The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: No. 1 Ohio State’s 24-6 win over Washington

Ohio State passed its first road test of the season with flying colors, defeating Washington 24-6 for its first Big Ten win of the season.

While the final score doesn’t jump off the page as anything impressive, the Buckeyes’ defense managed to hold a Huskies offense that came into the day averaging over 55 points per game to just six points and zero touchdowns.

Ohio State’s offense sputtered a bit out of the gate, but once it got going it was once again a well-oiled machine, highlighted by Julian Sayin’s accuracy, Jeremiah Smith being Jeremiah Smith and Bo Jackson continuing his ascension up the running back depth chart.

Here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the Buckeyes’ latest victory…

The Good

Julian Sayin

We didn’t quite know what to expect from Julian Sayin heading into the 2025 season. The former five-star quarterback came to Ohio State with a ton of hype and recruiting pedigree, and the Buckeyes have some of the best skill talent in the country, so there was obviously a lot to be excited about.

But, how would it actually all look on the field? Well, through four games, the results have been sensational.

Sayin looks every bit the elite prospect he was made out to be. The quarterback has showcased tremendous accuracy, a calm demeanor and the ability to lead this offense from anywhere on the field. Making his first ever road start in a hostile Big Ten environment, Sayin never looked rattled and showed a ton of poise even after a frustrating first quarter for the Ohio State offense.

Sayin finished the game completing 22-of-28 pass attempts for 208 yards and two touchdowns. Virtually every one of his throws was on the money, and he never put the ball in harms way, with a willingness to throw the ball away when nothing was open. It was more of the same from what we’ve seen from the first-year starter throughout the early goings of this season.

Honestly, the only thing that held Sayin back from having an even bigger day was a conservative approach on offense in the first half. Ryan Day and Brian Hartline looked hesitant to let their quarterback throw the ball downfield early on, but once they took the training wheels off it was clear that there is no reason why he shouldn’t be given the green light to fire away in any situation.

Julian Sayin now leads the country in completion percentage at 78.8% (78-of-99), while ranking 8th nationally in yards per attempt.

Caden/Kayden

Ohio State’s defense as a whole has been elite, but there has been at least a little consternation about the play of the defensive front. The Buckeyes have given up very little on the ground this season, but the pass rush hasn’t quite been there — at least when only rushing four down linemen. Well, that wasn’t the case on Saturday…

The Silver Bullets got a pair of incredible performances from Caden Curry and Kayden McDonald.

Curry had the best game of his career to date, registering a team-high 11 tackles to go along with three sacks and five tackles for loss.

The senior defensive end played a huge part in slowing down Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who finished the afternoon with -28 yards on 13 rushing attempts (20 yards sack-adjusted) — by far his lowest ever as a starter.

Speaking of clogging up the run, McDonald was equally impressive up the middle, racking up seven tackles, two sacks and three tackles for loss.

The junior defensive tackle was giving shades of Tyleik Williams against the Huskies, making an impact both in stopping the run and providing an interior pass rush. McDonald helped hold Jonah Coleman to 70 yards rushing, 34 of which came on one long run (36 yards on his other 12 carries).

It was the first game this season Coleman did not find the end zone at least once.

Red Zone Defense

As a whole this Ohio State defense was once again excellent, but as has been the case through the early goings of the season, they were especially impressive in the red zone.

The Silver Bullets made a critical red zone stand early in the game.

Set up at Ohio State’s 2-yard line with 1st-and-goal, Coleman ran up the middle for a loss of a yard. After a Washington false start, Coleman’s second down run netted a loss of two more yards. Williams Jr. tried to make things happen with his legs on third down, but Arvell Reese chased him down for no gain.

The Huskies would wind up settling for a field goal, and despite out-gaining Ohio State at the time 117-45 and also having the game’s only takeaway, they were saddled with only a 3-0 lead.

Washington’s next possession again found them down near the red zone, facing 2nd-and-5 at the OSU 18-yard line. A sack by Kenyatta Jackson on second down pushed them back four yards, and a blown up screen pass on third down went backwards five more yards. The Huskies attempted a fake field goal, but the intended receiver never even turned around and the ball fell incomplete as they turned it over on downs.

Ohio State responded with a 10-play, 73-yard touchdown drive to take a lead it would never relinquish, scoring on all four of its remaining drives outside the final possession to run out the clock.

