Buckeyes Defense Was 'Supposed To Mug' Penguins

Ohio State cornerback Denzel Burke has not been shy about the standard that the Buckeyes defense is holding itself to.

Ohio State cornerback Denzel Burke has been one of the Buckeyes' best players on defense, and he's also been one of its biggest critics.

No. 3 Ohio State's defense has held its opponents to under 10 points in back-to-back games to begin a season for the first time since 2007, but the 35-7 victory against the Youngstown State Penguins just wasn't up to standard.

"It was really kind of a disappointing win. We've got a lot of things to clean up," Burke said. "We're supposed to mug these dudes, and I feel like we didn't do that today."

The Buckeyes' defense let Youngstown State drive down on its opening drive and score its lone points of the game, picking up a pair of third downs in the process.

On third-and-3, Penguins quarterback Mitch Davidson found wide receiver Max Tomczak for a 36-yard completion to extend the drive. Three plays later, Davidson found wide receiver Bryce Oliver to put the ball down at Ohio State's 2-yard line.

Davidson kept the read option and walked into the end zone for a touchdown, doing a Penguin waddle celebration after tying the game 7-7.

However, after that 75-yard drive, Youngstown State's next longest went 43 yards on 11 plays. Nothing came off it, though, as Burke won the 50-50 ball against Oliver and intercepted quarterback Beau Brungard in the end zone — his first interception since 2021.

Youngstown State picked up 75 of its 234 yards on its opening drive and just 159 on its final nine. Last week, Ohio State held Indiana to 153 yards of total offense last week.

"We want to be top-three (defense), be No. 1, honestly," Burke said. "We've got to do the little things right and we've got to be able to take care of the little details and just do our job as a whole."

Ohio State's first real test as a defense will come against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Sept. 16. Led by quarterback Austin Reed, who has thrown for 654 yards and seven touchdowns to no interceptions, the Hilltoppers are averaging 46.5 points per game.