Ohio State vs. Rutgers 2020: Offense grades

Ohio State beat Rutgers 49-27 in another game that was never in doubt. Even so, the offense has concerns that have to be fixed.

Anytime you win a game, it’s a good thing. Ohio State was able to do just that in their 49-27 victory over Rutgers Saturday night. The game wasn’t close after the first quarter and the Buckeyes were never close to losing at any point.

Even with that being the case, there were still some troubling trends that emerged from this game for the offense. The Buckeyes weren’t very effective in the second half. The offense seemed to almost stop trying in this one. Here is how each unit graded out.

Justin Fields once again was sensational. He went 24/28 for 314 yards and five touchdowns while adding a rushing touchdown as well. He was in sync with his receivers and threw the deep ball extremely well all throughout the night.

The only reason this grade isn’t an A+ is because of the lack of offensive movement in the second half. The team only scored 14 points in the second half. Not all of that is on Fields, but he is still responsible for the entire offense being able to move the ball.

There wasn’t a single running back that was the most effective in this game. Master Teague looked good early in the game and finished with 12 carries for 60 yards and a score. Trey Sermon actually had 68 yards on 12 carries. Even Demario McCall had a run for 12 yards.

Steele Chambers had 4 carries for 46 yards but did fumble the ball in the second half. The backs didn’t look that impressive throughout the game, so this will reignite talk that the running game is struggling.

Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave were dominant yet again in this one. Wilson had 6 catches for 104 yards and a touchdown while Olave had 5 catches for 64 yards and two scores. They are both so good and might be the best receiver duo in the country.

The only two other receivers who caught balls were Jameson Williams and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Williams’ only catch was a 38-yard touchdown for the first score of the game. Smith-Njigba had two catches that ended up totaling -1 yards.

Jeremey Ruckert continues to be an excellent red-zone threat for the Buckeyes. He had four catches for 29 yards and a red zone touchdown. He also lined up at fullback a few plays and delivered some great blocks. Luke Farrell also had a snag for five yards. The tight end continues to be a nice part of the offensive gameplan.

This was the big problem for Ohio State last night. The offensive line was simply atrocious. They got called for a bunch of penalties. Wyatt Davis got called for a holding penalty. Harry Miller was so bad that he got called for 3 holding penalties and a false start.

Miller also got beat soundly on plays where he wasn’t holding. He was an absolute trainwreck. Josh Myers also continues to be concerning. He had some running plays where it looked like he wasn’t even trying to stop a defensive lineman from coming through the line for a tackle for a loss.

This is the single biggest area of concern for the Buckeyes moving forward. They allowed two more sacks in this game. Against a better team, the performance of the offensive line would make this team lose, especially with the way they played in the second half.

A win is a win, but the Buckeyes have several things they need to clean up before facing Maryland next week.