Ohio State handled a short-handed Saturday the way a contender should, overpowering Maryland 45–16 and producing meaningful progress in the running game. Now the Buckeyes head to Bloomington for a top-five rematch with the team that took their Big Ten crown—and a game that could reshape the conference race.

Ohio State’s 45–16 win over Maryland landed almost exactly where last week’s Monday Musings expected it to land. The prediction was 42–17, and the actual margin was one Ohio State field goal wider. That does not mean the afternoon was completely predictable.

The Buckeyes played without six starters, turned the ball over twice and briefly let a 52-yard pick-six pull Maryland within 15 points during the third quarter. They also scored 31 points before halftime, outgained the Terrapins 449–146, rushed for 207 yards and closed the game with a 16-play touchdown drive that consumed nearly ten minutes. The final score was comfortable because Ohio State repeatedly responded when Maryland offered a reason for discomfort.

That is useful progress. It is also only the warm-up.

No. 4 Ohio State now travels to No. 5 Indiana for a meeting of teams that are both 3–0 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers are the defending national champions, have won 22 consecutive games and were the team that beat Ohio State 13–10 in last season’s Big Ten Championship Game. Saturday will not need an artificial storyline. This is a playoff-level matchup with conference control, recent history and a little scar tissue attached to it.

Here are six Monday Musings as the Buckeyes move from taking care of business to one of the defining games of the season.

1. Ohio State Did What a Contender Should Do While Short-Handed

The easiest way to dismiss Saturday is to point at Maryland’s four-game losing streak and say Ohio State did what it was supposed to do. That is true, but it leaves out the conditions under which the Buckeyes did it.

Ohio State entered the game without starting receivers Brandon Inniss and Devin McCuin, starting offensive linemen Austin Siereveld and Phillip Daniels, linebacker Christian Alliegro and nickel corner Jay Timmons. Daniels missed his fourth consecutive game, while several of the other absences surfaced late in the week. The Buckeyes were missing important pieces at four different position groups, yet still built a 31–10 halftime lead and finished with 449 yards, 24 first downs and 34:39 of possession.

The defense allowed only 146 yards, 10 first downs and one offensive touchdown. Maryland quarterback Malik Washington completed 12 of 25 passes for 64 yards, and Chris Durr Jr.—who entered with 42 catches through five games—was held to four receptions for 15 yards. On offense, Ohio State averaged 6.5 yards per play and scored on all three of its red-zone opportunities. The official game book reflects dominance in nearly every category that was not turnovers.

This also happened in Ryan Day’s 100th game as Ohio State’s head coach. He improved to 87–13, a milestone that says plenty about the program’s weekly standard even if the 13 losses receive far more attention than the 87 wins.

Maryland is not Indiana, and beating a 2–4 team at home cannot tell us how Ohio State will handle a top-five road environment. It did show that the Buckeyes’ floor is rising. They absorbed injuries, adjusted the distribution of the offense and kept a lesser opponent from turning temporary mistakes into a competitive fourth quarter. That is what serious teams do in the week before everyone starts watching.

2. The Running Game Is Becoming a Strength Instead of a Question

For the first month of the season, every encouraging Ohio State rushing total came with an asterisk. Ball State was overwhelmed by a pair of long runs. Texas held the Buckeyes to 94 yards and exposed how difficult it was to create dependable movement against an elite front. Kent State allowed 3.8 yards per carry. Even after progress against Illinois and Iowa, the question remained whether the offensive line could create consistency rather than wait for a back to rescue a blocked play.

The Maryland performance moved that conversation forward. Ohio State rushed 48 times for 207 yards, and the production was not built around one outlier. Bo Jackson carried 23 times for 107 yards and two touchdowns, while Ja’Kobi Jackson added 76 yards on 14 attempts. Together, they gained 183 yards on 37 carries—just under five yards per attempt—with only one run longer than 15 yards.

That is the kind of rushing line that travels. Bo converted fourth-and-one with a 25-yard touchdown immediately after Maryland’s pick-six, answering the only moment in the second half when the Terrapins threatened to make the score interesting. Then the Buckeyes opened their final possession at their own 28 and spent 9:59 marching 72 yards. The drive included three third-down conversions, a fourth-down conversion and 13 rushing attempts before Bo scored from two yards out.

