The remedy. A slump-buster. Just what the doctor ordered. Call it what you want, but Kent State came into Ohio Stadium as the sacrificial offering to appease the masses worshipping at the altar of Ohio State Football. Only a massacre would quell the murmurings. And a 66-0 domination should suffice. For now.

If there was any hope of getting back into the graces of the playoff selection crew, if there was any hope of redeeming a lackluster performance in front of a national audience, Ohio State had to go out and decisively handle business. They would probably need to score two or three touchdowns in the first quarter, and have an insurmountable lead by halftime. The starters shouldn’t be needed after the first series of the third quarter. Lots of younger kids should probably see the field early and often.

These are the strictures the law demands. These were all met.

Of course, it was against Kent State. So what does that mean? Does the team that will take the field the rest of the season look like the team that struggled with new defensive looks and top-notch defensive coaching, or will it be the team that depends on its superior talent and athleticism that simply overwhelms its over-matched opponents? (It will field superior teams in just about every game moving forward, with the exception of Michigan State).

Time will tell.

The first half gives us a pretty good read on how this team could move forward. This much was clear: given time, JT Barrett can find open receivers and he will have people he could get the ball to. He has a couple receivers that look to be reliable. There are two running backs that are talented and fast enough to chew up yards and grind and fly with the best of them.

Michael Thomas is clearly becoming a favorite target of Barrett. I always amused myself with the following thought: Thomas’ Twitter handle is “Cantguardmike” and I thought, “how appropriate. You’re right, no one can guard you, Mike, because you’re on the sideline.” No one can guard you. (I kill me) But now he is coming in to his own and Thomas has been putting those great spring efforts into some serious real fall football. This is promising to see.

The running backs are Ezekiel Elliot and Curtis Samuel and we probably won’t see much Bri’onte Dunn or Warren Ball moving forward. Rod Smith earned some PT for his blocking and effort, but Dunn and Ball did nothing to distinguish themselves and Urban basically said as much. It’s a shame for them, but they had their chances and Urban Meyer is going to start the players he feels are the best and give the team the best chance to win football games.

Raekwon McMillan appears to be the real deal. Everything I say about this game has to be viewed through the lens of “it’s just Kent State”. But it’s still an opportunity for underclassmen to learn to react, to recognize formations, personnel and situations. This experience will serve them down the road. So to see Raekwon making plays and being involved is very encouraging. Curtis Grant still has the seniority at the right to play, but I won’t be surprised to see Raekwon starting before we get to November.

The last thing I’d like to mention: a shut-out is a shut-out. Kent State or not, it’s really hard to keep any team out of the endzone. Kent State had fifteen possessions, a number of those against second third teamers.

Now the Buckeyes will get a break before taking on Cincinnati on the 27th.

Another rough week for Big Ten football. The only good game this week was the actual B1G game of Penn State vs Rutgers. Rutgers should have won that game but they couldn’t stop Hackenberg allowing the Nitty Lions to pull off the win in Rutgers. Michigan probably should be lower the more I think about it but the lost to a higher ranked team, thats just a sad statement. Before you TTUN fans scream hey our loss was better than OSU’s loss well your right and OSU blew Kent State out allowing something like 125 yards total for the Golden Flashes and the Wolverines made a game of the Miami of Ohio contest.

1. (+3) Penn State Penn State pulls off the come from behind at Rutgers for first B1G win this season.

2. (+4) Nebraska Nebraska finally put together a football game again and looked dominate like in week 1

3. (+6) Michigan State While being idle their loss to Oregon is their blemish right now

4. (+6) Wisconsin Also idle their lone loss was to LSU

5. (+6) Ohio State Ohio State came out and did exactly what they were suppose to do and dominate an opponent

6. (+6) Michigan Personally in in my opinion they should be ranked lowered for failing to score a point on Notre Dame and making the Miami of Ohio closer than it should have

7. (-5) Rutgers Lost their first B1G game at home was heartbreaking

8. (-7) Maryland Made it a game with West Virginia but came up short

9. (-6) Minnesota getting beat by TCU 30-7 didn’t help the Gophers

10. (-3) Iowa Rivalry games are always close but this one shouldn’t have been and seems Hawkeyes playing down to their talent this year and cost them a W against Iowa State

11. (-6) Illinois Going out on the West Coast and getting crushed is not good for the fighting Illini

12. (-4) Indiana Lost to Bowling Green *sigh*

13. (NC) Purdue Look at the positive side Boilermaker fans you did something that TTUN couldn’t do, you scored on Notre Dame twice!!

