Buckeyes drown Oregon State 77-31

The turmoil ended for a few hours and even longer than expected with a weather delay, but the Ohio State Buckeyes ripped, roared and rolled over the visiting Oregon State Beavers 77-31 at the Horseshoe in Columbus.

Dwayne Haskins threw for over 300 yards and five touchdowns, while Mike Weber ran for 186 yards and three touchdowns in the romp to lead the offense.

The now 1-0 Buckeyes host Rutgers next week in an early conference game.

Olentangy Offerings

1) Dwayne Haskins became the first Buckeye quarterback to throw for over 300 yards and set a record for TD passes in his first start/
Haskins did throw an interception that he would have been better suited throwing away, so it wasn't a perfect day, but it was pretty close for a player in his first start.

2) Mike Weber was the ground star with 20 carries, but J.K. Dobbins carried 15 times as well.
Weber is back at full health, which he was not last season and opened the door for Dobbins to star in 2017.
It'll be interesting to see how long the pair truly shares carries or will one or the other take command?

3) Terry McLaurin finished with two catches for touchdowns including a 75-yard catch and run.
What Dwayne Haskins might bring to the offense along with the ability to throw deep, is an accurate ball that receivers will be able to catch in stride easier than the passes thrown by J.T. Barrett.
Those are the type of throws that can be turned into big plays off short passes.

4) Lightning and pouring rain caused a halftime respite of well over an hour.
Sadly for the visitors from Corvallis, they would have to still play the second half.

5) The final two scores were tallied from two freshman backs in Brian Snead and Master Teague with Teague's score being very impressive on a 33 yard run that saw him pinball off several Beaver defenders.

6) The defense wasn't perfect, after all, they did allow 31 points, which in many games could cause a loss.
Lots of things to refine, but the tackling will need to be sharpened after two Oregon State touchdowns resulted off broken tackles against Artavis Pearce of 78 and 80 yards.

7) Pearce finished with 168 yards on the ground on 15 carries.
That means Pearce rushed for 158 yards on two carries and 10 yards on his other thirteen rushes.
Still, that's two huge scoring plays and Ohio State will need to be much better than this for their future games against better competition than Oregon State.

8) I also wondered why DeMario McCall didn't appear until the second half as the returner.
McCall was listed as the top returner on the depth chart, so why would he not appear until the game was in the bag?

9) Ryan Day's head coaching debut went smoothly as Day stayed on the sideline and fellow offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson remained in the press box.
Day is going to be a head coach somewhere soon, hopefully, that will not be in the Big 10.

10) The defense did struggle in the middle of the field in coverage, so both the linebackers and safeties are going to have to pick their game up against the pass.
Simply too many catch and runs down the seams from Oregon State and that will need to be addressed.

I still have to talk more baseball trades, the road trip continues, Browns cuts and additions going into the league opener as I pick the pace up here at TRS!