The symbolism was almost too neat. Ohio State began this season wondering whether it could run when the opponent knew the run was coming. On its last meaningful possession before Indiana, everyone in Ohio Stadium knew what was coming, and Maryland still could not get off the field.

Indiana will be a different test. Nebraska rushed for 128 yards on 39 attempts against the Hoosiers and controlled the ball for 39:33, but Indiana’s defense kept that possession from becoming enough points. Ohio State cannot assume volume will equal control. It will need the efficient four- and five-yard gains that keep Arthur Smith’s full playbook available and prevent Indiana’s pass rush from dictating third down.

Still, the progress is no longer theoretical. The offensive line is creating repeatable production, the two Jacksons are complementing each other, and Ohio State has found a closing formula that was missing in Austin.

3. Julian Sayin Showed His Ceiling and the Mistakes Indiana Will Punish

Julian Sayin’s final line—13 completions on 21 attempts, 242 yards and four touchdowns—looks like the work of a quarterback who barely broke a sweat. All four touchdown passes came before halftime. He found Jeremiah Smith twice from 33 and 40 yards, hit Nate Roberts for a 68-yard score and closed the half with a one-yard touchdown to Mason Williams.

There was plenty to like in the variety. Sayin attacked after Maryland crowded the line, trusted his tight ends with Inniss and McCuin unavailable and averaged 11.5 yards per attempt. The Buckeyes did not need 35 completions to create 31 first-half points because their quarterback consistently found explosive answers.

The concern is that Maryland also produced two turnovers from those 21 dropbacks. Sayin lost a fumble on a first-quarter strip-sack that gave the Terrapins a field goal, then threw a third-quarter interception that Daniel Wingate returned 52 yards for a touchdown. Maryland scored nine of its 16 points directly from Ohio State giveaways. Add another sack-fumble that Sayin recovered, and the pocket was less comfortable than the four-touchdown line suggests.

That cannot follow Ohio State to Bloomington. Indiana has tied or won the turnover battle in 30 consecutive games, the longest such streak nationally since at least 1995. The Hoosiers have also recorded 20 sacks through six games and have lost only one fumble all season. Their identity is not built solely around spectacular plays; it is built around refusing to give an opponent cheap possessions while waiting for one decisive mistake.

Third down remains connected to this concern. Ohio State converted 5 of 13 against Maryland after going 8 of 15 at Iowa. The Buckeyes were perfect on three fourth-down attempts, which kept the offense moving, but a top-five road game is a dangerous place to keep borrowing downs. Sayin must recognize pressure, protect the football and accept the occasional punt. His aggressiveness is one of Ohio State’s greatest strengths. Indiana will try to make it a liability.

Saturday’s four-touchdown performance was another reminder of Sayin’s ceiling. The two turnovers were a reminder that Indiana will demand his most mature game, not merely his most productive one.

4. The Passing Game Found Answers Beyond Jeremiah Smith

Last week, the concern was that Jeremiah Smith and McCuin had accounted for 286 of Ohio State’s 324 passing yards at Iowa. Against Maryland, McCuin and Inniss did not play, which forced the Buckeyes to find their complementary production elsewhere.

They did. Roberts turned his only reception into a 68-yard touchdown. Chris Henry Jr. produced a 46-yard catch, Kyle Parker added a 16-yard reception and Williams caught two passes, including the touchdown just before halftime. Smith still led the way with four receptions for 93 yards and two scores, but seven other Buckeyes caught at least one pass.

The distribution was imperfect—Ohio State completed only 13 passes—but it showed that Arthur Smith has more ways to punish a defense for concentrating on No. 4. The tight ends were not decorative pieces. The young receivers did not need ten targets to affect the game. A short passing day still produced 242 yards and four touchdowns.