The Buckeyes are the No. 1 team in the country in scoring defense, allowing only 5.5 points per game, and are the only team in the country to not allow a red zone touchdown this season. Opponents have only scored points on 2-of-7 red zone opportunities (both field goals), which is also the best in FBS.

The Bad

Red Zone Offense

For as good as Ohio State’s defense has looked in the red zone, the Buckeyes’ red zone offense continues to have its struggles.

Ohio State had a chance to make a statement in this game early. After forcing a quick three-and-out, the Buckeyes’ first possession worked its way to the Washington 14-yard line.

A short Bo Jackson run and an incompletion made it 3rd-and-7, and Sayin nearly picked all of it up with a third down scramble that was initially ruled a first down and was changed to 4th-and-inches.

Making the correct decision to go for it, Sayin handed the ball off to CJ Donaldson, who was stood up at the line of scrimmage for no gain as the Buckeyes turned it over on downs.

It has become an all-too-common theme for Ohio State this season to be stopped short down near the goal line, especially when trying to hammer the ball up the middle on the ground. Whether it is a changing of personnel — like using Jackson in those spots instead of Donaldson — or mixing up the play-calling, the Buckeyes need to get better in short yardage and the red zone.

For what it’s worth, Ohio State went 4-for-4 in the red zone the rest of the game, with three touchdowns and one field goal. The 34-yard field goal was the result of a holding penalty on 1st-and-10 at the Huskies’ 21-yard line.

Overall, Ohio State ranks 58th nationally in red zone touchdown percentage (65%), which is far too low for the amount of talent on this offense. The Buckeyes will need to get that cleaned up moving forward.

Penalties

Speaking of penalties, Ohio State committed far too many of them — five total for 60 yards. Overall, the Buckeyes have been pretty good at avoiding flags this season, tying for 9th in FBS with four penalties per game, but against Washington there were some really egregious mistakes.

Three of those penalties were against the offensive line, with a false start called on Tegra Tshabola and two penalties called on Phillip Daniels. One of Daniels’ penalties was a clear hold, while the other was a hands to the face call where it looked like Daniels got his fingers stuck in the Washington defender’s facemask.

The worst penalty of the day by far came on defense.

With Ohio State leading 17-6, Washington was faced with 3rd-and-3 at their own 37-yard line. On the play, Williams Jr. was sacked by Curry, which would have forced them to punt. However, Eddrick Houston slapped a Huskies player in the helmet after the play was over right in front of an official, resulting in a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct and extending the drive.

The Huskies would end up turning the ball over on downs later on the drive, but you cannot give teams free first downs on boneheaded decisions — especially after your team just got a third down sack.

The Buckeyes played largely clean football the rest of the game outside of a facemask called on Tywone Malone, and benefitted on a questionable roughing the passer call on Washington in the third quarter, but you’ve got to clean up those little things by the time you play Penn State and Michigan.

The Ugly

Special Teams

I don’t know why Ohio State’s special teams is just doomed to be awful every single year regardless of who runs it, but holy hell has this group been bad this season.

Obviously, the biggest mistake of the day came early in the game. It looked like Brandon Inniss was about to have his best punt return of the season, returning the ball 32 yards to get deep inside Washington territory, but he coughed it up at the end of his run and gave the ball right back to the Huskies.

With the game still tied 0-0 at the time and Ohio State looking to capitalize on momentum to take the crowd out of it, it was a brutal turnover and something that simply cannot happen.

While that was obviously the key misplay by the special teams unit of the afternoon, there were also several other lackluster showings.

Ohio State’s lone punt of the day, which came early in the second quarter, traveled only 35 yards. Punting it from your own 40-yard line, you would expect to pin the other team deep, but instead Washington started with the ball at the 25-yard line. The Buckeyes’ 42.50 yards per punt ranks 85th nationally.

Ohio State also allowed a 41-yard kick return following the Buckeyes’ first touchdown of the game. OSU ranks 77th nationally in opponent kick return yardage.

Aaron Scott made an impressive tackle on a kick return early in the fourth quarter as the lone bright spot for the unit, but Ohio State’s special teams has been nothing short of a disaster this season. The rest of the team is so good that in most games in won’t matter, but its the type of thing that could cost you a game against a talent-equated opponent.