Ohio State football vs. Notre Dame: Offensive grades

Whenever you start the season out with a win it’s a good thing. It doesn’t matter how it happens. A win is a win, especially against a top-five team. That was the case for the Ohio State football team last night after beating Notre Dame in a semi-rock fight 21-10.

It was a semi-rock fight because Ohio State’s offense was not at its best. After scoring the most points and gaining the most yards per game last season, a lot was expected of the Buckeye offense in the opener. They weren’t great, but they were good when they needed to be.

C.J. Stroud comes into this season as the favorite to win the Heisman trophy. While he didn’t throw for a bazillion yards against the Irish, he was still very efficient. He finished the game 24/34 for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did this despite losing Jaxon Smith-Njigba to injury.

Stroud was able to keep his cool even when the Buckeyes were behind in the second half. Notre Dame isn’t a top-five team for nothing. They have some talented guys on defense. Stroud did enough to win the game and that’s all that matters.

Running the ball was going to be key for the Buckeyes to win this game, Surprisingly, it wasn’t TreVeyon Henderson who had the big moment in the rushing game. While he had 15 carries for 91 yards, it was Miyan Williams who stole the shoe on the final drive for the Bucks.

Williams finished the game with 14 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown, which he scored on that final drive. On that drive, Williams was the focal point of the offense and was able to wear down Notre Dame’s front seven and keep getting first downs.

The offensive line had a lot of questions coming into this game. They struggled to push the line of scrimmage around last year and had some problems in the short-yardage running game. They were pretty good against Notre Dame, especially late.

Having over 170 yards rushing against a top-five team is solid. Allowing just one sack is also a good start, especially when the Ohio State football team was going against a player who had 11 sacks a year ago by himself. It was a solid performance for the offensive line.

This grade is more of a function of how Ryan Day uses his tight ends. Cade Stover wasn’t a big factor in the passing game, catching only 3 passes for just 14 yards. He was pretty solid blocking in the run game though. The low receiving numbers keep him from getting a higher grade.

This was the story of the offense for me. After Smith-Njigba went down, the receivers struggled to get open consistently. Emeka Egbuka was pretty good, catching 9 passes for 90 yards and a touchdown. After him though, the rest of the unit wasn’t great.

Xavier Johnson is what keeps this grade relatively high. He came into the slot once JSN was ruled out for the rest of the game and had a big impact. He had the touchdown that gave the Buckeyes the lead in the second half and then preceded to make the tackle inside the 10-yard line on the ensuing kickoff.

Both JSN and Julian Fleming should be back next week so that should help this unit. Even so, I was underwhelmed by this group in the opener. All that matters is that the Ohio State football team keeps winning. That’s what they did against a really good Notre Dame team.