Ohio State football vs. Rutgers: Offensive grades

The Ohio State football team was able to beat Rutgers on Saturday 49-10 in yet another game that wasn’t close. While the Buckeyes missed covering by a single point, they still played pretty darn well. Here are the grades for every unit on offense.

This may be a harsh grade, but C.J. Stroud has set such a high standard throughout his career that this grade seems right. This was the worst game of the season for Stroud. He finished 13/22 for just 154 yards and two touchdowns. Stroud also threw a truly terrible interception.

When Stroud threw that interception, it was into quadruple coverage. I still have no idea what he was thinking. There were also several instances close to the goal line where Ryan Day was clearly trying to get Stroud some Heisman numbers. Stroud wasn’t able to convert on those instances until very late. Rough go for Stroud, but it didn’t really matter.

Right before the game, we learned that TreVeyon Henderson was a game-time decision because of an injury. He ended up not playing and that gave Miyan Williams the opportunity to take all of the carries. Boy did he deliver on the opportunity given to him.

Williams ran the ball 21 times for 189 yards and a program-tying 5 touchdowns. Williams ties the program record for rushing touchdowns in a game that was held by Keith Byars. That’s pretty good company to be with if you ask me. Dallan Hayden got carries late in the fourth quarter and finished with 9 carries for 28 yards.

Williams was spectacular and has been the best running back on the Ohio State football team this year so far. If he keeps running it like this, he’s going to be the starter the rest of the year.

Because Stroud was off in this game, that didn’t give the receivers much of a chance to shine. Julian Fleming did have 4 catches for 51 yards and a touchdown. Marvin Harrison Jr. also picked up a touchdown catch too. While Emeka Egbuka did have 4 catches for 70 yards, he also muffed a punt after Rutgers’ first series of the game and that led to Rutgers’ only touchdown of the game.

Again, because Stroud was off, Cade Stover wasn’t much of a factor. He only had one catch for 12 yards. Gee Scott Jr. had two catches for just 7 yards. Both were impactful in the running game with their blocking though.

The offensive line for the Buckeyes is one of the big reasons that Williams was so good in this game. He had huge holes to run through all game long because of the good work the guys up front did. The only reason why this grade isn’t higher is that they did allow a sack.

This wasn’t the sharpest game that the offense has played this year. But because they are so good, it was still enough to win by a comfortable margin.