Buckeyes hold off Central Florida 31-16

Braxton Miller rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another as the Ohio State Buckeyes improved to 2-0 with a 31-16 win over the tougher than expected Central Florida Knights.

Miller finished the game with 141 yards rushing and 155 yards passing as Ohio State used Miller's 10 yard TD pass to Jake Stoneburner and an eight yard Miller touchdown run in the third quarter to blow open a 17-10 Buckeye lead at the half.
Ohio State will host the Cal Golden Bears next week at the Big Horseshoe.

Buckeye Leaves

1) Urban Meyer said last week that Braxton Miller's carries last week were too high,so what happened?
Miller ran the ball 27 times on Saturday,which has to be WAY too high.
Miller rushes were more than the remaining Buckeye ball carriers put together and some Buckeye backs have to step up or Miller will lose a step with that many carries....

2) As exciting as Miller has been,the Buckeyes have to start throwing downfield more often.
Miller's longest completion in the win was just 15 yards.
That will not do...

3) Miller's carries might have been due to another tailback injury as Carlos Hyde went down with a knee injury.
With both Hyde and regular starter Jordan Hall hurt (Hall may have a chance of returning for Cal) ,the Buckeyes will have to come up with some sort of non-Miller running game.
My pick?Freshman Bri'onte Dunn.
Dunn has the most breakaway ability of the remaining backs and here is a chance for him to get his feet wet without taking carries away from a more experienced back.

4) For only allowing two touchdowns,I was not thrilled with the defense in this one.
The final UCF TD on a pass to the tight end Billy Giovenetti was especially bad to me as I saw no Buckeyes anywhere near him.
Clearly a coverage breakdown.

5) The defensive line was thought to me to be a team strength,but in the two games thus far,the pass rush has been extremely disappointing to me.
If you cannot rush Miami and Central Florida,how can you rush against Big Ten opponents???

6) Ten Penalties-too many,but I'll give that a pass for now with kinks with a new coach still being worked out.

7) Give the defense credit with three interceptions,but just as important was the amount of tipped passes.
When defenses are able to deflect a high number of passes,they usually allow few points.
Sounds simple,but I bet its true...

8) I had thought that Central Florida would be the toughest of a less than stern non-conference schedule and although most would think that honor would go to Pac 12 member Cal,the Knights made a good accounting of themselves and I would bet that they will do quite well next year in the Big East.

Back tomorrow with the Browns against the Eagles......