Three Key Stats: Ohio State Puts Together a Complete Game to Destroy Michigan State in East Lansing

Mel Tucker had an awful Saturday.

And who could blame him for not being happy? Despite watching his team get a gift-six on No. 3 Ohio State's second possession, the Buckeyes destroyed his Michigan State Spartans, 49-20, in East Lansing Saturday to improve to 6–0 on the season.

614 Total Yards

It was very kind of Ryan Day and his team to pay homage to their area code by hanging 614 yards on the Spartans, with 377 yards coming through the air and 237 on the ground. The Buckeyes had their way with Michigan State's defense, putting seven touchdowns on the board with three of those scores coming on drives of 90 yards or longer.

Ohio State hung 29 first downs on the Spartans and averaged 8.4 yards per play, including an astounding 16.4 yards per completion.

Oh, and they put together another 100-100x2 performance with TreVeyon Henderson getting 118 on the ground (6.2 per) and Emeka Egbuka (143) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (131) each going for 100 or more receiving.

6 Passing Touchdowns

C.J. Stroud did throw an early pick-six on an early route miscommunication with Egbuka, but beyond that, he was damn near perfect at Spartan Stadium, going 21/26 for 361 yards and six touchdowns for a ridiculous 265.9 passer rating. With the six touchdown strikes, Stroud became the first player in Big Ten history to throw for six or more touchdowns in three different games. Not bad for a guy with 18 starts under his belt.

Stroud had completion streaks of nine and 11 on the afternoon and tossed three touchdowns to Harrison and one each to Egbuka and Gee Scott Jr. – Scott's first receiving touchdown as a Buckeye.

One week after passing for a career-low 154 yards in a 49-10 win against Rutgers, Stroud was damn near perfect, piling up another incredible Saturday.

7 Rushing Yards

As Mel Tucker found out, you're in for a bad time whenever your team finishes with seven rushing yards in a game. Elijah Collins led the Spartans with nine rushing yards Saturday – that's right, nine rushing yards as the Spartans rushed 20 times for seven yards, good enough (is “good” the right word here?) 0.4 yards per tote. Here's how bad things were on the ground for Sparty: they picked up just one rushing first down.

Ohio State's four sacks – 2.5 of them courtesy of Mike Hall Jr. – put a dent in that rushing number, for sure, but even sack-adjusted, the Spartans finished with just 38 true yards on the ground, and that's a recipe for disaster.

Bonus Stats

Michigan State finished with more points than rushing yards, becoming the 13th team to ever "accomplish" that feat against Ohio State. The Buckeyes are 12–1 in those games (the lone loss coming to Minnesota in 1981)… After hauling in three touchdown receptions, Marvin Harrison Jr. now has three such games with three scores, breaking a tie he held with Joey Galloway for the most in program history… With six passing touchdowns, C.J. Stroud passed Justin Fields for second all-time in the career list and is sitting on 69 (nice)… Ohio State has scored 20 or more points in 67 consecutive games – three off Oklahoma's FBS record of 69-straight games from 2016 to 2021… Ohio State's touchdown streak ran to 15 consecutive quarters before the Buckeyes failed to score in the fourth. OSU now has touchdowns in 21 of 24 quarters played this season.