Ohio State football: Grading Buckeyes after win over Michigan State

Ohio State hit the halfway mark of the season, and its first bye week, with another conference victory on Saturday in Columbus. The Buckeyes, who came in No. 4 in the AP poll, took out No. 25 Michigan State 34-10 at The Horseshoe to remain undefeated.

OSU had prime-time, Big Ten tests on national TV in consecutive weeks and passed both with flying colors. The Buckeyes were in a tight contest with Michigan State after one quarter but blew the game open in the second quarter, as has been their pattern all season.

“Well, we got off schedule a little bit,” OSU coach Ryan Day said about a somewhat slow start. “And then we hit a third down in the second quarter, big third-down conversion … and we got into a rhythm and we kind of go. And I think we wore them down maybe a little more in the second quarter.”

Here are 5 things I liked and three I didn’t from OSU’s victory.

5 things I liked

Second-quarter dominance: Let’s pick this topic up again because it has been a major factor this season. OSU scored 24 points against MSU in the second quarter and the Spartans never looked like a threat after that.

In their past five games, the Buckeyes have been remarkable in the second quarter, scoring 21 points against Cincinnati, 23 against Indiana, 42 against Miami (Ohio), 24 against Nebraska and 24 against Michigan State. Even including a scoreless second quarter against Florida Atlantic in the opener, OSU is averaging 22.3 points per game in the second quarter. If that was all they did, the Buckeyes would rank 103rd in the 130-team FBS — in other words, there are 27 teams averaging fewer points per entire game than OSU is in the second quarter.

Binjimen Victor’s 60-yard touchdown catch, complete with a dive to the end zone pylon, finally got OSU its first touchdown:

Opportunistic defense: The OSU offense was a bit shaky early but the defense bailed the Buckeyes out. The D forced turnovers on MSU’s first two drives and three for the game. The offense only turned those turnovers into three points but the point was that the Spartans offense never got into a rhythm after that and gained just 285 yards on offense all night — becoming the sixth consecutive opponent that OSU has held under 300 yards this season.

Patience with Dobbins: Running back J.K. Dobbins had just 14 yards on six carries in the first quarter as the whole OSU offense struggled early. But Dobbins made up for lost time with a 67-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. He showed patience on the big run just as the Buckeyes offense wisely showed patience with him:

For the game Dobbins had 172 yards on 24 carries, his third 170-yard game of the season.

Variety of receivers: Tight end Luke Farrell caught a 21-yard touchdown from Justin Fields in the second quarter, becoming the 10th Buckeye to catch a touchdown this season. Defenses simply have no idea where Fields might throw the ball next because, in his first season as starter, he has obviously learned to trust a wide variety of potential targets.

Justin Fields’ streak: Speaking of Fields, he threw his first interception of the season when Spartans cornerback Josiah Scott picked him off in the third quarter, killing a promising OSU drive. But rather than turn that into a negative we’re going to praise Fields for his streak to begin his Buckeyes career. The transfer from Georgia had 129 attempts this season without being intercepted. Pretty good for a kid in his first season as a starter in college football.

3 things I didn’t like

Overthrows: Having praised Fields, we need to acknowledge that the interception happened because one thing he tends to do is overthrow receivers, and that finally bit him on the interception. Fields was trying to hit K.J. Hill on a sideline pattern but the ball sailed too high and Scott made an easy play. There were a couple of other overthrows from Fields early and this issue has cropped up in every game so far.

Fields has done an excellent job with both his arm and his feet and he is still very young so the coaches have a chance to clean this up. But his accuracy does need to be cleaned up a bit.

Not cashing in gifts: Ohio State would not have had to rely so much on an explosive second quarter had it taken advantage of its opportunities in the first quarter. The Buckeyes defense gave the offense two gifts by forcing two turnovers in Michigan State territory.

The offense started its second drive at the MSU 27-yard line and the third at the Spartans’ 22. OSU should expect a minimum of 10 points out of those two drives; instead the offense settled for two field goal attempts, one of which Blake Haubeil missed.

Those uniforms: Call me an old fuddy duddy but I hate OSU’s black uniforms. At Oregon or West Virginia or a whole bunch of other programs which need the attention, trotting out a different uniform combo every week is fine, I guess. But you’re Ohio State. You have two classic uniforms: Scarlet tops and gray pants at home, white tops and gray pants on the road. That’s it. No more.

And gray helmets — always always, always. Those unis are distinctive. The black ones make you look like a run-of-the-mill program that thinks it needs such gimmicks to land recruits.