Ohio State DOMINATES Ball State 56-3 | What went right and wrong in Buckeyes opening win

0:00Jair and my husband's husband push starts, Julian saying on fire early, defensive youngsters making plays, and Ohio State walks out of here with a 56-3 win over the Ball State Cardinals in a very easy looking win for Ohio State except for one glaring area that we're going to talk about. That's Mick Walker right there. In person with Spencer Holbrook myself, I'm just Spencer Holbrook. Mick, opening thoughts from Ohio State 56-3. I'll give you the floor here. Yeah, I think this defense is still really good. I know there's concerns about potentials who would be the second-edgerusher beside like Kenyatta Jackson. Sounding ready to do a good job holding that roll down from the start. And I think with the depth of the lineback position with Christian Allegro, T.J. offered rather petted on that, I don't know if I fully have a lot of concerns about the second-edgerusher spot. Now the other side of the trenches, I do know that's a concern for a lot of people come out of this game. Yeah, we're going to get into it all. I thought the defensive line was super intriguing. So we thought, perhaps Bill Ackinson would start. He was a second-team defensive end. It looked like when the two went out there, he was the defensive end.

1:03It was Zion Grady who started and looked. Do we get that wrong in the projected depth chart? Yes, but I think the signs were there. There's last two weeks of Camp Mick. I think you would agree. Like Zion's name started to come up more and more. Second year guy who played a lot of ball last year, it kind of does make sense that he started. And perhaps you could have seen that coming. We didn't. That's fine. It was John Walker with the ones to start the game. TJ Allford started the game at Furrow Hives Day as the third linebacker on the field. I think that's personnel base because the second thing got into a third down. JTeman comes on the field and man's that nickel roll just as we kind of expected. So not a lot of surprises from the defense. They were really good. They were good. Was Carter Wilder the best defensive end for Ohio State today? Oh, man. You were just getting into the hot takes right away. Look, the ball state defensive tackles, our offensive tackles could not block him. The ball state guards had even more trouble with him on the bull rush from the interior. He started in that rushman package on the interior and Zion Grady was on the outside. And then a couple series in on third down, they put Carl on the outside and Zion on the

2:05inside. That duo worked so well together. And look, this is, remember what we talked about on the preview video, Mick? The ball state caveat, right? We're going to have a caveat here just because like, yes, this is ball state. Texas is next week. But you have, you can't deny what Carl did. And I think it sets up for an interesting conversation of who is the third defensive end. I thought Zion was good enough today. You don't have any questions about the second defensive end with Kenyatta. I think that's a good starting duo. And I thought Zion played really well. DE3, you know, is that Kueh Rousseau when he does come back? I think he was just held today, to be honest, based on what we're certainly here, things like that. I think he was just held. If we had an injury report, maybe perhaps he would have been on there. He didn't get an availability report. But I thought Carl was really good. Did you think he was the best defensive end on the field? I thought he was Ohio State's most consistent defense. And I told our colleague, Jeremy Bernahan in the third quarter that I don't know if there's been an Ohio State in recent, like in the past couple of seasons. And I understand Kenyatta Jackson's good and Ken Curry's good and Jack Sawyer and JT2

3:08of Malau are very quality players as well. But when Carl Watters on the field, there's just, I guess it's kind of an aura about him or a way about him that when he steps on the field, it feels like he is bound to make a play while he's out there. He did it from multiple sides of the defense inside outside. I was thoroughly impressed by Carl Watters who was on the kickoff team for Iowa State. He had dry end on the field. Him and Drake, when Ohio State's two freshman defensive end were on the kickoff team. And I think there's just a way about Carl Watters that when you watch him, it's going to be hard to keep that guy off the field at your Ohio State. Yeah, I thought Carl was really good. I will say, like, the play of the day for me defensively was Carl Watters disrupting the quarterback, Keldrick Luster, forcing him out of the pocket, chasing him down, almost getting to him. Almost getting to him. He was forcing a bad throw and who's there to pick off the bad throw, TJ offered. So that is the story of this defense is like, yes, the veterans played like veterans. Jalen McLean, no notes whatsoever. I didn't even say his name once. Jermaine Matthews, very good in run support, very good at the point of attack, a good tackler. I thought he had a pretty good day. Devon Sanchez, a couple of pass breakups. But the story of this defense, the youngsters played like veterans.

4:12J. Timon's two pass breakups. Carl Watters, a lot of pressure on the quarterback. Zion Grady, a lot of pressure on the quarterback. TJ offered interception, Riley Petage on sideline to sideline. Some of the things that he did at linebacker I was impressed with. I'm not ready for a full youth movement here at linebacker or at on the defensive side of ball, Peyton and Christian Allegro were pretty good today. But it is hard to deny the talent that he's just kind of depth pieces right now in this defense. And you wonder if that becomes less of a depth conversation and more of a contributing conversation here immediately now that they've got some tape on these guys. We're going to see Carl Watters on the field in Austin, Texas. I feel pretty confident about that. I imagine we'll see the same thing with TJ offered. Riley Petage on again, I think Flyers they get into a situation where they don't maybe don't trust Carl Watters or play defensive in and big downs or run downs. I think they'll feel very comfortable putting Christian Allegro down there and then putting TJ offered a Riley Petage on the linebacker and trying to roll with that. So definitely impressive by the offense or the youth on the defense. So let's look at the offense side of the ball. Mick, Jeremiah Smith is still good. Question mark. Still very good.

