Hyde, Miller and Buckeyes Roll over Illinois, 52-22

Braxton Miller and crew picked up right where they left off this afternoon, grinding and throwing their way to a perfect 10-0 record, beating Illinois soundly and unequivocally, 52-22.

The defense once again came to play, limiting the admittedly anemic Illinois offense to a paltry 170 yards. The Illini couldn’t get anything going on the ground or through the air. Nathan Scheelhaase was pestered all game long by Simon and Williams and the defense stonewalled whatever rushing attack Illinois tried to mount.

The linebacking corps also came to play, with Shazier and Boren keeping Scheelhaasein in front of them and containing Donovonn Young and the Illinois ground game.

Braxton definitely “went back to quarterbacking school” after the Penn State game. His passes looked much crisper and his pass to Rod Smith on his 50 yard wheel route was a thing of beauty. He also is clearly developing a rapport with Nick Vannett. Braxton also pitched in with 73 yards on the ground and a TD run to top of another impressive performance.

For his part, Carlos Hyde put together another strong effort, carrying the ball 18 times for 137 yards and three touchdowns.

At this point, the Ohio State ground game is a known quantity. They’re going to grind out yards on the ground and get them in bunches at times. The passing game is still nascent, but is showing signs of development.

All was not perfect, of course. Special teams coverage left something to be desired and personal fouls kept drives alive longer than they should have. Fumbles can be costly. But we’ll let the coaches worry about that and just enjoy another dominating performance.

Ohio State: 52
Illinois: 22

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: