Ohio State football vs. Arkansas State: Offensive grades

The Ohio State football team was able to dismantle Arkansas State 45-12 on Saturday afternoon. It was a game that Buckeye fans were hoping to see the offense play better in after only scoring 21 points against Notre Dame, who we found out isn’t actually any good.

They certainly did that, scoring 45 points in the game. There were several drives in which the Buckeyes scored in less than two minutes. They showed their quick-strike ability on that side of the ball. Here are the grades for each unit of the offense.

C.J. Stroud was excellent in this game. He went 16/24 for 351 yards and threw 4 touchdowns. While completing 2/3 of his passes is pretty good, he also did so without turning the ball over. In fact, the Ohio State football team has yet to turn the ball over in two games this season.

Stroud was able to put himself firmly back in the Heisman Trophy conversation with this performance. He was the favorite to win the award before the season and showed that he can put up elite numbers even without his best weapon on the field. Kyle McCord got some mop-up duty and went 3/4 for 19 yards.

I’m a tough grader when it comes to these postgame grades. That’s why the running backs get only a B+. While TreVeyon Henderson ran for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns on just 10 carries, the Buckeyes only had 141 yards rushing from the running backs in this game.

Part of that is because the Buckeyes had some drives in which they scored quickly so the running backs didn’t get the number of carries they normally would. The backs only got 22 carries total in this one. Maybe Ryan Day needs to run the ball a bit more.

We just talked about the running numbers and a big product of that was the offensive line. They were able to move Arkansas State off the ball and make some holes open up for the backs when they got carries. The pass blocking was pretty decent, although they did allow one sack.

Cade Stover was able to make more of an impact on this game. He had a nice 35-yard catch over the middle, which is exactly the type of play that Ryan Day wants to see out of him. Stover finished with 2 catches for 40 yards and was a good blocker as always.

Even without Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Julian Fleming, the receivers were really good. Marvin Harrison Jr. caught 3 touchdown passes for the second time in his career, matching what he did in the Rose Bowl. He finished the game with 7 catches for 184 yards on top of those touchdowns.

Emeka Egbuka was dynamic again, catching 4 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown. He also had a punt return touchdown that was called back due to leaping over the punt shield, which is something I’ve never heard of. Every time Egbuka touches the ball he does something great.

The Ohio State football team looks to be back on track on offense. They need to keep up this level of play all season long.