 280 total yards. Of those, Judkins had 173 and Henderson went for 76 and each contributed two touchdowns. Egbuka had his best game of the season with 117 receiving yards and Smith and Carnell Tate had 70 and 64 respectively.
The defensive effort was sloppy, even though they gave up zero points in the second half. The ejected Curry had the only sack of the game and safety Lathan Ransom forced a fumble in the first quarter. The defensive line will have to clean up its mistakes as for the Buckeye defense to create chaos, they must put some pressure on the opposing quarterbacks.
On the injury-front, it was announced before the game that starting defensive tackle Tyleik Williams would be unavailable with an undisclosed injury. Hero Kanu moved into the starting lineup in his place with Kayden McDonald also seeing an increased workload. Left guard Donovan Jackson, who missed the first two games, returned for the Buckeyes and resumed his starting role. Both Williams and Jackson are potential first-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft and are key players that will need to be healthy down the stretch.
Looking forward, Ohio State will play in their first road game next week at Michigan State, who is currently undefeated. To get the result they want, the Buckeyes must cut out the lapses that plagued them early on today.
