Ohio State’s bruising running game propels them past Illinois

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State ran the ball effectively in a 34-16 win against Illinois on Saturday.

Running backs Bo Jackson and CJ Donaldson combined for 23 carries, resulting in 91 yards. Donaldson handled most of the goal-line work, scoring two touchdowns in short-yardage situations.

Jackson shined in the passing game as well after catching a 17-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

Coach Ryan Day applauded the team’s work in the trenches and the bruising running game, but expects more in the future.

“I think we are running physical. We will look and see if there was more there because we always want to gain eight or nine yards a carry. When you get tight in the red zone, the expectations of those are going to be four or more, but we want to be four or more in every run outside of the ten-yard line,” Day explained. “We need to go look and see, is it a blocking issue? Is there a personnel issue? Are we blocking and then just getting what we blocked for? We have to look at all of those things. I thought the offensive line was moving people today when I watched the iPad, I’ll have to go back and watch the film. We were moving the line of scrimmage. There were some blocks that we lost across the board, and then we have to figure out if the runs are hitting exactly right because some did, but others I thought maybe weren’t there, and we need to figure out why that is.”

Day also highlighted the receivers’ effort while blocking in the red zone.

“I can’t say enough about [Jeremiah Smith] and about Carnell [Tate]. In a game like this, when we found ourselves down in the red zone a lot, we ran the ball a lot, and they’re into it just as much as everybody else,” said Day. “I mean, they want it to look like last week (Minnesota), every week, but when you have a team that understands what needs to be done, that’s when you have a chance to be special.

Smith made a crucial block that showed his resilience.

“He is a tough player. On that play, we had an opportunity to really have an X play. We had two guys there to block one and that didn’t happen,” Day said. “He ended up taking a shot that we don’t want to see happen, but he was able to recover. He is a tough player.”

Day said the key to success for the Buckeyes is to stay consistent through the lengthy regular season.

“One thing is, we keep pushing them about being consistent in their approach, and so far we’ve go that. It’s a long road, we are only halfway through the season,” Day said. “They’re starting to learn really what it takes, and they’re pulling for each other. I think the last thing is, and this is going to be a challenge for every team in the country including ours, is just as time goes on everyone has expectations when they come into a game, when they’re not met it’s easy to start pointing in different directions and that’s selfishness and I think our guys are very unselfish. I think they are coming together as a team, and that is going to be one of the things that we have to make sure is an advantage for us.”