It was a classic tale of two halves for the Ohio State defense in the 49-14 win over Marshall. In the first half, the Buckeyes gave up 203 total yards and 14 points; both totals were worse than they had given up in either of their entire games against Akron or Western Michigan. In the second half, the Buckeyes were as dominant as they had been all season, holding the Thundering Herd to no points on just 61 yards.
Despite the second-half resurgence, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles wasn’t satisfied enough to honor a player with the Defensive Player of the Game.
“You have to speak truth,” Knowles said on his decision to not name a Defensive Player of the Game. “While we had some champions, we had no one that we thought really showed a silver bullet of the game performance.”
It marks a rarity that the Buckeyes haven’t named a Defensive Player of the Game after defeating their opponent, but to be fair to Knowles, there weren’t a ton of big plays created by the Buckeyes’ defense in the win.
The Ohio State defense generated no turnovers and only one sack in the entire game. The player who recorded a sack, Caden Curry, was disqualified before halftime after a targeting penalty.
The Buckeyes had seven tackles for loss against Marshall, but each of them was by different players.
It wasn’t just that the Buckeyes didn’t have the ‘silver bullet’ performance Knowles was looking for; the defense as a whole was a bit frustrating to Knowles.
“Our expectation has to be perfection and domination all the time; I thought we had a slow start,” Knowles said. “I thought I could’ve done a better job. You get into those situations where it’s like third-and-three, where (the quarterback) kind of scrambles around and you don’t get off the field on the third play or the sixth play, and I think that’s when you get into trouble.”
For their outstanding games on the ground, running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson were the Offensive Players of the Game, while Lorenzo Styles Jr. took home his second straight Special Teams Player of the Game honor.