The Rewind: What We Learned From 11 Plays In Ohio State's 49-27 Win Against Rutgers

Saturday's result was never in doubt.

Ohio State, a 38-point favorite on Rutgers, raced out to a 35-3 lead by the time it went into the locker room at halftime. Sparked by several trick plays, the Scarlet Knights attempted to keep it close, score 24 second-half points, but they never came close to closing the gap and ultimately fell, 49-27.

Did any major issues arise? What happened both to help Ohio State pull out to a lead and for Rutgers to start scoring? We rewound the film and picked out 11 plays – or sequences of plays – to help explain the 22-point win and what can be learned from it as the Buckeyes move toward the midpoint of their regular season.

1st quarter – 3:07 and 2:33: Jerron Cage tackles Aaron Young for a 1-yard gain, and Haskell Garrett tackles Noah Vedral for a 4-yard run.

A week after Haskell Garrett, Tommy Togiai and Jonathon Cooper diced up Penn State's offensive line, the trio had a comparatively quiet performance versus Rutgers. However, the three were still key in holding the Scarlet Knights to 4.4 yards per carry – or 2.4 yards per carry if you take a 66-yard run on a trick play out of the equation.
Garrett combined the quickest jump off the ball among the defensive linemen with low pad level to penetrate the backfield, giving Young minimal room with which to operate. With a stout defensive line and linebackers who flew around the field, Ohio State didn't allow the Scarlet Knights to get much going on the ground throughout the game.
On the subsequent 3rd-and-9 play, blitzes by Pete Werner and Tuf Borland left Vedral with plenty of green space. Garrett's shoestring tackle singlehandedly prevented a first down.

2nd quarter – 14:29 and 13:59: Tommy Togiai and Antwuan Jackson tackle Isaih Pacheco for a 3-yard run, and Noah Vedral throws an incompletion.

Another example of absolutely nothing going on for Rutgers on the ground. Antwuan Jackson took on an attempted trap block by the pulling right guard and got a hand on Pacheco to slow him down. Tyreke Smith helped finish him off.
While Togiai and Garrett understandably have received the most publicity thus far, Jackson left the field on Saturday after perhaps his best performance as a Buckeye. He held his ground inside, used a few opportunities to penetrate and secured a pair of tackles. The trio of defensive tackles who've played the most – Togiai, Garrett and Jackson – have exceeded expectations thus far.
Nice swipe by Tyler Friday to avoid an overmatched tight end's hands in pass protection followed by a crushing hit on Vedral. Ohio State will need more of those types of pass rushes from the edge later this season.
Unexpectedly, the Buckeyes haven't showcased a four-defensive end Rushmen package at all this fall. On obvious passing downs, they've preferred to either utilize their traditional four-man front or go with a 3-3-5 defense. A bit of a surprise given the depth at defensive end.

2nd quarter – 13:46 and 13:41: Justin Fields throws an incomplete pass to Julian Fleming, and Fields completes a 19-yard pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that's called back due to a holding penalty on Harry Miller.

A theme of Ohio State's 22-point win: Unforced errors and lack of discipline and fundamentals. Dropped passes, poorly timed penalties and missed tackles. Yes, Rutgers did some stuff to make a semi-competitive second half. But the Buckeyes made key errors of their own, too.
Julian Fleming will think about this drop for a while. Justin Fields side-stepped into a better passing lane and delivered a dart that hit the freshman in the hands. It would have been just his second career catch. Might Fleming have housed it if he hung on to the ball? It's possible.
Having Fields at quarterback means he can sometimes evaporate mistakes like the one Fleming made. On the next play, he delivers a strike to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for what should've been a first down. Instead, the referees called holding on Harry Miller for a penalty he just didn't need to commit.
Miller had a rocky season opener, settled down with a strong second game, then took a step back in his third start. The referees whistled him for three holding penalties, and he had some other issues holding onto blocks. He and Josh Myers had continual communication issues at times, too. Ohio State needs better play out of the former five-star lineman.

2nd quarter – 11:28 and 10:52: Trey Sermon rushes for 4 yards, and Sermon runs for a loss of 2 yards.

