Indians Playoff Chess: Carrasco Matches Up With Astros
October 6, 2018Browns beat Ravens in OT, 12-9, on a game-winning field goal by Joseph
October 7, 2018It wasn’t pretty, especially in the first half, but luckily for the Ohio State Buckeyes, football games consist of two halves. While celebrating Homecoming in Columbus, the scarlet and gray went on to beat the Indiana Hoosiers handily, 49-26, in a game that took almost four hours to finish.
The defense struggled for much of the first half, but luckily for Ohio State, they have quarterback Dwayne Haskins leading the offense. The offense started slow, scoring just seven points in the opening quarter, but heated up soon thereafter, notching 21 points in the second quarter and taking a 28-20 lead into halftime.
Halftime adjustments are key and the silver bullets seemed to do just that on Saturday. After struggling for much of the first half, they allowed just six second-half points, merely stopping the big plays from Indiana that they had allowed throughout the first half.
Even when the defense struggled, the Buckeyes were able to lean on the offense and Haskins. Just six starts into his college career, the gunslinger dominated once again. Besides his two interceptions, something that he must work on going forward, the redshirt sophomore dominated. He completed 33-of-44 passes while throwing for 455 yards and six touchdowns.
With those six passing touchdowns, Haskins tied the Ohio State record for most passing touchdowns in a single game.1 He also became the first quarterback in Big Ten history with three games of at least five touchdown passes. Here’s your daily reminder that Saturday was just his sixth game as a starting quarterback.
Due to Haskins’ dominant game, a number of wide receivers also did very well, including Parris Campbell (nine receptions, 142 yards, two touchdowns), Johnnie Dixon (five catches, 73 yards, one touchdown), and Terry McLaurin (five receptions, 59 yards, two touchdowns). Nine different players recorded at least one reception on the day, including five with at least four catches.
The game could have been much worse for the Buckeyes, and luckily it wasn’t, but there’s plenty of things that they must improve on after watching film of the game. They have the talent to compete with any program in the country, now it just comes down to executing, especially defensively. With that said, the best thing about being 6-0 is that they have the chance to go 7-0 next week. On to the next one.
- Kenny Guiton became the first quarterback in program history to do so in 2013; J.T. Barrett tied the record in 2014 and again in 2016. [↩]
