Ohio State Football: Buckeye Leafs for FAU game
The second half started with a better drive by the Owls after several key passes by Chris Robison and a roughing the passer penalty by Davon Hamilton before the drive stalled out, resulting in an FAU Field Goal.
The Buckeyes followed a poor drive and near safety on defense with a 52-yard drive that ended in another Ruckert TD catch from six yards out.
The Ohio State defense finally gave in to the FAU offense, similar in some ways to last season. The Buckeyes gave up a 75-yard TD drive ending in a 3-yard TD rush by Larry McCammon III and two-point conversion pass by Robison that came from too much time and poor coverage.
That was followed that up with a TD drive by Ohio State after a failed onside attempt from Lane Kiffin that went out of bounds. With a couple of key passes to Olave and hard-fought running gains by Fields and Dobbins, who jumped over the pile from a yard out, the Buckeyes took a 28-point lead.
The next drive was another one by FAU that showed the worst of last year’s shortcomings, particularly a 38-yard pass to Tavaris Harrison. The drive finished with a TD pass to TE John Raine, cutting the Ohio State lead to 21.
A solid dose of Dobbins and Master Teague stalled and resulted in a 46-yard FG by Blake Haubeil, giving the Buckeyes a 45-21 lead with 3 minutes left.
FAU back-up QB Justin Agner came in for the final drive of the game for the Owls, which resulted in an interception by Josh Proctor on a lofted pass by Agner that stayed in the air for far too long.