Ohio State barely had to shift past first gear to cruise past Purdue on Saturday.

The second-ranked Buckeyes (8-1) sent the Boilermakers (1-8) to an eighth straight defeat with a 45-0 win at The Shoe. In every facet of the game, Ohio State dominated. And the performance moved the Buckeyes one step closer to another top-10 showdown.

Ohio State will have one more tune-up game before a date with Indiana. And, in all reality, that’s what Saturday felt like — a tune-up game. Purdue never threatened. Purdue was never going to threaten.

Here are 3 takeaways from the game.

Will Howard wheels and deals

The first touchdown of Ohio State’s day came courtesy of Will Howard’s legs.

The Buckeye quarterback connected with Jeremiah Smith for 25 yards on his first pass attempt of the game, but the Buckeyes’ initial drive immediately stalled out after that chunk play. Purdue went 3-and-out on its next possession and Ohio State blocked the ensuing punt to set the offense up with first-and-goal from the Purdue 8.

On fourth down from the 1, Howard punched it in for his sixth rushing score of the year.

From there, the floodgates opened and Ohio State scored on each of its next 5 possessions — 4 touchdowns, 1 field goal. Howard ended the day 21-for-26 through the air for 260 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Jeremiah Smith snags another record

A week after taking Cris Carter’s freshman program record for receiving yards in a season, Smith snatched Carter’s single-season freshman program records for receptions and receiving touchdowns against the Boilermakers.

Smith brought in 6 of his 7 targets on Saturday for 87 yards and a touchdown.

With 3 regular-season games to go, Smith has 45 receptions for 765 yards and 9 scores. He is 293 receiving yards away from cracking the top 10 on Ohio State’s all-time single-season yardage leaderboard. He’s also 3 receiving touchdowns away from breaking into the top 10 for single-season receiving scores.

Defense turns up again

The Ohio State defense was wonderful on Saturday. In keeping the Boilermakers off the scoreboard, the Buckeyes extended their stretch of scoreless play to more than 130 minutes. Ohio State last gave up a defensive touchdown with 10:47 to play in the Nebraska game.

An opponent has not scored a touchdown on the Buckeyes in 130:47 minutes of game time. Penn State’s only touchdown came from an interception return in the first quarter. The Nittany Lions managed only a single field goal over the final 50 minutes of that game. Purdue crossed the Ohio State 40 only 4 times on Saturday.

Those 4 possessions ended with 2 missed field goals, an interception, and a turnover on downs.

The defense ended with 4 sacks and 5 tackles for loss. They scored off a scoop-and-score. They held Purdue to just 3.8 yards per rushing attempt, adjusted for sacks. They gave up only 108 yards through the air on 21 pass attempts.

Purdue was stonewalled.