Another sluggish start beset Ohio State's offense on Saturday, but the Buckeyes eventually ran away from Indiana to record their fifth with of the 2016 season.
J.T. Barrett struggled to throw the ball all game but it didn't matter because of how Ohio State's defense played and the Buckeye rushing attack. Cameron Johnston punted well to flip field position in the second half to help Ohio State to a 38-17 win.
Here are three key statistics from No. 2 Ohio State's second Big Ten win of 2016.
Ohio State Out-Rushes Indiana 290-99
Barrett went more than a quarter without completing a pass. While Indiana put together a pair of solid drives to keep within striking distance, Barrett's legs and the Ohio State offensive line picked up enough first downs to hold the lead.
Barrett led all players with 137 rushing yards on an abnormally high 26 carries. He also scored once. Mike Weber found the end zone twice and finished with 71 yards.
Meanwhile, Indiana never found success in the middle of the field on the ground, though it wasn't for a lack of trying. Kevin Wilson's team ran for just 99 yards on 40 attempts, a mere 2.5 yards per attempt, with the biggest failure coming early in the fourth quarter on 4th-and-1 at the 4-yard line.
Down by 14 points and just having got the ball back after a Barrett interception with a position to make things interesting, Wilson called for a Devine Redding run up the gut that Nick Bosa, Michael Hill and the rest of Ohio State's front seven stuffed. Redding finished with 22 yards on 78 attempts to lead the Hoosiers.
Ohio State rode Barrett's legs to win. Indiana couldn't do the same.
Curtis Samuel 9.1 Yards Per Touch
Urban Meyer plans to take a reporter's question to heart ahead of his team's visit to Wisconsin next week: Curtis Samuel needs to touch the ball much more than he did on Saturday, and earlier in the game.
“It is duly noted,” Meyer said.
Samuel ran the ball nine times for 82 yards and one touchdown, tying Barrett for the longest rush of the game at 27 yards. He didn't touch the ball in the first quarter, however, an interesting plan of attack considering how he entered Saturday ranked 10th in the country in all-purpose yards per game with 168.3.
Samuel is a difference maker and showed it again on Saturday. Ohio State just didn't use him enough.
Cameron Johnston 49.2 Yards Per Punt Average
Punters are people, too. And without Cameron Johnston, Ohio State would have been in real trouble against Indiana.
Johnston punted six times at a 49.2-yard-per-boot clip, pinning Indiana inside its 20-yard line three times. Only once did he send a kick into the end zone for a touchback and his coverage team missed an opportunity to down it. Three of Ohio State's six scoring opportunities began inside the Indiana 40-yard line due to defense or special teams. Johnston is a big part of that.
Mitchell Paige is dangerous in the return game and open field in general, yet Johnston and the punt team did not provide him an opportunity to hurt Ohio State in that area of the game. Paige either fair caught the ball or watched it roll dead.
“We changed some things because that kid's a ridiculous punt returner,” Meyer said. “And we have worked so hard on getting our guys—the punter did a great job and our three guys, they had zero return yards on five, six punts.”
