Ohio State Pulls Away From Iowa Behind Jeremiah Smith
Iowa kept it close for about a quarter and a half, then ran into 206 receiving yards from one man. Jeremiah Smith caught 11 passes, two of them for touchdowns, and Ohio State beat Iowa 31-14 without ever trailing.
The Buckeyes scored first, a 15-yard touchdown from Julian Sayin to Devin Mccuin, and Iowa answered with field goals of 43 and 48 yards (the second as the first quarter ran out) to stay within 10-6. Then it got lopsided. Sayin found Smith for 12 yards with 12 seconds left in the half, which made it 17-6, and Smith went 57 yards for another early in the second half to make it 24-6. Ja'Kobi Jackson added a 7-yard run to open the fourth, and it was 31-6. Iowa's only touchdown, a 2-yard run by Braeden Jackson that came with a two-point conversion, arrived with 9:30 left and made the score look kinder than the game was.
The totals tell the same story. Ohio State put up 486 yards (324 passing, 162 rushing) and did not turn the ball over. Iowa managed 238 yards, only 39 of them on the ground, threw an interception and lost a fumble. Quarterback Hank Brown went 12 of 27 for 132 yards, with minus-14 rushing yards and that lost fumble on top.
Both teams leave at 4-1, which says something about how Iowa looked getting here and how little it mattered on Saturday. The fantasy takeaway is short. Smith, Sayin and Mccuin were the three best scores on the board, and the whole top of the list was Ohio State passing game.