Could Ohio State have blocked any better for Sermon on first down? Probably not. Wyatt Davis set the edge by scooping the defensive end, Nicholas Petit-Frere drove a linebacker out of the path and Jeremy Ruckert steamrolled a second inside linebacker. Sermon might have scored had he cut inside quicker or avoided a diving ankle tackle.
The rushing issues haven't just been on Sermon, however. On the following play, Fields again hands it off to the Oklahoma transfer who had absolutely nowhere to go. Why? Because Myers completely whiffed on the nose tackle who wrapped the tailback up well behind the line of scrimmage.
Between the struggles of Miller and Myers, who might've played his worst collegiate game as a starting center, the Buckeyes fought through some issues on the interior of their offensive line. They need to play better in general, but it's especially important right now when Ohio State's trying to work on its run game.

2nd quarter – 8:16 and 7:46: Justin Fields completes a pass to Luke Farrell that's negated by a holding penalty on Harry Miller, and he hits Garrett Wilson for a 21-yard pass.

Add these clips to the "Holy crap, Justin Fields is incredible" file. It's filling up.
A beautiful spin move by Fields to avoid the blitzing safety and manage to turn his body around enough to deliver an on-point pass to Luke Farrell just before he went out of bounds. The issue: Referees again called a holding penalty on Miller. First-down pass negated.
It drives Ryan Day crazy to get into situations like these – 2nd-and-22 – where the Buckeyes are well behind the sticks. Luckily for him, he can dial up a Fields-to-Garrett Wilson pass like this one. Made a tough throw and catch look fairly easy.

2nd quarter – 6:21 and 5:49: Justin Fields completes a 4-yard pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and he finds Garrett Wilson for an 8-yard touchdown.

Ohio State's wide receivers are playing at the level where Smith-Njigba's four-yard snag on the sideline is a ho-hum play. That's a tough catch. Yet he maintained his balance and, as any future NFL player does, got both feet inbounds.
A third-down pass went to Wilson? Shocking. Fields loves the sophomore on these downs.
Just a picture-perfect back-of-the-end zone toss by Fields for one of his five touchdowns through the air. These are the types of plays out of the slot that make Wilson especially dangerous from that spot, too. He can do anything and go anywhere from there.

2nd quarter – 3:20 and 2:46: Demario McCall runs for 12 yards, and he catches a 27-yard pass from Fields.

Hello, Demario McCall. Two touches in a row for the enigmatic fifth-year senior.
He's clearly the speediest option among the running backs, as he shows on the 12-yard carry. Rutgers' defensive end crashed down enough for McCall to have a clear path to the outside where steady blocks by Luke Farrell and Chris Olave gave him some room to run.
In what has become almost an expectation, Fields side-stepped a blitzer coming free and gave himself free space to deliver an easy pass to McCall who'd gotten open with a rub. He got another chance to showcase his speed.
What does this lead to? Will he get more touches? No clue. These were his only two moments on offense with the ball on Saturday. He's clearly dynamic with the ball in his hands, especially when Ohio State gets him in space. But those who have bet on his role increasing in the past have been proven wrong.

2nd quarter – 1:49 and 1:27: Master Teague brings in a 23-yard catch, and he runs for a 9-yard touchdown.

Quietly, Teague has turned into a solid passing-game running back both as a blocker and as someone who can leak out of the backfield as a check-down option for his quarterback. He recorded three catches for 37 yards on Saturday.
On the following play, Teague gave everybody a glimpse of what Ohio State needs to see more out of its running backs: Making somebody miss. Davis standing up a defensive tackle and a powerful double team by Miller and Myers opened a hole for Teague who exploded through it and avoided getting tripped up by a charging safety.

3rd quarter – 9:00 and 8:15: Isaih Pacheco runs for a 66-yard gain, and Noah Vedral completes a touchdown pass to Raiqwon O'Neal.

One of approximately 756 trick plays dialed up by Rutgers. Two things to watch: (1) Antwuan Jackson in the middle nearly made the play at the line of scrimmage but got held, and (2) Marcus Hooker had a chance to shut down the run for about 10 yards but instead never even really attempted a tackle, leading to Pacheco's 66-yard rush.
This was a rough game for Hooker, the first-year starting safety. Ohio State doesn't include missed tackles in its official stats, but my unofficial count was he had about five moments where he had a chance to bring somebody down but didn't. Jordan Fuller almost certainly secures the tackle here. Hooker needs to be able to do the same as the single-high deep safety.
Well, what are you going to do about a pass to an offensive lineman? Simply incredible design and execution by Rutgers here. Nothing you can expect Ohio State to do about that.

