Sunday, October 10, 2021

Ohio State Stomps Maryland 66-17

   The Ohio State Buckeyes continued their resurgence with a 66-17 crushing of the Maryland Terrapins in Columbus.

C.J Stroud threw five touchdown passes and for 406 yards, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson each caught two touchdowns, Olave and Jaxon Smith-Njigba each finished with over 100 yards receiving and TreVeyon Henderson scored twice and rushed for 102 yards.

Ohio State improved to 5-1 overall (3-0 Big Ten) and will have next Saturday off before traveling to Bloomington to play the Indiana Hoosiers.

Olentangy Offerings

1)  Could C.J. Stroud's shoulder problem and resulting game of rest really have been all that the Buckeyes needed?

Stroud has looked like a different passer since his return and the Buckeye offense is starting to get on one of those"uh oh" rolls that cause other Big Ten contenders to utter an "Oh Sh.." just as they think that they may have a shot at upending the Buckeyes for the East title.

2)  Watching Jameson Williams just rip through SEC secondaries with Alabama makes me remember that Williams would have been the Buckeye's fourth wide receiver had he stayed in Columbus.

3) Here is what teams are going to have to do against Ohio State and unless they can hang 45 -50 points up, opponents have a no-win situation.

Either take away TreVeyon Henderson and allow the pass catchers to run without coverage or cover and give Henderson carte blanche.

4) Henderson was held to a little over 100 yards and I laugh think it's funny to use the word "held" but Maryland put eight men in the box to slow Henderson and that allowed Olave, Wilson, and Smith-Njigba the openings for their large chunks of yardage.

5) The leading tackler with seven and a sack was Steele Chambers at linebacker.

Chambers is the player that was recruited as a tailback but the Buckeyes have wanted to move him to linebacker for quite a while.

Chambers insisted on competing at tailback even in this year's camp before finally agreeing to the move.

It just might earn him a job in the pros down the line.

6) Five more sacks for the Ohio State defense that could have finished with more than that against a less mobile quarterback than Maryland's Taulia Tagovailoa.

The pass rush was expected to be a plus this season and perhaps it is rounding into form.

7) Craig Young's pick-six gave the Buckeyes interception returns for each of the last four games.

8) Talented freshman wideout Emeka Egbuka may have to wait a year before making an impact at receiver but he is doing so in the return game.

Eguka returned only four kickoffs but his 166 yards were good for second in Ohio State history.

9) The off week comes at a good time for Haskell Garrett, who was already dinged up entering the game and left with an injury in the third quarter.

It's unknown if Garrett will be ready for Indiana but Ryan Day seemed optimistic it seemed after the game.

10)  Suddenly, Ohio State has things in order, and with Penn State possibly losing quarterback Sean Clifford, the Buckeyes may have a much easier time with the next few games than I might have thought a month ago. 

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