Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker summed up Ohio State's 56-7 destruction of his team yesterday in Ohio Stadium quite succinctly:
"They get up on you and get the crowd into it and then it's a wrap."
That's exactly what happened as Ryan Day's offense scored touchdowns on its first seven possessions to build a 49-0 halftime lead while Ohio State's defense feasted on a Spartan attack not built to play from behind.
With quarterback C.J. Stroud dialed in to a degree we'd not seen before, his trio of elite receivers - Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba - went nuts on the Spartans combining for 22 catches on 24 targets for 342 yards and five touchdowns... IN THE FIRST HALF.
The second half saw Ryan Day empty the bench as the Buckeyes and their fans began turning focus to next Saturday's showdown in Ann Arbor.
Of course, before we go all in on Michigan prep, here are Five Things from yesterday's annihilation of Michigan State.
ARE THESE NUMBERS REAL?
When an offense puts up 49 points in one half of football against the seventh-ranked team in the country, you know the supporting stats are going to be good. That said, we still must take a second to appreciate the numbers helping illustrate just how sick of a performance Ohio State's offense turned in during the first half.
Ohio State ran 49 plays to score those 49 points. That in an of itself is a pretty nice points per play clip. Even crazier is that of those 49 plays, only two, or 4%, were third down snaps and of course Ohio State converted both.
The Buckeyes averaged 10.2 yards per play in the opening 30 minutes leading to exactly 500 yards of total offense. That's more than Ohio State scored in full games against Minnesota, Penn State and Nebraska, respectively.
Within that 500 yards, two receivers - Olave (140) and Wilson (126) - went for over 100 yards.
Just an incredible performance all around.
TRENCH COAT
A week after producing zero sacks and zero hurries against Purdue, Larry Johnson's front four swarmed Michigan State's offensive line in the decisive first half.
Tyreke Smith continued his resurgent play with a pass breakup and tackle for loss while fellow starting defensive end Zach Harrison came up with a pair of pass breakups.
On the interior, Haskell Garrett disrupted a ton of plays while credited for one tackle for loss and freshman Tyleik Williams blew up a Sparty possession almost single-handedly with a pass breakup on first down before forcing a throwaway on second down leading to a 3-and-out.
Jerron Cage and Javontae Jean-Baptiste each contributed 0.5 tackle for loss.
Roll it up and the defensive line logged four pass breakups, three tackles for loss and a hurry on 37 snaps. With constant push, the front four helped hold then-Heisman hopeful Kenneth Walker III to 26 yards on five carries and the Spartans to just 116 total yards.
In the opening 30 minutes, with Michigan State's offensive line under constant duress, 27% of Sparty's 37 plays were on third down.
PRECISION PASSING
As an old man, I've seen some all-time great individual performances and C.J. Stroud's first half fits into the upper echelon.
With Ohio State running 59 plays in the first half, Stroud completed 32-of-35 passes for 432 yards and six touchdowns. His 91% completion rate is good for third all-time by a Buckeye in a single-game and hell, one of those incompletions was a drop and another fell harmlessly to the turf after what looked like a miscommunication between Olave, Wilson and Stroud.
He set a school record with 17 straight completions with those going for 271 yards and four touchdowns to three different receivers.
Ten of his completions went for at least 15 yards and he even turned upfield for a 7-yard gain on a 2nd-and-1 drawing a bullshit Bronx cheer from some of the faithful in the crowd. Two plays later he found Julian Fleming on a slant for a 28-0 lead.
It was truly a masterful half of football and erased any doubt as to whether or not he'd be in New York as a Heisman finalist in a few weeks and in fact, has him as the current betting favorite.
NO FLY ZONE
With Ohio State's front four setting the tone, the secondary went to work against a Michigan State passing attack averaging 251 yards per game but hampered by the fact everyone in the stadium knew airing it out was the only option. More problematic, quarterback Payton Thorne had to do so without his top two targets in Jayden Reed and Jalen Nailor on the field.
Ohio State's defense harassed Thorne into a 14-for-36 stinker (39%) with just 158 yards and one meaningless fourth quarter touchdown. Thorne managed only two completions for over 15 yards in the first half with a 21-yarder coming to Reed before he exited due to injury. His completion rate and passing yards were both season lows.
Beyond the noted four pass breakups logged by the defensive line, the back seven added seven of their own highlighted by two from cornerback Denzel Burke.
I remain a little concerned Ohio State can be exposed over the middle but on the edges, Burke and Cameron Brown were again real solid.
SAYONORA SENIORS (AND A COUPLE FOURTH-YEAR JUNIORS)
Twenty-four seniors or redshirt juniors played their last game in the Shoe yesterday and damn did they go out with a bang.
Chris Olave made the most of his farewell, turning in a 7-catch, 140-yard performance with two touchdowns. The first tied him with David Boston as the school's all-time touchdown receptions leader and two possessions later he became sole owner of the record via a 43-yard dime from Stroud giving the Buckeyes a 21-0 lead.
There it is. @chrisolave_ just broke David Boston's school receiving TD record (35) , and No. 4 @OhioStateFB is rolling. pic.twitter.com/9aIwYdxrBH
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 20, 2021
With 848 receiving yards so far this season, Olave is likely reach the 1,000-yard mark sometime over the next two games.
The left side of Ohio State's offensive line - Nicholas Petit-Frere and Thayer Munford - shined once more with the bulk of the rushing yards coming to the left side and of course both were brick walls in pass protection.
We already talked about Tyreke Smith's and Haskell Garrett's key moments, Cameron Brown just missed an interception to go along with his pass breakup, Jeremy Ruckert had a 28-yard reception and on and on.
And hey what about Master Teague? The running back who saw his role slashed with the emergence of TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams continued to go about his business and posted team highs with 21 carries for 95 yards. His 1-yard plunge to cap the scoring delighted the OSU faithful, giving Teague a proper sendoff.
Little-used Sam Wiglusz caught two balls and Marcus Williamson logged a pass breakup.
Congrats to all those guys for earning a win they won't forget in their last appearance as players in the Shoe.
With all that out of the way.. Beat Michigan.
- #4 Ohio State 56, #7 Michigan State 7
- • The Buckeyes Dominated Michigan State on Senior Day
- • It Was the Best Day Yet From the Ohio State Defense
- • C.J. Stroud Builds His Heisman Trophy Resume
- • Chris Olave Breaks David Boston's Career Touchdown Receptions Record
- • Ohio State Postgame • Notebook • Quotebook
- • Photos • Five Things • Debriefing • 3 Key Stats • Social Reactions