5:12Hit the highest man pose. I imagine. I think we as a society like to hit him and Alec Eitone together there against each other. Their friends they know each other. So I imagine there was a little bit of joking with that as well. But he's also he's also one of the best players in the country and he played like it today. Eight catches, a buck 51, two touchdowns. Devon McEwen five catches. No six catches, 97 yards, no touchdown. I thought it was a little bit of a crime that Ohio State didn't just get. Devon McEwen did have a touchdown. Did he? Down here. Devon McEwen's on. Okay. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Four receiving touchdowns. Six. Six. One, one, two. Legend Bay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's my fault. Five touchdowns because the last one's a percent of a junior man. We are all over the place. He probably should have had three. Chris, but I thought Devon McEwen was really, really good. I mean, to the point Mick where I looked at I thought back to myself when I watched his UTS A tape and I'm like, what was UTS A doing with him? It was just bubble screens and slant routes and slip screens. His route tree today was so much better than I expected it to be just because of like

6:14what he put on tape at UTS A. It's like, oh, this is a good player. But like, can he run the full route tree? He did everything for Ohio State today. He was good on out routes. Julian Sand was layering throws really well to him specifically. I thought it was a- It is Mr. Third down largely. I thought it was a great show from him. I know that it was just three catches for 36 yards, but folks hear me out. I think that we saw very clear progress from Brandon and his today. I thought he looked like a better player today than he was last year. And I know he got the ball really early, but not very often. Again, three catches for 36 yards. I'm not going to wow anybody. I thought it was a good three catches for 36 yards though. And that's not me carrying water for him. It's just me noticing like it looked a little different this time. Philip Bell had a catch in this game. Obviously the legend-based thing. He is absolutely- Philip Bell had a very quality Pomp return too. They got called back because of a couple of penalties. I said it on our show coming into this. I really believe that Philip Bell should be Ohio State's Pomp returner going forward. Yeah. And I think he showed that today. I obviously had the trusty hand in Brandon and this, but I really think Philip Bell brings something that Brandon is not bringing that situation.

7:16So I was impressed by Philip Bell and then like you said, Legend Bay, you kind of kicked it off without Birmingham. I was talking in the photo bunker before a half time. I said that running back stuff not been good today. He said it's probably been the worst position group on the field. And then it comes out with Bo Jackson has a drive where he gets what a first down or a screen on the back to be a first down and a brace one for 60. And then Jacobi Jackson breaks one for 50 and then Legend Bay has a run for 25 and then a reception for 25 that ends up being a touchdown. So really quality from this, a very quality second half from that running backroom. Yeah, I mean, Bo broke tackles and made people miss in the open field. Just something we straight up didn't see last year except for in the Michigan game he became superman. Jacobi Jackson went healthy at Florida was good. We told people that when healthy he was good. He was good. I think anybody thought he could actually break a run like you did that. That was impressive. I will say like I was even impressed with him. I had heard that he had some wiggle. That wiggle was a little different to what I expected though I thought he was a short yardage guy. I think that is a clear good sign for Ohio State if he can break something free in the

8:17open field and look like ball state if they're playing in the Ohio State defense. They're playing the Texas defense. If they're playing the the Seahawks defense, I don't care. Making somebody miss is making somebody miss in the open field which is why it's super encouraging to see Bo break around like that. To see Jacobi break around like that. To see legend do what he did in the open field and Duke moves and making people miss our colleague or colleague I guess. Yeah, on beat mate Bill Anderson the press box said that that Brex and Miller like with legend. I thought that was pretty apt. It was just super impressive. 56 to 3 means you cover all the good things first. And then we'll get to the bad. The first half the offensive line performance was bad. I'm just telling you it was bad. Philip Daniels not a good start to this game. Wasn't a long start either. No, it wasn't a long start. I don't know if it was pulled or if there was plan. Rande seemed to kind of. Cut around that. Pitter patter around that answer. Good words. And then you had Gabe Ansickle come in at guard.

9:22Austin Saravan went back to tackle. He didn't look much better. They go back to Daniels. At half time they get absolutely reamed I would assume. And the second half they come out and just match people. Well, I think it was pretty like forthright in the press conference saying that the most they was doing something in the first half movement wise I believe it's how he put it. That was confusing. I believe after Smith tied their bow and that's why in the second half they were come out. Obviously, but you're probably wearing them down at that point but then they come out and they are able to shrink together a couple of runs. If you want to be very concerned, you say Ohio State only was able to do in the second half, which are they kind of wore ball, stay down and it was kind of more on their running backs. If you want to feel optimistic, you say it's kind of just for us. They worked it out, the first things out and it'll be solved in Texas. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, but I don't think Ohio State wanted to have any concerns with the offense line coming out of this game and it'd be unfair to not say that they don't. So I will say I thought it was very interesting, Mick. At one point, Ohio State not running the ball well. They go to the sideline and instead of coaching the special teams in the kickoff team, like