14. (NC) Northwesternwhile idle unless the Wildcats produce a win they will be basement dwellers

I always appreciate the feedback and discussions this is what makes college football so fun can’t wait to hear from you guys this week.

When the negativity of Twitter gets to me, I go to my happy place (thanks for the advice, Chubs). MotSaG is my happy place, and while I don’t anticipate much negativity this week, we still have a safe place here to discuss civilly (and sometimes not, believe me, we get frustrated too) in our Open Thread.

Go Bucks!

The last week has brought a lot of bad news for OSU fans. There has been some good news mixed in though. Yesterday Mickey Mitchell re-committed to OSU after a brief 3 week breakup. Today we learned that 4 star 6’4″ 220 lbs WR/TE/H-Back AJ Alexander from Burke, Virginia has committed to OSU.

Here is a snippet from what our friend Mike Rockstedt from Eleven Warriors had to say about AJ…

The nation’s No. 53 wide receiver prospect, according to the 247Sports composite index, Alexander is a composite three-star and is ranked as the nation’s No. 488 prospect in the country. However, the Buckeyes have been recruiting him as an athlete, and he’s more likely to line up in the role of H-Back in Columbus. As mentioned earlier, it was the opportunities on and off the field at Ohio State that made it so attractive.

Our friends at elevenwarriors.com are reporting that sources have told them that Noah Spence has allegedly failed another drug test and his future with the Buckeyes may be in jeopardy.

The junior defensive end was expected to play this Saturday against Kent State after serving his 3 game suspension that was handed down by the Big Ten for violating an unspecified rule. Later it was said that someone allegedly put Ecstasy into one of his drinks without his knowledge. He appealed the 3 game suspension and lost costing him playing time in the Orange Bowl, Navy and Virginia Tech games this year. This will be a big blow to the Buckeye who have dealt with a lot this year already but an even bigger blow to this young man’s future if true. As more develops we will keep you informed.

Update:

Tim May of the Columbus dispatch is reporting that Spence is out indefinitely after second violation of Ohio State and Big Ten Rules

Tim May has a great article on the Columbus dispatch site detailing a lot of the information a long with talking with Spence’s parents and Noah admitting he has a “medical problem”

The season must go on, even after the bitter disappointment of a horrible showing against Virginia Tech in Primetime last Saturday night. The Buckeyes as a team are moving forward, trying to fix what went wrong and still prepare for a challenging Big Ten season. That road to recovery starts tomorrow against Kent State.

Ronnie, who has been on a tear for us recently not only profiled the players to watch on both sides of the ball, but also brought the preview knowledge that you need to watch this game with eyes wide open. The season is still very much salvageable, and it starts with a convincing win over Kent State. Ronnie predicts we’ll see Ohio State try to establish a running game early:

On offense expect to see a healthy dose of the run early on. This won’t be because Herman wants to play conservative versus a MAC opponent, but because the offense has yet to establish its power inside running style against an opponent. Carries will be divided among several running backs and h-backs, but there will be lots of carries early on to get the offense in a groove. The Buckeyes desperately need a feature back to step up so expect to see Ezekiel Elliott get plenty of touches and opportunities to earn that privilege.

Jacob took a look at the game as well and had a few strident things to say about Corey Smith (can’t disagree there)

Our guys casted a pod that you might find informative, entertaining and funny. You should check it out (and subscribe in iTunes, if you haven’t already).

No funny stuff this week with the Open thread. Just give us your thoughts on this week’s game and what you think the final score will be:

I say Ohio State works out some frustrations on Kent State and is up by a sizeable lead by halftime:

Ohio State: 52
Kent State: 9

We’ve also got a new poll, as well:

[poll id=”71″]