Buckeyes put away Terrapins

COLUMBUS — Urban Meyer doesn’t mind talking about his No. 1 team, flawed as some believe it is. However, he could do without the never- ending di s cussion around his two quarterbacks.

“I’m exhausted from it,” he said. It’s not going to stop. Meyer used Cardale Jones to start drives and J.T. Barrett to finish them as Ohio State — still unbeaten and mostly underwhelming — shook off Maryland in the second half for a 49-28 win on Oct. 10.

Jones threw two touchdown passes, Barrett scored three times and the top-ranked Buckeyes (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten), who haven’t met enormous expectations this season, scored 28 unanswered points in the second half to put away the Terrapins in what may have been Maryland coach Randy Edsall’s final game.

Ezekiel Elliott had two short TD runs, Joey Bosa recorded a sack and several pressures and the Buckeyes extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 19. Ohio State has won 26 straight regular-season conference games, but again struggled against a huge underdog.

And once again, Meyer shook things up with his two QBs. After naming Jones his starter the past two weeks, Meyer decided to bring in Barrett once Ohio State moved the ball deep into Maryland territory. The results were startling: Ohio State scored a touchdown on all six trips inside the Terrapins’ 20-yard line.

“I’m very happy with it,” Meyer said of the two-QB, red-zone scheme which is reminiscent of what he used at Florida with Chris Leak and Tim Tebow. “It’s a unique situation.”

Jones, who replaced an injured Barrett last season and led the Buckeyes to three postseason wins and the national title, threw a 19-yard TD pass to Braxton Miller and connected on a 48-yarder to Jalin Marshall. He finished 21 of 28 for 291 yards — not bad for a part-timer.

“It was great,” Jones said of the dual-quarterback attack employed by Meyer. “It was all in the coach’s plan to win. He felt like J.T. would be an extra element to the game down in the red zone, and certain things we wanted to do in the running game and he proved to be right once again.”

The Buckeyes had scored just six TDs on 16 trips into the red zone before Meyer changed things.

Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott scores a touchdown against Maryland during the four th quar ter Oct. 10.