Instant Analysis: Ohio State stomps Maryland 52-24

There is nothing better than clearly hearing “O-H-I-O” loud and proud in an opponent’s stadium. It’s good for Maryland to learn early in their inaugural Big Ten season that Buckeye fans are the best traveling fans in the conference. They may have sold out Byrd stadium but there is always a sea of scarlet and gray.

The Buckeyes came out of their first conference game of the season with a very nice victory, beating the Terps 52-24.

OFFENSE

You can tell J.T. Barrett is gaining more confidence when he’s running the ball; he may not be as flashy as Braxton Miller, but he’s fast and efficient so I’m not mad about it. There were a few times he was surprised by Maryland’s defense from the back, but he just needs to stay aware in the pocket.

Urban Meyer is definitely training Ezekiel Elliott to be the next Carlos Hyde, and he’s getting more powerful by the day. The running game was a big part of the play calling and spreading it out between Elliott and Rod Smith opened up a lot of offensive options.

The Buckeye pass game is so well-rounded and Barrett is making much better decisions in the pocket. 1) We finally saw Jalin Marshall score off a short pass into the endzone; 2) Tight ends Heuerman and Vannett both had great catches; 3) Devin Smith had an incredible catch in the endzone after a quick series in the third.

Side note: when Cardale Jones came in during the fourth quarter, he proved that he could also have a future jumping hurdles.

DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS

My favorite part of the first half may have been the comparison of Joey Bosa to Houston Texans J.J. Watt; if Bosa can keep playing with the same energy, he’ll be a beast for years to come.

All week long, Maryland’s Stefon Diggs was a player to watch out for, and the Buckeye special teams absolutely crushed him on his first return attempt of the game. They stayed tight on Diggs and really took away the power he had coming into the game.

The secondary got a few breaks when Maryland’s quarterback’s inefficiency made up for the defensive backs getting beaten down field throughout the game. The Terps had a huge completion off Doran Grant’s helmet in the third quarter which was QUICKLY rebuffed by Eli Apple with an interception in the endzone. There is still work that needs done, but they were able to create a lot of turnovers which was at least one bright spot.

Trackbacks

  1. […] Ohio State Buckeyes showed off their awesome tackle football skills again last weekend with a murder of some team from Washington D.C. and fans get to look forward to another bye […]

Leave a Reply

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

%d bloggers like this: