Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Buckeyes wear down Irish
Defense makes mark for No. 2 Ohio State
COLUMBUS, Ohio — With its vaunted offense bogged down, No. 2 Ohio State leaned on its revamped defense in a top-five opener against a former Buckeye that tested its toughness.
C.J. Stroud threw two touchdown passes and Ohio State shut out No. 5 Notre Dame over the final 42 minutes in a gritty 21-10 victory on Saturday night.
GAME OF THE DAY
“The story of the night was the defense, to turn around and play the way they did after what’s been said about them in the off-season, questioning their toughness, and play the way they did against the No. 5 team in the country … I thought the energy was off the charts for the defense tonight,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said.
The first regular-season meeting of the storied programs since 1996 was a homecoming for first-year Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, the former Buckeyes linebacker who has made a meteoric rise to lead the Fighting Irish at 36 years old.
Freeman is 0-2 as a head coach after losing a bowl game just weeks after being named Brian Kelly’s successor.
The Irish hung with the high-scoring Buckeyes for most of three quarters, frustrating Heisman Trophy finalist Stroud and putting together a couple of first-half scoring drives.
“We battled for two and a half quarters, but then they scored with 17 seconds left in the third and we didn’t respond,” Freeman said. “That’s really the game, we didn’t finish and we have to be able to finish.”
Ohio State’s defense, too generous against the run last season, put the clamps on the Irish and new starting quarterback Tyler Buchner in the second half.
“We were called soft all last year and we had to sit there and just eat,” Ohio State defensive back Lathan Ransom said.
Day turned over his defensive staff in the offseason, bringing in Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State to be coordinator.
How quickly the Buckeyes would pick up a scheme that is considered more complicated and multiple than the one they have been running was an open question.
Looked good in game one. The Irish managed just 253 yards and punted on their last six possessions. Tommy Eichenberg had two of Ohio State’s three sacks.
“We got a lot to prove. And everyone just played extremely confident, too,” Eichenberg said.
The Irish D could only hold up for so long.
On a third-and-long, Notre Dame brought multiple blitzers and Ohio State gave Stroud plenty of time to find Xavier Johnson open down the vacated deep middle for a 24-yard score. That put the Buckeyes up 14-10 with 17 seconds left in the third quarter.