Jeremiah, meanwhile, moved to the edge of another record. He now has 38 career touchdown catches, one shy of Braylon Edwards’ Big Ten record of 39. One touchdown at Indiana would tie the mark; two would make Smith the conference’s career leader in the stadium of a Big Ten rival. His 211 career receptions and 3,474 receiving yards are already Ohio State records, and he has 48 catches for 916 yards and 11 touchdowns through six games this season. Ohio State’s postgame notes confirm that he has moved ahead of Michigan legend Anthony Carter into second place on the conference touchdown list.

Indiana has seen this pairing on a championship stage. Sayin threw for 258 yards in last year’s Big Ten title game, and Smith caught eight passes for 144 yards. The Buckeyes still scored only 10 points. That is why Saturday’s Maryland distribution matters. Smith can dominate and Ohio State can still lose if every critical down funnels toward him. Roberts, Parker, the backs and whichever receivers return from injury have to make Indiana defend the entire field.

5. Matt Patricia’s Defense Has Found Its Identity—Even Without Sacks

Three weeks ago, Illinois gained 462 yards and rushed for 199. That performance raised a fair question about whether Ohio State’s defense could maintain its structure when an opponent stayed balanced and forced it to defend a full game.

The response has been emphatic. Iowa managed 238 total yards and 39 rushing yards. Maryland fell to 146 total yards, including 64 through the air and 82 on the ground. Across the last two games, Ohio State has allowed 384 yards combined. The Buckeyes gave up one offensive touchdown Saturday and held Maryland to 3 of 12 on third down.

The most impressive matchup-specific result was what happened to Durr. He had 149 receiving yards at Nebraska one week earlier and had caught at least six passes in every game. Ohio State held him to four catches for 15 yards, never letting Maryland’s only proven explosive receiving threat become a reason to alter the game plan. Jaylen McClain led the Buckeyes with eight tackles, while Eddrick Houston produced 1.5 tackles for loss as the front controlled the line without needing a sack.

That last detail is both encouraging and worth watching. Ohio State did not record a sack against Washington, yet the Terrapins averaged only 2.6 yards per pass attempt. Coverage and disciplined tackling did the work. Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover will test whether the Buckeyes can remain that patient against a more dangerous vertical game.

Hoover completed only 12 passes at Nebraska, but they gained 263 yards. Nick Marsh caught six for 187 yards and scored fourth-quarter touchdowns of 75 and 44 yards, turning a 17–6 deficit into a 20–17 victory. Indiana had only 13 first downs, 65 rushing yards and 20:27 of possession. It won because two explosive plays changed the entire afternoon.

That is the warning for Patricia’s defense. It does not need to blitz recklessly or chase sacks to prove it can affect Hoover. It does need to prevent one missed leverage angle or one communication error from becoming a touchdown. Ohio State’s defense has become difficult to sustain drives against. Indiana just proved it can win without sustaining them.

6. This Is Bigger Than Revenge, Even If Revenge Is Part of It

Ohio State rose to No. 4 in Sunday’s AP poll. Indiana climbed to No. 5 and received a first-place vote. Both teams are 3–0 in Big Ten play, which makes Saturday an early conference elimination game in everything but the mathematical sense. The winner will own a top-five victory, the inside track in the league race and one of the strongest playoff résumés in the country. The loser will still have a path, but it will lose control of the simplest version of that path.

The stakes would be substantial without last December. They are sharper because of it.

Indiana beat Ohio State 13–10 in the 2025 Big Ten Championship Game, then completed an undefeated national-title season. The Hoosiers have not lost since, extending their winning streak to 22 games with the comeback at Nebraska. They also have 22 consecutive victories when allowing 24 points or fewer, tying the longest such run since at least 1993. This is not a charming underdog story anymore. Indiana is the champion Ohio State has to chase.

That framing matters. The Buckeyes cannot go to Bloomington believing their recruiting profile, historical dominance or scarlet-and-gray crowd in the stands will eventually settle the game. Indiana already owns the most relevant result between these programs. It knows it can hold Ohio State to 10 points, survive 144 receiving yards from Smith and win the decisive snaps.

The latest AP poll also changed the national picture. Georgia is the new No. 1, Texas fell to No. 7 after losing to Oklahoma, and Ohio State moved into the top four. That makes the Buckeyes’ one-point loss at Texas a little less valuable as résumé protection and Saturday’s opportunity even more important. A road win over an unbeaten defending champion would answer nearly every remaining question about Ohio State’s place among the national contenders.

