5 stars: The best and worst of Ohio State’s escape win over Rutgers
Ohio State Football was in a 4-quarter battle with Rutgers, even though the final score of 35-16 might not show it.
The Scarlet Knights were within five points early in the fourth quarter, before the Buckeyes scored two unanswered touchdowns to seal the deal. The top offensive options came up clutch for Ohio State, while the defense once again put up point to help the cause.
It was another game where the Buckeyes has plenty of good, 5-stars, and bad, 1-star. Find out below which players and units earned those designations today in Ohio State’s win on the road against Rutgers.
The best player on the field, Henderson was awesome again. His running style is fast and physical, regardless of how average this offensive line play has been. On the ground Henderson tore up the Rutgers defense, 128 yards on 22 carries with a score. Not only that, Marvin Harrison Jr. wasn’t his normal self today, so Henderson stepped up, catching 5 balls for 80 yards. Two weeks in-a-row with over 200 total yards from scrimmage for the Buckeyes RB1. He is showing everyone that he’s one of the best playmakers in the country.
This unit game up it’s most points of the year, and you are probably asking why are they this high. Every drive that ended up in points for Rutgers in the first half were field goals, three of them, one that should have probably not happened. They stopped another scoring opportunity in the middle of the fourth quarter as well. It was obvious what defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was trying to do, Rutgers was running well in the first half so, like last year, we saw a lot more blitzing. That’s why a few more big plays were given up, and Rutgers threatened more than expected. The Buckeye defense didn’t allow many points when that happened.
We expect weekly excellence from Harrison Jr., and today he only caught four passes. What he did with half of those is what counts, scoring touchdowns. The normal yardage number wasn’t there, his streak of 4 straight games with over 100 yards was broken, but his touchdown streak stayed alive. Harrison Jr. probably won’t get as much Heisman hype as he did last week, but the two scores keeps him in the conversation.
If you read my key’s this week, one of my points was about stopping Rutgers rushing attack, which the Buckeyes struggled to do. Gavin Wimsatt wasn’t overtly effective through the air coming into the contest and we saw much of the same today. He picked up some solid yardage with his legs, but it was his running back Kyle Monangai that ripped up the rush defense. Over 6 yards-per-carry, 159 yards on 24 touches. The Buckeyes knew they were running, and still couldn’t stop them.
