Buckeyes crush Indiana 54-7

    Through a driving rainstorm in Bloomington, Indiana, the Ohio State Buckeyes pounded the Indiana Hoosiers 54-7 and reasserted themselves in the eyes of the Hoosiers after giving OSU a semi-close run in the year of the Covid.

Ohio State led 44-7 at the half and eased in the second half or this could have gotten extremely ugly for Indiana.

C.J. Stroud threw four touchdown passes and completed 21 of 28 to lead Ohio State while TreVeyon Henderson scored on two of his nine carries.

Jeremy Ruckert caught two touchdown passes while Jaxon Smith-Nijba caught six passes for ninety-nine yards to lead the receivers.

Ohio State improved to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big 10 and will host Penn State in Columbus next Saturday night in a game that would have been much bigger had the Nittany Lions not lost to lowly Illinois at home Saturday.

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1)  Being honest, I didn't watch much of the second half of this game as it was against the beginning of the Jamel Herring-Shakur Stevenson fight, but C.J. Stroud continues to grow by the game and looks more and more poised in the pocket.

2) Stroud is also learning when to run and when not to run.

Stroud ran only three times, which may have more to do with Indiana's pass rush, which sacked Stroud once, but he is learning when to move when to throw the ball away, and when to tuck the ball down and get whatever yardage he can.

In other words, learning the game.

3) Ohio State only had to use TreVeyon Henderson on nine carries with two of those runs going for touchdowns.

The advantage to having huge first-half performances is that it allows Ryan Day to reduce the number of hits on Henderson or any other running back, give other backs chances to see the field, and limit the odds of Henderson taking an awkward hit and injuring arguably the most important player.

4) Indiana wasn't the team they expected to be before the season and playing without Michael Penix hasn't helped them either but the Indiana offense was especially inept against the often-criticized OSU defense.

5) As humorous as I found Penn State's home loss to Illinois, there is no question that it has taken the shine off the Nittany Lions prime time visit to Columbus.

Had Penn State pulled that game out, the Buckeyes could have boosted their resume' quite a bit with a win over a top ten team.

I'm cutting this review a bit short since it's two days old but I did want to have the game on the site for posterity.

If I have time, I'm hoping to watch and review the first game for the Cavaliers trip as they visit the Denver Nuggets.