No. 11 Buckeyes looking at a cake-walk vs. Rutgers
By Willie Lutz
After an absolute beat down of UNLV last Saturday afternoon, Ohio State heads to New Jersey to take on Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights won’t even be the best team wearing scarlet on Saturday. The Buckeyes on the other hand, are looking at another victory cruise.
For the first time this season, Ohio State quarterback JT Barrett looked up to form in the Buckeyes’ 54-21 victory over the UNLV Rebels. Despite the talent disparity between the two teams, Barrett’s ability to zip the rock and find open targets was quite the sight for sore eyes.
The offense is expected to get rolling early and often this Saturday, as Rutgers ranks 34th in passing yards against (179.5 per contest) and 37th in rushing yards against (118.8 per contest).
Even with Barrett’s newly rekindled hot-hand, this game has JK Dobbins written all over its tapestry. Dobbins, who helped salt away the UNLV pairing with 95 yards on 14 attempts seems like a candidate to jog all over the turf of High Point Solutions Stadium.
Dobbins sees the field with a certain level of clarity, at least thus far during the 2017 season. Averaging 7.5 yards per attempt on 69 attempts hints that the running back will continue to see the bulk of the team’s carries going forward.
What does this mean for Mike Weber Jr., who was a breakout talent in 2016? This remains an unknown variable. Going into 2017, the second-year rusher appeared to many as a go-to guy. Now, he has just 42 yards rushing so far on seven carries.
As the season continues, the lack-of-use from Weber is certainly something worth tracking, because his 1,096 rushing yards last season as a freshman were incredibly impressive.
Meanwhile, watch the defense get rolling
Perhaps the most exciting part of the 2016 Buckeyes was that lock-down set of silver bullet defenders. The 2017 scarlet and gray finally look like they now have a stride to their game.
While Ohio State took on lesser-regarded Army and UNLV teams the past two weekends, the Oklahoma and Indiana match-ups gave a lot of promise a group with some question marks.
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Playing turnover ball is a method that could whip Rutgers completely off the field. The Buckeyes who were excellent in stealing the ball in 2016, now sit with just 4 interceptions and 4 recovered fumbles.
Additionally, the team has recorded just 11 sacks which seems low. This is the defensive line that Greg Schiano stated was the most talented he’s ever had, so they need to get after the quarterback with a little more frequency.
This is a Rutgers team who really struggles in the passing game. Senior QB Kyle Bolin has thrown 6 interceptions in 4 games while completing only 57.3-percent of his tosses.
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On paper, this looks like another easy day for the Buckeyes. However, much like the UNLV pairing, it would be nice to see Ohio State make greater strides this week.