Ohio State's 2016 season began in raucous fashion Saturday with a 77-10 dismantling of the Bowling Green Falcons.
Urban Meyer put his young group of talented playmakers on full display against the program that gave him his first head coaching job, putting together an absurd offensive performance that wrecked the record books. The Falcons led for all of 1:39 after Brandon Harris intercepted J.T. Barrett and returned it 63 yards for a touchdown. Barrett threw a dime to K.J. Hill for a score from 47 yards out on the ensuing possession then two more touchdowns before the first quarter ended.
An impressive performance against a MAC team only holds so much weight, but let's take a look at three key stats to Ohio State's dominating victory.
776 Total Yards
That number represents Ohio State's total offense from Saturday, a mark that broke an 86-year old program record. The Buckeyes tallied 718 yards against Mount Union in 1930.
Ohio State didn't just do it one way against the Falcons, however. J.T. Barrett racked up 349 passing yards and six touchdown passes before giving way to redshirt sophomore Joe Burrow. Mike Weber recorded 136 yards on the ground to lead five players — Weber, Curtis Samuel, Demario McCall, Dontre Wilson and Barrett — that had at least 30 yards rushing.
Samuel showed why he is such an explosive weapon with 261 total yards, including 177 as a receiver to go with two touchdowns. Wilson also eclipsed the 100 all-purpose yard mark, finishing with 101. He also scored twice. Even freshman Demario McCall scored twice, once on the ground and as a receiver out of the backfield, and finished with 90 total yards.
To put it simple: Yards were there for the taking Saturday, and Ohio State took as many as it could get.
69 Rushing Yards Allowed
This #nice total is the number of rushing yards Ohio State allowed Bowling Green on Saturday. The Falcons lost leading rushing Travis Greene (1,299 yards, 15 touchdowns in 2015) to graduation but Fred Coppet recorded 825 yards and five scores in a reserve role. A sneaky runner, the Buckeyes held him to 38 yards on 12 carries Saturday.
All told, it took 28 carries for Bowling Green to gain 69 yards, a 2.5 yards per carry average. Mike Jinks had to abandon the running game as Ohio State's lead grew, but Luke Fickell's defense performed well despite boasting nine new starters.
James Knapke also finished just 12-of-33 passing for 110 yards and threw two interceptions. Ohio State recorded two sacks and consistently blew up rushing plays at or beyond the line of scrimmage.
41 First Downs
Ohio State threatened to match its school record for first downs in a game but fell a handful shy. The Buckeyes had 45 first downs in a 50-28 shootout victory over Cincinnati in 2014 and ended the day with 41 on Saturday.
J.T. Barrett distributed the ball well, doing so much better than last season and looking somewhat like the player that finished fifth in the 2014 Heisman Trophy voting. Nine different players caught passes and only backup tight end A.J. Alexander did not reach the double-digit receiving yards.
Ed Warinner and Tim Beck teamed up to call a masterful game against an outmatched opponent, complete with option runs to Curtis Samuel and Dontre Wilson, zone reads to Mike Weber and a slew of passes completed to a bevy of receivers. It resulted in the chain gain breaking quite a sweat when the Buckeyes had the ball.
