The Ohio State Buckeyes travel to face the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday, October 14 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. Live coverage will be exclusively on Peacock, starting at 12 p.m. ET. Keep reading for how to watch and key storylines for the game.
Ohio State
No. 3 Ohio State is looking to move to 6-0 (3-0 Big Ten) when it faces Purdue on Saturday. The Buckeyes last defeated Maryland, 37-17, after a sluggish start in the first half.
Head coach Ryan Day is 33-0 against unranked teams as a head coach, but the Buckeyes have lost three of their last four games at Ross-Ade Stadium, making this a matchup that shouldn’t be overlooked.
The Buckeyes’ offense, led by quarterback Kyle McCord, kicked things up in the second half against Maryland, scoring 27 unanswered points. They’ll want to come out swinging from the get-go against Purdue — to set the tone but to also show the College Football Playoff committee it’s a well-rounded, four-quarter team ahead of the first rankings in a couple weeks.
“I couldn’t quite understand what was going on there on the first couple of drives,” Day said about his team’s slow start against Maryland. “Didn’t quite get in sync on offense. We wanted to start fast in this game and didn’t get that done. So we have to look at why. But that is the game and we had to respond. I thought we did respond well in the second half. We got into a rhythm.”
The Ohio State defense has given up just 10.2 points per game this season, which is the third fewest in the FBS, but has struggled to sack the opposing quarterback — its seven sacks this season are last in the conference.
Purdue
The “Spoilermakers” might be 2-4 (1-2 Big Ten), but they beat the Buckeyes in their most recent home matchup in 2018 and could translate that into momentum on Saturday.
“You can’t pay attention to the logo, right? You can’t walk into it and give them an edge from a mental standpoint because they got a Buckeye on the back of their helmet,” head coach Ryan Walters said this week.
The Purdue defense will be crucial to any upset effort. The unit has seen improvement since Walters took over play-calling duties from defensive coordinator Kevin Kane two weeks ago. After giving up more than 32 points per game through the first four games, Purdue has allowed just under 20 points per game in the last two weeks.
The Boilermakers’ offense has been up and down. Following a season-high 44 points against Illinois two weeks ago, it had a season-low 14 points last week.
Quarterback Hudson Card threw two interceptions last week and was sacked for a season-high six times (not counting two intentional grounding penalties). His offensive line will need to protect him against a sack-hungry Buckeye defense, especially since Card was, and still could be, playing through an undisclosed injury he suffered against Illinois.
“He wasn’t in harm’s way of further damaging the injury, but it was going to be painful,” Walters said of his quarterback’s status. “I think that speaks to his competitive spirit and his physical toughness. Every time he was out there and got hit, didn’t feel good, I promise you, so for him to go through the whole game and compete the way he did, I was proud of that fact.”
How to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Purdue Boilermakers
- When: Saturday, October 14
- Where: Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana
- Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
- Watch: Peacock
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