Haskins threw four of the five passing touchdowns, while Martell added a long rushing touchdown as well as part of his team-leading 95 rushing yards on the day.
Ohio State improved to 2-0 (1-0) Big Ten before they travel to Dallas next week for their toughest non-conference test against TCU at AT&T Stadium.
Olentangy Offerings
1) Dwayne Haskins isn't going to be the Buckeye quarterback next year.
Haskins is the most talented passer that the Buckeyes have has in as long as I can remember and the tools that he possesses might make him the first quarterback selected in next year's NFL draft.
2) The ball that Haskins threw to Johnnie Dixon was just beautiful for the first Ohio State touchdown.
Perfectly lofted and just dropped out of the sky to just fall into Dixon's hands.
I know it's only two games, but Haskins is showing the type of skills and size that make me wish the Browns had waited for him.
3) And even if Haskins plays so well that this would be his first and last year, the Buckeyes are giving backup Tate Martell snaps to be prepared if that scenario comes to pass.
Martell is a different kind of quarterback and I would doubt that the NFL will fall in love with him due to his size, but his 47-yard touchdown run was one of the most exciting for an Ohio State quarterback in years and his part of the passing stats was completing all ten passes that he threw.
A Tate Martell led team in 2019 might not be the preferred option that a Dwayne Haskins team would be, but it still will rank with the most fun teams to watch in the nation.
4) Martell does bring one worry as my buddy Ian McArdle mentioned Saturday-his slight frame and willingness to run makes you wonder about an injury and his vulnerability to hits.
Martell is going to have to bulk up and hit the weight room hard if he expects to eventually be the full-time quarterback with that style.
5) The defensive line is tough.
Nick Bosa sent Rutgers starting quarterback Artur Sitkowski out of the game with a crunching hit late in the first half and Chase Young earlier in the half seemed to fold Sitkowski in half and drop him in a mailbox.
The Rutgers offensive line might as well have been replaced by a high school line- that was the difference in talent level.
The Buckeyes defensive line just comes at you in waves, during gameplay and the rotating of talented four and five-star recruits constantly throughout the contest.
Bosa finished with a sack and three tackles for loss and Young had two sacks on the day and I can only imagine the numbers if they played the entire game.
6) Jordan Fuller returned to the secondary after missing the Oregon State game with an injury.
Fuller is badly needed next week against TCU and when the Buckeyes play teams that will throw the football more or at least try to.
7) The victory was the 900th in Ohio State history.
Only Michigan had previously reached that number of wins and the actual number of wins for the program is 912, but the NCAA in one of their silly retroactive penalties took away 12 wins from the TattooGate year.
8) I'm cutting the recap shorter this week in order to write about my seemingly annual rant about just why in the hell Rutgers is in this conference.
This was the fifth time that the Buckeyes faced the Scarlet Knights since their entry into the Big Ten and the third quarter field goal by Rutgers allowed them to avoid their third shutout in a row vs Ohio State.
Over the five games, Ohio State has outscored Rutgers 271-27 and even though the Buckeyes dominate other cellar dwellers in the league (Indiana hasn't won against Ohio State since 1988, Minnesota since 2000 and I don't even remember that game), occasionally they pop up with an upset, Purdue always seemed to play the Jim Tressel teams tough and Illinois had that crazy "Juice Williams" game in 2007.
Rutgers isn't even close to competitive and though it's possible for them to eventually reach that point, I don't see it anytime remotely soon.
The only other team that I have ever remembered being this overmatched after joining a power conference to the point of fans/writers considering (even if the league never remotely considered it)
asking a team to leave due to being non-competitive was Baylor in the Big 12 and their only way out was hiring Art Briles and breaking about every rule known to man and the NCAA in order to dig from the canyon.
Even that didn't clean things up for Baylor as after the burned terrain that Briles left saw Baylor lose non-conference games last year to powerhouses, Duke. Texas San-Antonio and 1-AA Liberty after Briles had been relieved of his duties.
The entire case was Rutgers bringing the New York City market into the Big Ten Network footprint for advertising and that may have happened, but it still hasn't made a dent as far as fans and eyes being added to the conference.
It is looked at by most observers as exactly what it is- a cash grab that has made a negative impact on competition in the major sports with the addition of a school that has won a grand total of one national championship in its history- in fencing!
I know that Big Ten officials won't be going back, but that doesn't make this disaster any easier to swallow.
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