3rd quarter – 1:00 and 0:52: Noah Vedral throws an incompletion, and he runs for 1 yard on a play that Taron Vincent's called for a facemask penalty.

Zach Harrison's length and pursuit led to the batted-down pass which prevented the first down. A quality play by the sophomore from whom the Buckeyes need to see more. He hasn't done a whole lot yet this year outside of this batted-down pass and his tackle of two Penn State players to open the second half a week ago.
Remember when I mentioned unforced errors? Another prime example right coming up.
On 4th-and-7, Pete Werner stayed at home on the back side to prevent a quarterback run the Buckeyes clearly anticipated, shutting it down for a turnover on downs. Well, that was the case until a flag for a facemask penalty on Taron Vincent got tossed onto the turf.
The Buckeyes should've had the ball. Instead, due to the penalty, Shaun Wade got beat by tight end Jovani Haskins for a touchdown two plays later. McCall downed the ensuing kickoff at the 5-yard line. The Buckeyes punted after a three-and-out, allowing a touchdown on the return.
That one mistake by Vincent helped lead to a pair of Rutgers touchdowns. A teachable moment for him and the entire team.

4th quarter – 8:06 and 7:21: Noah Vedral hits Bo Melton for a 31-yard gain, and Johnny Langan runs for a 1-yard touchdown.

A good find and delivery by Vedral who had an open Bo Melton in the middle of the field. However, Hooker has to secure this for a tackle. Instead of a 10-yard gain, it turns into a 31-yard reception. These are the types of play the Buckeyes can't afford in games that are actually competitive.
With the defensive line slanting inside, Dallas Gant and Marcus Hooker were a step slow to fill the gap the following play. The final touchdown for the Scarlet Knights.

Other Observations from Saturday's Game:

In a similar manner to how Ohio State attacked Penn State the week prior, Rutgers tried to use a ton of pre-snap motion to mess with the Buckeyes. They generally handled it well, though. Credit to the linebackers for another strong game. Pete Werner, Tuf Borland, Baron Browning and Justin Hilliard each made important plays.
Sermon averaged more yards per rush than Teague (5.7 to 5.0) on Saturday, but stats don't tell the entire story. Of his 68 yards on 12 rushes, 36 came on his final carry of the evening when Rutgers' defense parted like the Red Sea. Too often, he runs like he's playing Tetris – trying to slow down, made a decision of where to go and fit himself into a hole rather than find one quickly and explode through. He's been most comfortable getting on the outside and turning the corner while struggling on inside handoffs.
The 3rd-and-8 handoff to Sermon from Rutgers' 40-yard line didn't make any more sense on a rewatch of this game, and nor did the following punt. The tailback ran straight into a jam-packed tackle box and unsurprisingly picked up just 1 yard. A weird, weird series.
Teague is who he is. There's not a ton of flash and he's not much of a big-play threat. But Ohio State can work with what he offers, perhaps combing his inside running ability with more handoffs to Wilson and McCall to serve as the outside rushing attack. It's time to get creative.
Steele Chambers showed some nice burst, though the drive-ending fumble to follow Sermon's 36-yard rush was a tough moment for the redshirt freshman.
Two guys who haven't had the ball come their way two often but have stood out in moments across the first three games: Josh Proctor and Sevyn Banks. Proctor has floated all over the field as a quasi-Bullet. Might he get some more opportunities as the deep safety given Hooker's struggles tackling? It's possible. Either way, the returns have been positive so far. Banks hasn't had many balls come his way, but he's done well in limited throws to the receivers he's covering. The third-year defensive back duo has a major test in front of them with the Maryland matchup coming up.
Another week, another dominant performance by Ohio State's starting offensive tackles. Who would've thought the best two offensive linemen through three games would be Petit-Frere and Thayer Munford?
A telling moment: A miscommunicated snap count led Fields to heave a ball into the air to avoid a sack. Instead of throwing it out of bounds, he essentially went for a 50-50 jump ball to Wilson – though he missed the sophomore. That shows a lot about how much Fields trusts Wilson.
Without a couple of penalties and with a couple of tackles secured, this would have been a completely different second half.