Julian Sayin threw for 303 yards and a touchdown to Jeremiah Smith, CJ Donaldson ran for two scores and No. 1 Ohio State overcame a rare early deficit to defeat Purdue 34-10 on Saturday at West Lafayette, Ind.
Trailing 3-0 at the end of the first quarter, the Buckeyes (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) scored 24 unanswered points in the second quarter as Sayin threw for 182 yards and a touchdown to Smith in the first half.
Sayin finished the day by completing 27 of 33 passes with an interception.
Playing without star receiver Carnell Tate, who was held out as a precautionary measure due to an undisclosed injury, Smith had seven of his career-high 10 catches. and 109 of his 137 yards. Before halftime.
Quarterbacks Ryan Browne and Malachi Singleton were held to a combined 94 passing yards for the Boilermakers (2-8, 0-7), who have lost eight straight games. Purdue had 186 total yards to 473 for Ohio State.
Donaldson rushed for a 1-yard score on the second play of the second quarter to give Ohio State a 7-3 lead before Sayin hit Smith with a 35-yard TD pass for a 14-3 lead with 7:18 remaining in the first half.
After the Buckeyes’ Jermaine Mathews Jr. intercepted Browne, they used eight runs and one pass, while eating up more than five minutes, to go 30 yards to the end zone. The scoring drive was capped by a 3-yard run by backup quarterback Lincoln Kienholz.
Jayden Fielding added a career-long 49-yard field goal with three seconds left before halftime to give the Buckeyes a 24-3 lead.
Ohio State continued its ball control offense on the first series of the second half and went 68 yards to the 7 before Purdue’s CJ Nunnally intercepted off Sayin in the end zone. It was Sayin’s fourth interception of the season.
Cracks in the Ohio State offense showed again when a 13-yard sack of Sayin limited the Buckeyes to a 45-yard field goal by Fielding early in the fourth quarter for a 27-3 lead. The Buckeyes had the ball for 41 minutes in the game to 19 for the Boilermakers.
Ohio State’s lead was 34-3 when Purdue scored on a 7-yard pass from Singleton to Jesse Watson with 1:45 remaining.
