Ohio State 35-7 Iowa (Oct. 5, 2024) Game Recap

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Emeka Egbuka caught three touchdown passes and Jeremiah Smith made another one-handed grab for the score as No. 3 Ohio State faltered early before beating Iowa 35-7 on Saturday.

Quarterback Will Howard was 21 of 25 for 209 passing yards and four touchdowns and ran for 28 yards and a score as Ohio State (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) cleaned up its first-half mistakes and scored 21 unanswered points the third quarter.

The Buckeyes, who had a 7-0 lead at halftime, immediately seized the momentum in the second half.

Ohio State had a third-and-6 of its own at 43 when Howard threw a long ball to Smith, who had outpaced two defenders.

Smith was tackled at the Iowa 3-yard line, but that gave him a chance to really show off. On the next play he jumped into the end zone and brought in Howard's floating pass with his right arm while keeping defender Deshaun Lee at bay with his left.

On Iowa's next drive, quarterback Cade McNamara fumbled and linebacker Cody Simon recovered at the Iowa 19. Three plays later, Howard scampered around left end for a touchdown, increasing Ohio State's lead to 21-0.

Ohio State turned a McNamara interception into a touchdown, capped by a 15-yard TD catch by Egbuka. Then McNamara fumbled the ball again, this time deep in Iowa territory, and that ultimately led to Egbuka's third touchdown catch.

“We really wanted to come out and have a great start to the third quarter,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “And then we started getting the short fields and the turnovers and that’s when the game just turned around. I think it ended up being 28 points in a row.”

The Buckeyes racked up 203 rushing yards. Quinshon Judkins ran for 78 and TreVeyon Henderson had 61.

Starts slowly

The first half wasn't pretty for either side.

After the touchdown pass to Egbuka on the Buckeyes' first possession, they turned the ball over on downs, turned it over on a Smith fumble, pounced once and Howard threw an interception. Iowa punted four times and missed a field goal in the half.

“Obviously you don’t want to have turnovers and bad plays, but the thing is, it’s going to happen,” Howard said. “It depends on how you get back on your feet. And one of the things I’ve learned in my long career is that you can’t let the previous game influence the next one.”

The takeaway food

Iowa: Kaleb Johnson, the second-most productive back in college football and one of the Hawkeyes' few reliable offensive weapons, gained more than 100 yards in each of Iowa's first four games and rushed for 206 yards in the final game against Minnesota. On Saturday, Johnson had just 19 yards on eight carries in the first half and finished the game with 86 yards on 15 carries and a late touchdown.

Ohio State: The defense's best performance this season. The unit held Iowa to 226 total yards, sacked McNamara three times – he fumbled the ball on two of them – and intercepted him once.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz summed it up: “A lot of bad things happened today.”

Who does that?

Search the Internet for “One-Handed Catches by Jeremiah Smith” and take your pick. The newcomer's one-handed grips seem to become less and less likely every time. He had one early in the season, then two, one for a touchdown last week in the Buckeyes' win over Michigan State. On his 3-yard touchdown against Iowa, he used his free arm to push away the defender.

Impact on the survey

After a dominant performance against a Big Ten opponent and No. 1 Alabama's loss to Vanderbilt, the Buckeyes could move up in the rankings.

Next

Iowa: Host Washington next Saturday.

Ohio State: At No. 6 Oregon next Saturday night.

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