Revenge will be part of the emotion. Discipline has to be the larger part of the plan.

What I’ll Be Watching

Ohio State’s availability report. Six starters missed the Maryland game. Day said afterward that he did not expect everyone back but anticipated “a good portion” would return for Indiana. The status of Daniels, Siereveld, Inniss, McCuin, Alliegro and Timmons will affect both the rotation and the way Ohio State attacks the matchup. The first official Indiana-week availability report had not been issued when this was published.

Sayin against Indiana’s pressure. Maryland produced two sacks, two forced fumbles and a pick-six. Indiana has 20 sacks and a 30-game streak without losing the turnover battle. The Buckeyes cannot give the Hoosiers short fields.

The run game on ordinary downs. Ohio State’s backs were excellent against Maryland, but Indiana will make four-yard gains feel valuable. Staying ahead of the chains will keep Sayin out of obvious pressure situations and make Smith’s matchups harder to manipulate.

Nick Marsh before and after the catch. Nebraska contained Indiana for most of the game and still lost because Marsh turned two fourth-quarter completions into 119 yards and two touchdowns. Ohio State must force Indiana to build drives rather than surrender instant points.

Jeremiah Smith’s record—and Indiana’s response to him. Smith needs one touchdown to tie the Big Ten career record and two to own it. The more important tactical question is what Ohio State does when Indiana devotes extra coverage to preventing history.

Early Prediction

Indiana’s Nebraska performance revealed both vulnerability and championship muscle. The Hoosiers were held to 65 rushing yards, converted 1 of 10 third downs, ran only 44 plays and trailed by 11 points with 12 minutes remaining. They still won because Hoover and Marsh changed the game in two snaps, and the defense closed the final three Nebraska possessions.

Ohio State brings the better rushing tandem, the best individual player on the field and a defense that has allowed only 384 yards over the last two weeks. It also brings two Maryland turnovers, an unsettled injury report and the memory of scoring 10 points the last time Indiana stood across from it.

This should be close into the fourth quarter. I trust Ohio State’s defensive backs to limit Indiana’s explosives more than I trust the Hoosiers to completely contain Smith, and the emergence of Bo and Ja’Kobi Jackson gives the Buckeyes a finishing option they did not consistently have earlier in the season. Sayin will have to survive pressure and avoid the defining giveaway, but Ohio State has enough balance to end Indiana’s streak.

Prediction: Ohio State 27, Indiana 23

Game Information

● Matchup: No. 4 Ohio State (5–1, 3–0 Big Ten) at No. 5 Indiana (6–0, 3–0 Big Ten)

● Date: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026

● Kickoff: Noon ET

● Location: Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, Indiana

● Television: FOX

● Series: Ohio State leads 80–13–5; Indiana won the most recent meeting, 13–10, in the 2025 Big Ten Championship Game

Ohio State’s official game center confirms the noon kickoff and FOX broadcast. The Buckeyes won their most recent trip to Bloomington, 23–3 in 2023, but this will be the first meeting at Indiana since the Hoosiers became defending Big Ten and national champions.

The Bottom Line

Maryland was a successful Saturday because Ohio State did not allow missing starters or self-inflicted mistakes to change the expected result. The running game produced without relying on one fluky total. The defense erased an opponent’s best receiver. The offense answered a pick-six with a touchdown, then finished the game by taking almost ten minutes off the clock.

The parts that remain unfinished are obvious. Two turnovers and a 5-of-13 third-down performance create too many openings. Two sacks against a depleted receiving corps are understandable, but Indiana’s pass rush will be less forgiving. Ohio State cannot depend on a 303-yard advantage to cover every mistake this week.

That is why this matchup arrives at the right time. The Buckeyes have spent a month repairing the issues exposed at Texas: the running game has become dependable, the defense has stopped leaking yards, and Sayin has proved he can win in a difficult road stadium. Indiana will determine whether those repairs hold against a champion.

Oh Maryland was business. Indiana is personal—but the Buckeyes will win only if they play it like business.

Photo Credit: The Columbus Dispatch