Ever since the season started, Ohio State fans had been waiting for Ezekiel Elliott to rekindle the magic from last year’s three-game run towards the national title.
Its first manifestation of 2015 appeared when it was needed the most.
Elliott ran for a career-high 274 yards and added three touchdowns as the Buckeyes were able to successfully fend off an upset-minded Indiana Hoosiers side in a closer than expected 34-27 victory. His exploits were arguably the only bright spot offensively on a day that saw OSU continue to have issues in the passing game.
At first glance, quarterback Cardale Jones’ numbers weren’t disastrous by any stretch.
He certainly had a handful of good moments. He threw for 245 yards, the third-best mark of his career, and finished with a 66.7 percent completion percentage. The redshirt junior also made a great throw to find Michael Thomas in the corner of the end zone to give OSU what appeared to be an unassailable 27-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.
But consequently, there were some bad ones as well. Perhaps the biggest may have been the red zone interception he threw to Hoosier linebacker Tegray Scales in the third quarter. Ohio State had just taken its first lead of the game and had forced consecutive three and outs from Indiana. The IU offense had also become severely short-handed following injuries to star running back Jordan Howard and prolific quarterback Nate Sudfeld earlier in the game.
A touchdown in that situation puts the Bucks up two scores and makes it that much more difficult for IU to get back into the game, especially with backup quarterback Zander Diamont commanding the offense. Instead, the turnover gave the Hoosiers a sudden surge of momentum, which they used to great effect on the subsequent drive that led to a rushing touchdown from Devine Redding to give Indiana a 17-13 lead.
And what about the ugly? Well, Jones had a bit of that as well. In particular was his tendency to put way too much velocity on many of his passes. This became particularly pronounced in red zone situations and forced the field goal unit onto the field when a touchdown may have been there for the taken had Jones been able to thread the ball to his receivers with a big more accuracy.
In the end, it was Elliot’s heroics that led the way for the Buckeyes and kept their title defense hopes intact. He upped his game when he had to in a situation where his team was trailing in the second half and in need of a spark, breaking off touchdown scampers of 55, 65 and 75 yards. That latter score turned out to be the difference in a game where OSU triumphed by just a single touchdown.
The win marked Ohio State’s 15th consecutive road victory and 18th overall, both of which are currently FBS bests.
Elliott’s massive day gave him his tenth consecutive game of 100 or more yards rushing. He also had a career high with 11.9 yards per carry which marked the fourth time in the past eight games where he’s averaged over 11 yards each time he’s touched the football.
Obviously, this was a lot closer than most fans were expecting. Indiana, who needed to survive a failed two-point conversion in their season-opener against Southern Illiinois, had a chance to tie on the final possession with a backup quarterback in the game. The Buckeye defense failed to force a single turnover all day. Jones’ play seems to be following a pattern of one step forward, two steps back.
Nevertheless, one of the lynchpins of the Buckeye 2014 title run in Elliott put the offense on his back and carried it to the finish line. Fans have been clamoring for Urban Meyer to “feed Zeke” more often than he has been in previous games. They got their wish, and it may have staved off an upset when not much else was clicking for the Scarlet and Gray on a dreary day away from home.
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