This is really late due to a fun trip on Sunday, personally, but I wanted to add a few thoughts on Ohio State's 38-14 win over Penn State last Saturday.
1) Julian Sayin threw for over three hundred yards and fired four touchdown passes.
Sayin has firmly placed himself in Heisman consideration, and the biggest hurdle that Sayin may have to face might be voters splitting votes between Sayin and his top two receivers, Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate.
2) Ryan Day gives more and more challenges each week to Julian Sayin, and the final advance might have come against the Nittany Lions, where Sayin began looking downfield for big plays to his standout pass catchers.
Sayin completed fifty-seven-yard passes to both Smith and Tate and showed the ability to throw a beautiful deep ball.
3) Penn State was only down three points at the half after a C.J. Donaldson fumble late in the first half led to a Penn State short-field touchdown drive, but I never felt threatened with an upset.
Ohio State scored on every first-half possession other than the final drive when Donaldson fumbled, and I didn't think Penn State could keep pace in the second.
Julian Sayin threw for over three hundred yards and three touchdowns and Carnell Tate finished wih 183 recieving yards and a touchdown as Ohio State smashed Minnesota 42-3 on Homecoming evening in Columbus.
Jeremiah Smith grabbed the other two recieving scores and Bo Jackson led the team in rushing with another score.
Ohio State improves to 5-0 overall (2-0 Big Ten) and will visit top 25-ranked Illinois next week for the vaunted Illibuck trophy.
Olentangy Offerings
1) Minnesota marched right down the field with their first possession and on a day that saw 0-4 UCLA drop Penn State, I thought uh-oh but the Buckeye defense held Minnesota to three points.
That was big ( or as big as it can be in a 42-3 game),
2) Minnesota would threaten only one more, missing a field goal in the second half.
The Buckeye defense turned that off quickly, no matter how much P.J. Fleck ran around and screaming as if his team was in it- they weren't.
3) Ryan Day is slowly loosening the reins with Julian Sayin.
The kill shots downfield are becoming more frequent and Day is becoming mrore confident in his young quarterback's poise.
As this continues, Day will allow Sayin to do more and then watch out.
4) Carnell Tate is the player profiting most from the development of Julian Sayin as teams continue to double-team Jeremiah Smith, which opens up routes for Tate.
Tate caught nine passes for 183 yards, including a long of forty-nine yards.
5) Jeremiah Smith caught two touchdown passes including one that he snatched the ball from the air like The Fonz snapping quarters on Happy Days.
6) The game was essentially after a fourth and one stop in the second quarter when Minnesota's Darius Taylor was stopped by Caleb Downs and (I think) Beau Atkinson cold.
Two plays later, Julian Sayin hit Carnell Tate with the forty-nine yard pass for a score, moving the score to 21-3 and ball game.
7) In the third quarter, Ohio State placed concern in the minds of special teams coaches everywhere when punt returner Brandon Inniss recieved the punt and fired across the field (a la Frank Wycheck) to Lorenzo Styles Jr, who gained thirty-six yards on the play.
8) The win is Ohio State's only game in the month of October.
Ohio State visits Illinois and Wisconsin in the next two weeks and will be off the week before their home game against Penn State on November first.
