{"id":80585,"date":"2025-09-27T21:22:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T01:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=80585"},"modified":"2025-09-27T21:22:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T01:22:48","slug":"ohio-state-wears-down-washington-defense-ending-win-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/09\/27\/ohio-state-wears-down-washington-defense-ending-win-streak\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State Wears Down Washington Defense, Ending Win Streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

The top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes kept Washington out of the end zone with a 24-6 victory inside Husky Stadium. It ended a 22-game home winning streak for Washington. Penalties hindered some of the Huskies\u2019 better drives, and they failed to capitalize on opportunities inside the Buckeye 30-yard line. Ohio State was able to find its passing game in the second half and take what the Husky defense gave it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ohio State Defeats Washington<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Buckeye Passing Game Spark<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After Ohio State\u2019s false start forced third and 11, the Husky defense decided to send pressure. \u201cCoach Walt [Ryan Walters] felt that we were going to be able to get one or two guys free on that pressure based on what we expected for them to do protection-wise on third down.\u201d Makell Esteen<\/a> brought pressure from the near side of the field and jumped up in an effort to deflect the pass from Julian Sayin<\/a>. Esteen was a step too late on the pressure, and Sayin completed the throw to Jeremiah Smith<\/a>.\u201dI think I could have done better on that play. I have to keep running,\u201d Esteen said afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fisch said that within zero coverage in that situation, the goal is to have the back-end defenders able to crash towards the receiver after the completion. \u201cWe weren\u2019t in position to do that and that was an unfortunate turn of events in that game.\u201d Smith\u2019s speed allowed him to accelerate past the linebacker and weave through the defense into the end zone. It was Ohio State\u2019s first touchdown, and it led to the Buckeyes finding a second-half rhythm in the passing game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ohio State had 129 total yards in the third quarter, and 104 of them came through the air. The Buckeyes found the end zone to cap off a 14-play, 75-yard drive, and were driving towards the goal line again as the third quarter came to a close. But the Husky defense held its ground the second time around, keeping the Buckeyes to a field goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Husky Goals Defensively<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWhat we talked about is we wanted to keep everything in front of us. We didn\u2019t want them to be able to throw the deep one. We wanted to make [Sayin] throw completions, and he did a nice job of doing that,\u201d Fisch said after the game. Sayin completed 22 of 28 for 208 yards and two touchdowns. The Husky defense did not allow a single pass of 20-plus yards. Ohio State had just three big play passes on the day. Two for 18 yards (one was the Smith touchdown), and another for 19 yards. Smith finished the day as Ohio State’s leading receiver with eight catches for 81 yards and a score.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defensive goals, according to Esteen were, \u201cTo have a roof on the defense and play the run. I feel like we did a good job.” Ohio State averaged less than five yards per rush on the day. But the pass game was successful in what it did. It didn’t take the top off Washington’s defense. Instead, it found success underneath, wearing the Husky defense down throughout the course of the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense I thought tackled well,\u201d Fisch said afterwards. \u201cWhich allowed them to have long drives. The key is you gotta try and get off the field. You gotta create a takeaway.\u201d Washington had one fumble recovery on the Ohio State punt return in the first quarter. Ryan Walters\u2019 defense also earned a fourth-down stop with its back to the end zone in the first quarter. It halted a nine-play drive and kept the Buckeyes out of the end zone. \u201cWe had a fourth down stop which was huge, we had a takeaway on a punt which was great.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Failing To Capitalize<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But it was what the Huskies failed to do after generating those stops that kept them out of the end zone. Washington had three drives go inside the Ohio State 30-yard line, but it came away with just six points. The first was a 10-play, 69-yard drive that was hindered by two false start penalties. A 34-yard run by Jonah Coleman<\/a> and a couple of deep passes to Denzel Boston and Dezmen Roebuck<\/a> had the offense feeling rhythm. It was the second false start penalty on that drive that backed the offense up from the Ohio State three to the eight, stifling the momentum. It had to settle for a field goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the very next possession, Washington took it inside the Buckeye 30 when it was faced with a fourth and 14 on the right hash. That\u2019s when Fisch tried to catch the Buckeyes off guard with a fake field goal pass attempt. \u201cWe thought we had a look all week of how they were going to play, how they were going to rush when we were on the right hash. And it didn\u2019t get executed well.\u201d It appeared that the intended receiver did not look for the football, indicating a miscommunication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Huskies moved the ball well again on their next drive, finding passing plays of 18 yards and 23 yards. But on third and short, Demond Williams<\/a> took a seven-yard sack. \u201cI gotta help Demond understand that an incompletion is OK sometimes,\u201d Fisch said after the game. Williams was sacked six times in the game for 46 total yards. \u201cDemond is exceptionally accurate, he’s really good with the ball, he makes extremely good decisions, he protects the ball at all costs.\u201d Williams completed 18 of 22 for 173 yards, but held onto the football too long in some instances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Optimism Going Forward<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But looking ahead, Fisch is optimistic about the state of his team. \u201cI think we\u2019re a really good team. I think that we have a great opportunity to continue on and have a really good season.\u201d The scoreboard doesn\u2019t necessarily reflect how hard-fought the game was. The Huskies were within a touchdown until the fourth quarter. \u201cI just told the team, \u2018It\u2019s [game] four guys, we\u2019re 3-1\u2019. We played the number one team in the country and we played them really well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[That\u2019s] the number one team, they played pretty good,\u201d Esteen said afterwards. \u201cI think we lost but we learned.\u201d <\/span>Washington heads East to the nation\u2019s capital next weekend to play Maryland. The Terrapins are unbeaten thus far on the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Image: Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes kept Washington out of the end zone with a 24-6 victory inside Husky Stadium. It ended a 22-game home winning streak for Washington. Penalties hindered some of the Huskies\u2019 better drives, and they failed to capitalize on opportunities inside the Buckeye 30-yard line. Ohio State was able to find its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":80589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17,35609,35612],"tags":[1666,10272],"class_list":["post-80585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-ohio-state-buckeyes","category-washington-huskies","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-ryan-walters"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80590,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80585\/revisions\/80590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}