WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Ohio State’s struggles in the run game have been well-documented through five weeks, but Saturday’s game at Purdue presented the perfect opportunity for it to get back on track against a run defense ranking as one of the worst in college football.
Coming into the game, Purdue had allowed an average of 154 rushing yards per game to opposing offenses. Despite being without the services of two of its top three running backs in TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams, who were both held out due to undisclosed injuries, Ohio State entered the game surely feeling like it was a “now or never” moment for the maligned offensive line to dominate the line of scrimmage and dictate the game.
And then even more adversity hit an already struggling running game late in the first quarter when Chip Trayanum was forced out of the game after suffering a head injury that left him unable to walk off the field without considerable assistance from the team trainers.
Down to its fourth-string running back in Dallan Hayden, who head coach Ryan Day said earlier in the week was in line for a redshirt this season, Ohio State responded by rushing for 177 yards and a per-carry average of just under five yards. The offensive line, which was challenged by position coach Justin Frye earlier in the week to get back to the basics, pushed Purdue around early and often despite Purdue often selling out to stop the run.
The output was the second-best performance of the season for Ohio State, trailing only the 204 rushing yards it tallied against Western Kentucky in week three.
Hayden, seeing his first carries of the season, led Ohio State with 76 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Forced to find alternative ways to run the ball, Xavier Johnson even got in the mix with five carries for 39 yards. In the red zone, Day turned to backup quarterback Devin Brown to provide another running element in a red zone package that was just installed earlier in the week.
The decision to utilize Brown’s legs paid off for Day and the Ohio State offense as Brown tallied his first rushing touchdown of the game on Ohio State’s second drive of the game to give it a 13-0 lead in the first quarter.
But regardless of who was carrying the ball, the most encouraging aspect of the game for Ohio State had to be the play of its offensive line, which had to answer the call albeit against soft opposition.
“Our philosophy is it doesn’t matter who is back there,” guard Donovan Jackson said. “It could be, I don’t know, name a slow person. Our focus is making the best possible opportunities for whoever is holding the ball.”
Jackson said the offensive line saw a lot of looks it liked throughout the game and put in “a lot of work this week to correct the mistakes we’ve had.”
“We’re just trying to put it all on the field,” Jackson said. “It’s good if you do it in practice, but it’s even better if you do it on the field. That’s what we were aiming for today.”
Day was pleased with the way he saw his offensive line respond on Saturday when even he was left wondering how his team would run the ball in the absence of three running backs.
“When you’re down Tre and you’re down Miyan, and Chip (Trayanum)’s your guy, and all of the sudden you lose him in the game, it’s like, ‘Ok, how are we going to run the ball here?’ We got Dallan (Hayden) in there and he started to run well, but I thought it seemed like we were rocking off the ball pretty good even though it was a pretty loaded box again at times,” Day said.
Day noted the rain caused Purdue to add even more defenders to the box, but it rarely mattered as Ohio State continued to find success on the ground while setting up its play-action game.
“To be able to run the way we did without three of our guys is a good sign. And now we have to get healthy this week,” he went on to say.
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on Twitter @DillonDavis56.
