Ohio State football vs. Nebraska: Offensive grades

Ohio State beat the Cornhuskers 52-17 in a game that wasn’t close at any point. The offense had some good moments and some bad moments though. This is how they graded out.

Ohio State is supposed to be one of the most talented offensive teams in the country. They showed that in yesterday’s 52-17 victory over Nebraska. While some aspects of the offense were better than others, in general, they were very good. Here is how each unit graded out.

Justin Fields was simply incredible in this game. He completed 20/21 passes for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns. The incompletion wasn’t his fault either, as Chris Olave dropped a touchdown pass that was beautifully thrown. He also added 54 yards and a touchdown on 15 rushing attempts.

Fields showed that he is incredibly poised and one of the best players in all of college football. He did hold the ball too long a couple of times which resulted in sacks. But that looked more like Fields trying to make big plays that just weren’t there. He knows he can’t do that against good teams.

Jack Miller came in late in the fourth quarter and also scored a touchdown on the ground. He ran twice for 23 yards and that touchdown. It was interesting to see that he was the backup for this game instead of C.J. Stroud or Gunnar Hoak. If the Buckeyes get QB play like this all year, they are going to be hard to beat.

The running backs, and running game in general, was disappointing at times. Master Teague started the game and did run for two touchdowns, but also only averaged 3.4 yards per carry. Trey Sermon wasn’t much better with only 4.4 yards per carry. Teague ran for only 41 yards while Sermon had 48.

The best back in the game looked to be Steele Chambers. Chambers ran the ball only four times but gained 32 yards on those carries. He was the only back that seemed to find any daylight. This is a concerning development that the Buckeyes need to fix soon.

Chris Olave and Garret Wilson were clearly Fields’ two favorite targets. Olave caught 6 passes for 104 yards and should have had a touchdown that was dropped. Wilson caught 7 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown on an outstanding ball from Fields.

Only one other receiver caught more than one pass and that was true freshman Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He had one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in the back of the endzone for a touchdown. Julian Fleming also caught a ball for 13 yards. This is a very talented room of players.

The tight ends weren’t overly involved in this game. Jeremy Ruckert and Luke Farrell only caught one ball each. In the run game, they blocked just okay. Really they were just kind of there. At some point, you would think Ohio State would get the tight ends more involved in the gameplan though.

The biggest reason why this grade is so low is because of how good this group was expected to be. They didn’t open up any holes in the running game until the game was well out of hand. They also gave up 3 sacks, although one of them was on Fields for holding the ball too long.

It’s concerning that the offensive line didn’t seem to get much push up the middle. Josh Myers looked overmatched at center at times in this game. The Buckeyes are going to face better players in the trenches in future games, so they better shape up.

All in all, this was still a very good offensive performance. Anytime you score 52 points and get a victory, the offense clearly played well. There are just a few things they have to clean up before they are truly an elite team.