SCARLET & GRAY MATTER
Observations on Thursday night’s Ohio State-minnesota game by Joey Kaufman:
The game at hand
• Short-attention span synopsis: The Buckeyes looked mortal in the regular season, a rarity during the Ryan Day era. A young quarterback and position rotations littered with inexperience will need to grow up in a hurry. Their frontloaded schedule continues next week when Oregon visits Ohio Stadium in a potential top-10 matchup. Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson are nice security blankets to have around.
• Pregame buzz: After a season in which spectators were prohibited from attending games across the Big Ten due to the coronavirus pandemic, a more festive atmosphere surrounded sold-out Huntington Bank Stadium. Fans tailgated in adjacent parking lots and streamed outside of neighboring bars.. Not only was it the opener to what has promised to be a more normal fall, but there was anticipation for the arrival of Ohio State, which had not visited Minneapolis since 2014.
• Spread the wealth?: When quarterback C.J. Stroud connected with Olave for a 61-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter, it forced a push. Ohio State had been favored by 14 points over the Gophers and never led by more than two touchdowns. The point spread already matched the smallest for the Buckeyes in a season opener since 2003, when they were favored by nine points over Washington.
• Strategically speaking: Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck made a gutsy decision early in the second quarter. With his team facing a fourth-and-1 at its 29yard line and Ohio State holding a 10-0 lead, he opted to go for it. The call worked. Mohamed Ibrahim ran 56 yards and put the Gophers in the red zone. Two plays later, quarterback Tanner Morgan found receiver Dylan Wright for a 13-yard touchdown. The score gave Minnesota life and energized the stadium. Had Fleck opted to punt, the Gophers would have faced even more of an uphill climb.
The View
• How the team sees it: We dealt with the elements, a hostile crowd for the first time in two years and a veteran Big Ten team, and won by two touchdowns. We’ll take it.
• How the pollsters will see it: It’s tough to justify putting this team any higher in the top five with many of the same questions on defense remaining. • How Buckeye Nation will see it: That caused more panic than usual for a game at this time of year.
Hey, what did Day say?
• What he said: “To say that I’m surprised with the way that it played out, I’m not. We played a lot of young guys.” • What it means: “Told you it’d be close.”
They said it
• Talking heads: FOX’S announcers grew increasingly unimpressed with the Ohio State defense as the game went on. After Ibrahim scored on a 19-yard run in the third quarter, play-by-play man Gus Johnson said, “P.J. Fleck is making Ohio State coaches coach. They’re confused.” Later, Joel Klatt said, “The issue we saw on Ohio State’s defense last year are the same we’re seeing this year.”
• Pregame chatter: Naturally, the local TV pregame show spent not one, but two segments on a player who had no chance to play in the game — quarterback Quinn Ewers, who is skipping his senior year in high school to join the Buckeyes. Former Ohio State offensive lineman Kirk Barton said coach Ryan
Day “really wanted him this year” and said he compares favorably to Trevor Lawrence. “He has No. 1 overall pick talent,” Barton said. “... He’s all football, a student of the game and serious as a heart attack.” The show then showed Ewers getting his free truck from a local dealership and talked about this $1.4 million endorsement deal signed this week.
Numbers for dummies
59.2: The five touchdowns scored by Ohio State’s offense came through a flurry of explosive plays that averaged 59.2 yards.
6: The Buckeyes had six plays from scrimmage that went 15 or more yards.
294: Stroud passed for 294 yards, which were 20 yards shy of surpassing Dwayne Haskins for the most by an Ohio State quarterback in a starting debut.
9: Of the 13 passes completed by Stroud, nine of them went to Olave and Wilson.
15: Miyan Williams’ 71-yard touchdown run was Ohio State’s longest in 15 games.
7: Seven of Ohio State’s starters on defense were making their first career starts.
48: The Buckeyes were penalized five times for 48 yards, which included roughing the passer and two flags for pass interference.
2: Sacks by the Buckeyes, who had one by defensive end Zach Harrison and one by linebacker Cody Simon.
31: Points allowed the Buckeyes, equaling the most allowed by their defense in an opener since 1950. 15:07: After Ohio State went ahead 10-0 early in the second quarter, it went 15 minutes and 7 seconds with a score, a drought that ended with a 38-yard touchdown pass by Stroud to Olave in the third quarter.
On tap
As Oregon comes to Columbus next week, the teams’ meeting is on paper the biggest test of the regular season for the Buckeyes. No other opponent in the preseason Associated Press poll was ranked higher than the Ducks, who debuted at No. 11. Others on their Big Ten schedule include Indiana, ranked No. 17, and Penn State, ranked No. 19. Oregon faces Fresno State on Saturday in its opener.