Buckeyes’ Big Ten opener was never in doubt.
Against a Wisconsin team expected to give Ohio State one of the toughest tests of the season yet, the Buckeyes dominated on both sides of the ball, scoring on their first five possessions en route to a 52-21 win. on the ties.
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 #3 State of Ohio 21 10 7 14 52 WISCONSIN 0 7 0 14 21
The Ohio State offense hit the ground and drove 88 yards into the field in six games on the opening stage. CJ Stroud completed an 18-yard pass to Marvin Harrison Jr., a 22-yard pass to Cade Stover and a 33-yard pass to Emeka Egbuka before Miyan Williams capped the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.
The Buckeyes got the ball back into the red zone on their second possession after Tanner McCalister intercepted a pass and brought it back to the 16-yard line. Two games later, Stover was wide open for a 13-yard touchdown, the first touchdown of his Ohio State career, to give the Buckeyes a 14-0 lead just over six minutes into the game.
This is how you enter the end zone for your first career TD. @cstov8 x @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/RIni67XW88
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 25, 2022
Stover scored again on the Buckeyes’ next possession, finishing off a seven-play, 70-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown catch to make it 21-0 just over 11 minutes into the game.
OHIO STATE METRIC WISCONSIN 539 TOTAL YARD 296 258 RUSHING YARDS 192 43 RUSHING ATTEMPTS 35 6.0 AVERAGE per RUSH 5.5 2 RUSHING TOUCHDOWNS 2 281 PASSING YARDS 104 17-27 FINISHES–ATTEMPTS 28 57.7 AVERAGE 56 7.7 YARDS PER GAME 5.3 7-7 RED ZONE 2-2 7-11 third down conv 6-13 3-27 PENALTIES 4-55 33:02 OWN 26:58
Williams extended Ohio State’s lead to 28-0 on his fourth possession when he scored a 3-yard touchdown one game after being turned by multiple tacklers on a 21-yard run.
The Badgers finally got on the board with their fourth possession of the game. A 26-yard pass from Graham Mertz to Skyler Bell brought Wisconsin into the red zone, and Mertz ended the drive by running the ball himself from one yard to the end zone.
Ohio State again drove into Wisconsin’s 10-yard line on its fifth possession of the game before settling for a field goal from Noah Ruggles 4th-and-2 from the 7-yard line, which got some boos from the home crowd, but extended the lead to 31-7.
Stroud threw his first interception of the season on his 100th pass of the season when Wisconsin safety John Torchio picked out a pass that sailed Stroud over Harrison’s head on the Buckeyes’ last possession of the first half.
What a catch
Badgers deliver CJ Stroud his first INT of the season! pic.twitter.com/mlLjZjYJC1
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFFB) September 25, 2022
That gave the Badgers a chance to score again before halftime, but McCalister kept the 24-point lead at halftime for Buckeyes with a raking pass to avoid what could otherwise have been a deep ball touchdown.
All you have to do is rewatch this great play by Tanner McCalister. pic.twitter.com/FjJqyYfsip
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 25, 2022
Ohio State came back into the end zone on its opening possession of the second half, with Julian Fleming scoring a 12-yard touchdown after bringing the Buckeyes into the red zone with a 31-yard catch-and-run.
Feel like we’ll say it every week:
This No. 3 Ohio State felony has a lot of guns.@julian_040 x @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/XXNMLLfcxc
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 25, 2022
Stroud extended Buckeyes’ lead to 45-7 with 2:22 to play in the third quarter when he zipped an arrow to Egbuka between two defenders for an 8-yard touchdown.
The Badgers scored their second touchdown of the game on their next drive, driving 80 yards in 14 games and capping it with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Mertz to fullback Jackson Acker.
Stroud threw his fifth touchdown pass of the night and Egbuka scored his second touchdown of the night as the pair connected on a 32-yard scoring play to put the Buckeyes across the half-century mark.
CJ Stroud with his fifth passing TD pic.twitter.com/GyRhA8XEq0
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFFB) September 25, 2022
That would be the last game of the night for the Ohio State starting quarterback, who finished the game with 281 passing yards on 17 completions and 27 attempts. Egbuka was the Buckeyes’ lead receiver, catching six passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns, while TreVeyon Henderson (121) and Williams (101) both reached 100 rushing yards.
With mostly backups in play, the Ohio State defense gave up a one-play touchdown drive in the game’s penultimate defensive series, allowing Braelon Allen to run for a 75-yard score to narrow the Buckeyes’ final margin. shrink. victory to 31 points.
Tommy Eichenberg led the Ohio state defense for the night with a total of 14 tackles, including two for loss.
Ohio State closes September with a 4-0 record. It kicks off October with its fifth home game in a row to kick off the season when it hosts Rutgers in its second game of Big Ten next Saturday at 3:30 PM on Big Ten Network television.
Game Notes Wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerbacks Cameron Brown and Denzel Burke were among the 11 unavailable players from Ohio State. Julian Fleming made his first start of the season at wide receiver, while Emeka Egbuka started in the slot instead of Smith-Njigba. JK Johnson and Jyaire Brown both made their first career starts at cornerback instead of Burke and Cameron Brown. Jack Sawyer also made his first career start on the defensive side, getting the nod to JT Tuimoloau. CJ Stroud, Cade Stover, Tommy Eichenberg and Kourt Williams captained the pre-match toss. True freshman Sonny Styles saw playing time with the first team defense against the Badgers as a safety/linebacker hybrid in close range situations. Miyan Williams had the third 100-yard game of his career at Ohio State, while Henderson had the fourth 100-yard game of his career at Ohio State. Both had their first 100-yard games of the season and they became the first Buckeyes duo to make the top 100 rushing yards in the same game since Trey Sermon and Justin Fields against Michigan State in 2020. Henderson now has over 1,500 yards rushed. in his career in the state of Ohio. 105,473 was the turnout for Saturday night’s game, the third time this season the Buckeyes have attracted more than 105,000 fans to the shoe. Stroud now ranks third in Ohio state history, behind only JT Barrett (104) and Justin Fields (63), with 60 touchdown passes. It was Stroud’s seventh game of his career with five passing touchdowns, extending his lead for most such games in school history. He also now has 10 career games with four passing touchdowns, chasing JT Barrett with just one by an Ohio state quarterback in that category.