It's officially Purple Baylor week, y'all.
Dwayne Haskins has thrown for 546 yards, nine touchdowns and just one pick in like, six quarters of football and somehow the national consensus is still "we'll wait and see what he does against stiffer competition!"
Bless 'em, cause folks like that are the reason the Bucks opened as 12.5-point favorites instead of a more realistic 21.5. This game's going to be a bloodbath, and it seems few people outside of Columbus realize it.
But before we get there, we're going to have to do a little Rutgers postmortem.
ICYMI:
- Debriefing
- Five Things
- Notebook
- Quotebook
- Gif-Cap
- Social Reax
- Players of the Game
- Statagram
- Dwayne Haskins and Tate Martell combine for 30-for-33 through the air.
- The Buckeye defense bounces back after Oregon State performance.
- Michael Thomas' career day.
- Denzel Ward's dazzling debut.
Word of the Day: Fugacious.
DEEP BALL BACK! I can't tell you how many times I've typed the words "deep ball" the past two seasons, but folks, it seems Dwayne Haskins and Co. has finally brought it back!
From Doug Lesmerises of Cleveland.com:
The one thing Haskins didn't do last week was hit any true deep balls because they weren't there for the taking. Saturday, they were, and he dropped both opportunities onto the hands of Johnnie Dixon, for a 38-yarder and a 44-yarder.
It seemed normal, when in the past confetti cannons may have gone off.
"We were trying to plan up some post routes today," Haskins said. "Just being able to, with the weather and seeing Johnnie get open like that, it's a lot of fun for me. Basically he's wide open for me from that perspective. Johnnie did a great job today."
Haskins literally could not have handed Dixon those balls any better. Dixon just ran, put his arms out and the ball dropped in his hands like hand sanitizer from an automatic restroom dispenser.
God help TCU.
TATHAN FOOTBALL. One of the most mind-boggling #takes I've heard floating around recently is that Tate Martell can't throw a football.
His biggest and most dangerous asset is his legs, I'll concede that, but the dude played three years at Bishop Gorman, never lost a game as a starter and tossed 113 touchdowns to just nine interceptions.
He's not Dwayne Haskins, but to say he can't throw a football is just lazy. And he showed that on Saturday, completing 10-for-10 passes – the most accurate performance in Buckeye football history – for 121 yards and a deep bomb to Terry McLaurin.
From Colin Gay of The Lantern:
When hiked the ball, he stepped back, looking to throw, stepped up in the pocket, revved up his arm, crow-hopped like a centerfielder trying to throw a runner out at home plate, and fired. Redshirt senior Terry McLaurin was on the other side of the throw, bringing in the 51-yard pass for Martell’s first collegiate touchdown.
That throw, that opportunity, was what Martell had been wanting for a long time.
“I’ve been waiting for quite some time now ever since, I think, really the end of my senior year, after redshirting last year,” Martell said. “It was just fun getting out there.”
He then, of course, dazzled with his legs, but I think he more than proved he's a capable quarterback that can kill you in a lot of ways – he's not just a gimmick.
We push each other to be great! Proud of the way you played yesterday! Thanks bro https://t.co/24iyR8gRdI
— Dwayne Haskins, Jr (@dh_simba7) September 9, 2018
Crazy that Ohio State's going to have back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners at quarterback. I'm not sure I would even believe it if it weren't true.
SOFT TOSS. Chase Young was the victim of what has to be the softest ejection in college football history. When you really think about it, he was effectively tossed for being too happy too many times.
Young's first penalty came when he spiked the football after a sack where he appeared to cause and recover a fumble (in which case, it should be a penalty if you don't spike the ball, in my humble opinion). The second was when he ran onto the field to celebrate Shaun wade's first-ever interception.
But I don't think it will happen again.
From Tony Gerdeman of TheOzone.net:
Fortunately for the Buckeyes, it didn’t cost them the game — nor does it cost Young any time in the TCU game — but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be costly in the future.
“Well, I love the emotion and the fever that he plays with, we just have to make sure we don’t let it get in the way of us winning,” defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said after the game.
“In a tight ball game it would have been a shame to lose Chase. He understands. I think he’s a young guy, but he plays with great emotion. He’s a really good player. He’s really hard to block. It’s not going to be a big thing, we’ve just got to kind of make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Aside: I will go to my grave believing that was a fumble. The ball was clearly knocked out of his hand and the only reason it didn't come "loose" is because Young thrust it into buddy's body until they hit the ground.
LOSING THE AP CROWN. The bad news of the weekend: the Buckeyes are no longer the kings of the AP Poll.
From ESPN.com:
Alabama is No. 1 at being No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll.
The Crimson Tide have made their 106th overall appearance at the top of the AP rankings, which started in 1936, passing Ohio State for the most by any school.
Alabama overtaking Ohio State in the number of times it's been atop a superannuated subjective poll with no actual ramifications is quite literally the worst thing to happen in the realm of Buckeye football since the season started.
All things considered, this is an L I'll take.
FOOTBALL SCHOOLS. Where were you the day Kentucky and Kansas became football schools?
On Saturday, Kansas snapped a 46-game road losing streak dating back to Sept. 12, 2009, and somehow that wasn't the longest streak that ended over the weekend, because Kentucky ended Florida's 31-game winning streak over the Wildcats, marking the end of the longest active winning streak over an opponent in FBS.
And Kentucky's campus promptly turned into a war zone:
This doesnt even look real pic.twitter.com/Srpp3EjAbm
— Nick Roush (@RoushKSR) September 9, 2018
Look at you, Kentucky, celebrating a regular-season football win over a middling conference opponent with more vigor than a basketball national title. You've done it, you're a football school now.
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