10:22he typically does in the huddle or talks to the officials about something or have a meeting with his coaching step. Ryan Day took a tablet out of one of the assistant's hands. Watched it for probably 30 seconds and I won't call it a jog, but it was not a brisk walk over into the offensive line meeting room on one of the benches and was over there for probably the full media timeout, probably three and a half, four minutes. Well, you guys were watching commercials. I can't say any ads because we don't do free ads on this program, but while you guys were watching ads or commercials, Ryan Day was coaching the offensive line and looked pretty intent with his belief that they could do better. I know that was noteworthy. You don't see Ryan Day do that very often. So they wanted to get it sorted out. They did not want to start this game this way. Start with a three and a half. Like you, they did start with a three and a half and Julian Sands started 0 for 2 and then completed 84% of his passes. Like you said, Mick, the truth is somewhere in the middle of you were rusty and Ball State

11:24was doing something that you didn't expect and it took you some time to adjust or you just waited to adjust because you could at half time. Okay, let's just throw the ball, score touchdowns and we'll adjust at half time. Or this offensive line is not what we thought it would be. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I lean toward Rust and Ball State coming out and doing something just a little wonky. But there is cause for concern at least interest to rewatch this and say like what is going on here? Because Carson Hensman before you started not getting push. Luke Montgomery, a third year starter, not getting the push that you would want. Austin Sarvel, they're not rocking off the ball. They're not walking on water. Like Ryan Day said they would. Phil, you had more to beat a couple of times. Start. In more got beat from time to time. Philip Daniels, I think gave up two sacks. A lot of that was on him. Julian's rushing touchdown. He had to avoid guys to get to the end zone because the tackles got beat. It just, I would say this, it wasn't a clean game from what we all have to hit offensive

12:29line. And the clear progress there in the second half is good. The concern in the first half is bad. But Ryan Day above everything else wanted a clean game. And he simply just didn't get one from his offensive line. And I think that's got to be at least a little disappointing for him with a veteran group that you thought might be the one group that didn't show some rusting and come out here and dominate. Yeah. We'll find out. I really just really nothing sick as it was a, again, you throw the ball, stay caveat on it all. So again, against ball state, the offensive line could come out next week and we were much more congealed. They go out in Austin. They just are able to run the ball. Bo Jackson, Joe Kobe Jackson, all the running backroom just a lot better performance than the first half. I don't know really what the result will be. I think you can be encouraged by the second half in concern with the first. So I don't really know where to stand on the offensive line. Yep. Somewhere in the middle. And then the second string offensive line, I will say this, three of the five second string offensive line, we got holding calls. That's unacceptable, guys. That is, that's unacceptable, in my opinion. So you can't have that Carter Low got one. Jake Cook got one and Gabe Benzick will got one.

13:30Can't have it. You just can't have it. Like, especially from 58 who's running with the ones at sometimes. Like, you got to clean that kind of stuff up. Well, I was kind of penalized today. They had two special teams penalties. Legend Bay brought two kickoffs out of the end zone. The first one, Ryan DeSetti, kind of understood. The second one, you make the same mistake twice. Come on, man. They only had two kickoffs. They are no two kick returns. But I don't, you know, if you ask me, you ask me if legend Bay is going to return case against Texas next week. I have some reservations about whether I think he should be out there. Thank you. So field kicks for sure. I don't know how much returning he will do. So we'll see. Anything else? Anything that we missed? No, I bet you, while people were throwing that TV time out, they're probably watching out from Roeback because they have a lot of ads on TV right now. So if you guys want to go get yourself some Roeback, you go over Roeback.com. Use code Letterman20. Get 20% off your first order over at roeback.com. And then the final little, the shadow of a different product that we're going to put in here is go over to LettermanRoe.com right now where we're going to put this out on Saturday night. That means you have Sunday night and then even late into Monday night, so you can take

14:31advantage of our season kickoff sale. So your first year of LettermanRoe for $30.75% off. So take advantage of that. Go support our partners over at Roeback. Thank you guys for all your support LettermanRoe. And thank you guys for signing up. And thank you guys for subscribing and liking this video, please. That's all I have. The Roeback thing, full transparency folks. This morning, we got my car. It was wearing crisp, clean, black, Roeback hoodie. Field level season. It's a little warm. I took the hoodie off. That's on me. We got to be better. Next week in Austin, I'll have some Roeback on it. Thank you for having me. For now, you might die doing that though. For now, we're going to give back up in the press box and write about this game. That's Mick Walker right there. I'm Spencer Hope. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. As this man over here said, 75% off of LettermanRoe.com, we had over 30 pages of message board action on the Ball State game. I can't even imagine what the Texas game is going to look like on the Ohio State message board at LettermanRoe. It's going to be so much fun. Come join the party. Join the community right now. 75% off just 30 bucks. For Mick, I'm Spencer. Get out of here and go write some content for LettermanRoe.com.