Ohio State beat Maryland on Saturday to move to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten, and Maryland is now 0-10 all-time against the Buckeyes. I picked Ohio State to win big, and they did. My exact calls, a 42-10 final and three touchdowns for Jeremiah Smith, were off. The Buckeyes scored 45, Maryland got 16, and Smith scored twice.
It was also a messy afternoon. Ohio State played without six starters, committed eight penalties and turned the ball over twice, and a visibly angry Ryan Day made sure everyone heard about it. With defending national champion Indiana up next, he had every reason to.
This recap covers both halves of the story: how the Buckeyes pulled away, and why their coach left unhappy.
How the Game Played Out
Jeremiah Smith made it look easy early. His first catch was a short pass that he turned into a 33-yard touchdown down the right sideline. Julian Sayin then found tight end Nate Roberts for a 68-yard score late in the first quarter. After Maryland cut the lead to 14-10, Smith answered with a 40-yard touchdown, his 11th in three weeks. Before halftime he added a one-handed grab, and Sayin hit tight end Mason Williams from a yard out with 24 seconds left. Ohio State led 31-10 at the break.
The third quarter brought the scare. Maryland linebacker Daniel Wingate intercepted a deflected Sayin pass and returned it about 51 yards for a touchdown, cutting the lead to 31-16. The Buckeyes responded on the ground, and Bo Jackson scored on runs of 25 and 2 yards to put the game away. Sayin finished with four touchdown passes.
The run game deserves a mention too. Ohio State ran for over 200 yards, the first time it has done that since the season opener against Ball State. It was a quiet day by Smith’s standards, with a season-low four catches for 93 yards, but he still made the plays that mattered.
The Defense Did Its Job
Maryland quarterback Malik Washington managed just 64 passing yards on 25 attempts, and the Terrapins ran for only 145 yards. Lead back DeJuan Williams got 48 yards on 16 carries, and safety Jaylen McClain led Ohio State with eight tackles.
Most of Maryland’s best chances were gifts. One came from the pick-six, and another from the Terrapins’ lone touchdown drive, which included four defensive penalties against Ohio State.
Why Ryan Day Wasn’t Smiling
A 29-point win usually earns a smile. Day wasn’t smiling, because he wasn’t grading the margin. He was grading the mistakes.
Ohio State committed eight penalties for 65 yards, four of them on that Maryland touchdown drive. It also turned the ball over twice. Sayin fumbled on a first-quarter sack, handing Maryland good field position, and a deflected pass turned into the pick-six. Day stalked the sideline during the game and made his frustration clear to his players and staff.
After the game he said that eight penalties is “not the sign of a good team,” and he put the responsibility on the coaching staff first. That matters. A coach who points at himself is a coach who plans to fix it.
He wasn’t all negative. Day liked the team’s energy and physicality, and the Buckeyes did it without six starters, including receivers Brandon Inniss and Devin McCuin. A lot of good happened. But for a program with national championship goals, the mistakes are what stay in a coach’s head after the final whistle.
Why Penalties Hurt More Than They Look
Penalties are the one kind of mistake that has nothing to do with talent. They’re about discipline and focus. A defender jumps early, a lineman holds, someone gets careless, and a good drive dies or a bad one gets new life.
Every flag costs a team three things at once:
- Yards: the offense starts the next play farther from the end zone, or the defense hands over free ground.
- Down and distance: a manageable second-and-five becomes a stressful second-and-fifteen.
- Momentum: a drive that was rolling suddenly stalls, and the sideline energy changes.
Against Maryland, Ohio State could afford it. Against a team that punishes every gift, it can’t. The result hid the problem, but the problem is still there.
The Real Reason He’s Annoyed: Indiana Is Next
Day knows who’s coming next, and that explains his mood.
Ohio State travels to Bloomington next Saturday for a rematch with defending national champion Indiana, which improved to 6-0 with a 20-17 win at Nebraska. The Hoosiers beat the Buckeyes 13-10 in last season’s Big Ten Championship Game, a result Day called a hard lesson, with Indiana sacking Sayin five times and Ohio State leaving the red zone empty-handed twice.
That’s why a sloppy performance bothers Day even in a blowout. Against Maryland, the penalties and turnovers were a nuisance. Against Indiana, they could decide the game.
The schedule makes it more urgent. After Indiana, the Buckeyes get a bye, then face USC and Oregon, a stretch that could define their season. The habits Ohio State builds this week are the ones it carries through that whole run. There is some good news on the injury front: Day expects a good portion of the missing starters back for Indiana, though not all of them.
Mistakes that cost nothing against Maryland can cost everything against Indiana.
What Ohio State Has to Fix This Week
- Cut the penalties. Eight for 65 yards, with four on a single drive, is too many. Cleaner football takes no new scheme, only discipline from snap one to the final whistle.
- Protect the football. Two turnovers gave Maryland life. Against Indiana, a short field could cost far more.
- Get healthy. Six starters were out, and Day expects a good portion of them back. The Buckeyes need that depth for the stretch ahead.
- Keep the run game going. Over 200 rushing yards, the first time since the season opener, is a trend worth building on.
My Take
A 45-16 win is a good day. A 45-16 win with a coach this unhappy is a better sign. It means the standard inside this program is higher than the scoreboard, and that’s the mindset a championship team needs.
I called the winner and missed the exact score and Smith’s touchdown total, but the number was never the real story. The story is a head coach looking past a blowout toward a brutal run of games.
Now the Buckeyes have a week to clean up the details before Indiana. If they do, this game will look like the start of a strong run. If they don’t, it may look like a warning that went unheeded.
