Ohio State earned its fourth straight blowout victory against Maryland on Saturday, dominating the Terrapins on both offense and defense on their way to a 62-14 win.
The Buckeyes did struggle on special teams, but were otherwise superior to their opponent in almost every way as they improved to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in Big Ten play.
The following three statistics show why Ohio State won Saturday’s game in such lopsided fashion.
OHIO STATE PASSES FOR 303 YARDS, RUSHES FOR 281 YARDS
The Buckeyes’ offense struck a strong balance on Saturday, accumulating more than 300 passing yards and 270 rushing yards for the fourth time in six games.
Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had perhaps his best performance of the season to date, completing 20 of his 31 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns. He also contributed to the Buckeyes’ success on the ground, rushing for 59 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
The Buckeyes have been criticized this season for neglecting their running game despite its success, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday, when Ohio State ran the ball 50 times. Each of the Buckeyes’ top two running backs had solid showings; J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber each ran the ball 13 times, with Dobbins rushing for 96 yards and a touchdown – though he did lose one fumble – while Weber rushed for 59 yards and a touchdown and added a 53-yard catch.
Dwayne Haskins completed three of four passing attempts for 42 yards, though he too lost a fumble.
Altogether, the Buckeye averaged 6.8 yards per play while scoring nine touchdowns, converting 33 first downs and going 7-of-12 on third downs.
MARYLAND AVERAGES 1.2 YARDS PER PLAY
Had it not been for a four-play, 27-yard touchdown drive on Maryland’s final possession of the game, at which point all of Ohio State’s starters were out of the game, the Terrapins would have averaged only 0.76 yards per play (39 yards on 51 plays).
The Terrapins found absolutely nothing that worked against the Buckeyes’ defense on Saturday. Down to their third-string quarterback in Max Bortenschlager, the Terrapins mostly avoided throwing the ball; Bortenschlager attempted only 12 passes, completing only three for 16 yards, before being knocked out of the game on a hit that was ruled targeting by Ohio State cornerback Damon Arnette late in the third quarter. Caleb Henderson, who replaced Bortenschlager, attempted only one pass, a deep ball that was broken up by Ohio State freshman cornerback Amir Riep.
Maryland spent most of the game trying to run the ball against the Buckeyes, but it didn’t have any success in that regard, either, finishing with just 50 net yards – the Terrapins gained 125 but lost 75 yards on sacks and tackles for loss – on 42 rushing attempts.
The Terrapins had only two offensive plays in Saturday’s game that went for more than nine yards: Ty Johnson had a 35-yard run in the third quarter, and Javon Leake had a 20-yard touchdown run on Maryland’s final offensive play of the game, but that was it.
Maryland finished the game with only six first downs.
OHIO STATE GOES 7-OF-8 IN RED ZONE
The Buckeyes hadn’t been particularly efficient in the red zone entering Saturday’s game, scoring only 16 touchdowns on 27 red-zone trips in their first five contests, ranking them just 74th in the country in red zone touchdown percentage (59.26).
Ohio State improved those numbers in a big way on Saturday, making eight trips to the red zone and scoring touchdowns on all but one of them.
The Buckeyes made it inside the 10-yard line on each of their seven successful trips, finishing three of them with touchdown passes and four of them with touchdown runs.
The only unsuccessful red zone trip came in the third quarter, when Ohio State gained zero yards on three straight passing yards from the 12-yard line, forcing the Buckeyes to settle for a 29-yard field goal attempt which Sean Nuernberger missed wide left.
