The domination continues. The Ohio State Buckeyes smacked the Michigan Wolverines again, making it eight straight wins in what many consider to be the best rivalry in college football and one of the best in all of sports.
This rivalry has an amazing history, reaching its apex during the ten-year war between Woody and Bo, but the programs are in very different places right now. The Big Ten used to be dominated by the Big Two – Michigan and Ohio State. Now the conference is dominated by Ohio State and Michigan is trying to stay relevant in the second tier with Wisconsin, Penn State and Iowa.
Ohio State fans have been anxious to see just what the Buckeyes had in Justin Fields after his adventure with the transfer portal. After the Buckeyes jumped to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter against Lane Kiffin’s over-matched FAU squad, we learned a few things but not that much.
We knew Fields is blazing fast, and we saw him explode untouched for an easy 51-yard touchdown run off a read option. That wasn’t a surprise. We also saw him hit wide open receivers in stride, confirming that he has a good arm.
But we also saw Fields and the Ohio State offense get conservative and stall a bit after building that huge lead. Ryan Day seemed happy that Fields didn’t come close to throwing an interception. Fields often defaulted to running with the ball as opposed to trying tougher throws. We’ll see that a lot this season, but we’ll also need to see in coming weeks if Fields can make the tough throws when needed.
As for the Buckeyes, things looked so easy early on, and then FAU decided to start playing. The young offensive line certainly needs to develop more. We should have seen them control the game with J.K. Dobbins runs after building that lead, but FAU was able to stuff the Buckeye running game too often for comfort.
The greatest rivalry in college football produced another fun game (for Ohio State fans) while the overall rivalry is suffering a bit. Michigan isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.
The isn’t The Ten Year War. Urban Meyer is 7-0 versus Michigan. Jim Harbaugh is 0-4 against the Buckeyes.
Michigan was favored on the road against a Buckeye team that had all sorts of drama, not to mentioned a defense that has been royally screwed up by Greg Schiano. There was plenty of smack talk coming from Michigan players and fans, but that ended badly for them yesterday.
This article from Bob Wojnowski gives a good overview of the problems with Jim Harbaugh’s program. Harbaugh’s basic offense that relies on power running works well against lesser opponents but just doesn’t cut it against a talented team like the Buckeyes.
Keith Jackson, the voice of college football for so many years, has passed. Here’s his call on the last play when the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated Miami for the 2002 National Championship.
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I’ll admit it. I was skeptical about JT Barrett after the Oklahoma game. I didn’t think he could fix the passing game and perform at a high level against a team like Penn State. JT proved me and plenty of other doubters wrong tonight.
JT was simply fabulous. He completed 33 of 39 passes for 328 yards, 4 TDs and no picks. The Buckeyes were down 21-3 at one point and then down 15 points two times in the second half, but JT put the team on his back and imposed his will on Penn State.
Meanwhile, Saquon Barkley started the game with a spectacular kickoff return for a touchdown, and followed that with a 36-yard touchdown run, but then was stuffed by the Ohio State defense for the rest of the game. He only gained a net 8 yards on his other 20 carries! He’s a hell of a talent, but the kid is human and tonight showed some of the hype had gotten to ridiculous levels.
The Buckeyes tried to give this game away with terrible special teams play and some questionable play calls in the red zone, but they moved the ball at will against Penn State and now have a clear shot at the College Football Playoff if they can win out. Penn State will likely need a lot of help.
