Urban Meyer's triumphant return to the sideline saw Ohio State improve to 4-0 on the season following a 49-6 thumping of the Tulane Green Wave.
The Buckeyes improved to 24-2 in the month of September and 41-3 in home games under Meyer.
Scoring touchdowns on its first six possessions, Ohio State built a 42-6 lead at intermission and played reserves in the second half.
Ohio State now gets set to take its perfect record on the road to face Penn State in primetime next Saturday night but before we go all-in on the Nittany Lions, here are Five Things from the dismantling of Tulane.
OLD NO. 7
Dwayne Haskins, ladies and gentlemen.
In his fourth career start, Haskins ho-hummed his way to 21 completions in 24 attempts for 304 yards and five touchdowns.
That ridiculous 87.5% completion rate upped his season average to 75.7% and he has 16 touchdown tosses against one interception and 1,194 yards, or 298.5 per game. For perspective, Troy Smith holds the school's single-season completion rate record with a 65.3% mark in his 2006 Heisman Trophy campaign. Haskins is also making a run at Joe Germaine's single-season record or 277.5 passing yards per game.
Haskins made it four-straight games with at least 20 completions which is a record under Meyer at Ohio State. J.T. Barrett had three-straight games of at least 20 completions once each in 2017 and 2016. Haskins' next 20-completion game this year would also tie Barrett for the most games in the Meyer era of at least 20 completions in a single-season (5 in both 2017 and 2016).
Obviously, Haskins will face a much stiffer test next Saturday night in Happy Valley against a Penn State pass defense yielding 173.3 yards per game. But the way he's looked through the first four outings, it feels like the aerial attack will be tough to stop no matter the opponent.
Judging from the clean pocket, there's exactly a 95.5% chance this pass was completed.
IN THE ZONE SIX
Salute to Brian Hartline's unit, once again.
For the fourth-straight game, a different receiver led the team as Parris Campbell went bonkers with a career-best eight catches for 147 yards and a pair of scores (14, 37).
Campbell's huge day followed K.J. Hill's six-catch, 95-yard, two touchdown outing versus TCU, Johnnie Dixon's four grabs for 89 yards and a pair of scores against Rutgers and Terry McLaurin's four-reception, 121-yard outing with two trips to the endzone against Oregon State in the season opener.
Credit Austin Mack as well for his three-catch, 32-yard day on four targets featuring an acrobatic 14-yard touchdown grab after a four-drop night against the Horned Frogs. Dude is fine. I still say he has the best hands on the team or else he's right behind Hill.
And how about the downfield blocking today? Hartline's troops did work on the outside highlighted by Terry McLaurin, Binjimen Victor, Johnnie Dixon and C.J. Saunders, with Campbell often the benefactor as he leveraged key blocks to chew up YAC.
IT WAS ALL YELLOW
Welp, Ohio State still sucks at not committing penalties.
The Buckeyes came into the game ranked 84th in the country in penalties per game at 7.3 and pushed their tally to an even 8.0 per outing (105th nationally) after 10 flags for 89 yards against the Green Wave.
Left guard Malcolm Pridgeon committed, unofficially, his fourth penalty of the year which was also his third holding flag in four games.
Rashod Berry was flagged for a pair of holding penalties and now has, by my count, four penalties on the season also including three for holding.
Jake Hausman and Justin Hilliard both picked up unsportsmanlike conduct flags giving Ohio State four of those on the young season. The Buckeyes also have six false starts to date.
The mountain of miscues have yet to cost Ohio State a game but another 10 flags on the road in Happy Valley would be an ill-advised strategy.
Chase Young posted a TFL against Tulane giving him 3.0 on the season.
DEEP PENETRATION
Once again, Ohio State's defense, the defensive line in particular, set up shop in the offensive backfield, creating havoc all game long for Tulane's run-heavy attack.
The Green Wave actually managed to reach 100 yards rushing but on just 2.4 per attempt which even included a 38-yard burst from Corey Dauphine as the Buckeyes amassed four sacks and 14 tackles for loss, good for a 60-yard haircut to Tulane's net.
A blast from the past, Dante Booker did work in mop up duty with 3.0 TFL while the defensive line came up with 5.5 TFL led by Dre'Mont Jones' 1.5 and Tyler Friday's first collegiate sack.
The starting defensive front, attempting to replace Nick Bosa and Robert Landers, played just a half and should have Landers back for Penn State. The group will need to come up big next week considering the back seven's struggles to eliminate big plays. Containing Penn State's Trace McSorley and Miles Sanders starts up front with Chase Young, Jones, Landers and Jonathon Cooper.
WHAT'S THE RUSH?
Ohio State's offense has been lighting up the scoreboard behind an electric aerial attack but what about the running game?
It's admittedly tough to evaluate particularly in blowouts because so many reserves see action. That said, the rushing attack has realized a decrease in rushing yards and yards per carry in each of the four games thus far.
| OPPONENT | RUSH ATT | RUSH YARDS | YARDS PER CARRY | TOUCHDOWNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OREGON STATE | 53 | 375 | 7.1 | 5 |
| RUTGERS | 40 | 225 | 5.6 | 2 |
| TCU | 42 | 182 | 4.3 | 1 |
| TULANE | 38 | 151 | 4.0 | 2 |
J.K. Dobbins carried it 11 times versus Tulane for 55 yards and Mike Weber registered six carries for 18 yards before leaving with a gimpy ankle that had him in street clothes after the half though Meyer said post-game Weber would be good to go for next weekend. During a first half featuring mostly the starting lineup, the Buckeyes totaled 97 yards rushing on 4.6 a pop.
Averaging 4.0 yards per carry for the full game, if you adjust for sacks, Ohio State's yards per carry climbed to 4.7 against the Green Wave.
Of course, against Ohio State's toughest foe to date, TCU, Dobbins looked impressive rushing for 121 yards on 18 carries (6.7 ypc) so I'm not intending to cause alarm here, just saying it would be nice to see Ohio State's rushing attack looking a little more lethal and, obviously, see Weber at full strength for Saturday night.
