No. 3 Ohio State sputters in the first half before blowing out Iowa 35-7

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- — Emeka Egbuka caught three touchdown passes and Jeremiah Smith made another one-handed grab for a score as No. 3 Ohio State sputtered early before burying Iowa 35-7 on Saturday.

Quarterback Will Howard was 21 of 25 for 209 yards passing and four touchdowns and ran for 28 yards and a score as Ohio State (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) cleaned up its first-half mistakes and put up 21 unanswered points in the third quarter.

The Buckeyes, hanging on to a 7-0 halftime lead, seized the momentum right away in the second half.

Ohio State had a third-and-6 on their own 43 when Howard threw a long ball to Smith who had outrun two defenders.

Smith was tackled at the Iowa 3-yard-line, but that gave him a chance to really show off. On the next play, he leaped in the end zone and brought in Howard’s floating pass with his right arm while keeping defensive back Deshaun Lee at bay with his left.

On Iowa's next drive, quarterback Cade McNamara fumbled, and linebacker Cody Simon recovered at the Iowa 19. Three plays later, Howard scurried around the left end for a TD to push the Ohio State lead to 21-0.

Ohio State turned a McNamara interception into a touchdown, capped by a 15-yard TD catch by Egbuka. Then McNamara fumbled the ball away again, this time deep in Iowa territory, and that ultimately resulted in Egbuka's third TD catch.

“We really wanted to come out and have a great drive to start the third quarter,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “And then we started getting the short fields and the turnovers, and the game just flipped there. I think it ended up being 28 straight points.”

The Buckeyes piled up 203 rushing yards. Quinshon Judkins ran for 78, and TreVeyon Henderson had 61.

Starting slow

The first half wasn't pretty for either side.

After the touchdown pass to Egbuka on the Buckeyes' first possession, they turned the ball over on downs, turned it over on a fumble by Smith, punted once, and Howard threw an interception.

Iowa (3-2, 1-1) punted four times and missed a field goal in the half.

“You obviously don't want to have the turnovers and the bad plays, but the thing is, it's going to happen,” Howard said. “It's all about how you bounce back. And in my long career, one of the things that I've learned is that you can't let the play before affect the next play.”

The takeaway

Iowa: Kaleb Johnson, the second-most prolific back in college football and one of the Hawkeyes' few reliable offensive weapons, gained 100-plus yards in each of Iowa's first four games and had a 206-yard outing in the last one against Minnesota. On Saturday Johnson had only 19 yards on eight carries in the first half and finished with 86 yards on 15 carries and a late touchdown.

Ohio State: The best performance by the defense this season. The unit held Iowa to 226 total yards, sacked McNamara three times — he fumbled the ball away on two of them — and intercepted him once.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz summed it up this way: “A lot of bad things happened today."

Who does that?

Search the internet for “Jeremiah Smith one-handed catches” and take your pick. The freshman’s single-handed grabs seem to get more improbable every time. He had one earlier in the season then made two, one for a touchdown, in the Buckeyes’ win over Michigan State last week. On his 3-yard TD against Iowa he used his free arm to push away the defender.

Poll implications

After a dominating performance against a Big Ten opponent and No. 1 Alabama's loss to Vanderbilt, the Buckeyes could move up in the rankings.

Up next

Iowa: Hosts Washington next Saturday.

Ohio State: At No. 6 Oregon next Saturday night.

------

AP college football: Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football