Observations from Ohio State’s win over Rutgers

The #3 Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday night, 49-27. Here are some observations from the game.

Justin Fields might be the Heisman frontrunner.

Despite starting the season several weeks after other power five Heisman contenders, such as Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence or Alabama’s Mac Jones, Justin Fields may now be the frontrunner for the award.

Saturday’s game against Rutgers was his best overall game yet- as he accounted for six total touchdowns and threw for 314 yards. With just four incompletions against Rutgers, he now has the same number of incompletions as touchdowns this year (11). Another remarkable stat- zero interceptions through the first three games.

In addition to Trevor Lawrence and Mac Jones, Florida’s Kyle Trask and BYU’s Zach Wilson are also in the Heisman conversation- but no quarterback has been as efficient as Justin Fields. Fields currently has an efficiency rating of 222.40, ahead of Mac Jones by 12 points.

Fields has looked as close to perfect as humanly possible in the first three games and will have a chance to return to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist if he continues to play at such a high level.

We were too “Tuf” on the Linebackers.

After the week one victory over Nebraska, the linebackers received a lot of criticism. The three main LB’s (Tuf Borland, Pete Warner, and Baron Browning) did struggle initially but have since then played at an impressively high level.

Tuf Borland had a great game against Rutgers with five tackles and one sack, he was named the OSU defensive player of the game, and also was recognized as the special teams player of the game.

Warner and Browning both had good games, too. Dallas Gant and Justin Hilliard saw their fair share of playing time as well and played well. Gant recorded five tackles and Hilliard forced a fumble. LB Coach Al Washington has to be pleased with the quality of play he is getting out of his LB unit.

Ohio State didn’t seem to care about the second half.

At halftime, the Buckeyes lead 35-3, all signs were pointing to an absolute blowout. While the game was never exactly close, the Buckeyes did not play nearly as well in the second half. Granted, some second-string defense players came in early in the second half, but that is no excuse, according to Head Coach Ryan Day. “Our expectation is that when the second group gets in there, they pick it up from where the first group left off, and we pull away in the second half.” Day said, “if that’s not happening, then we need to get that fixed.”

“If we practice better, we’ll finish better,” said Ryan Day about needed to close out games better. He also added the team needs to bring their own energy and said it is more challenging to do so when there are no fans in the stadium.

The secondary may be the biggest area of concern.

The secondary covered some passes well but struggled to make tackles. Some of the tackles that were missed came on the trick plays Rutgers pulled, but some were just plain inexcusable. “There is no excuse for anyone missing tackles.” said a frustrated Ryan Day during Saturday’s postgame press conference. That will undoubtedly be an area of focus moving forward.

Despite some sloppy second-half play, Ohio State remains undefeated at 3-0 and will travel to College Park next weekend to take on the 2-1 Maryland Terrapins.

Final Stats:

Total Yards: Ohio State 517, Rutgers 373

Rushing Yards: Ohio State 203, Rutgers 141

Passing Yards: Ohio State 314, Rutgers 232

Total First Downs: Ohio State 25, Rutgers 22

Total Plays: Ohio State 65, Rutgers 81

Turnovers: Ohio State 1, Rutgers 2

Time of Possession: Ohio State 31:09, Rutgers 28:51