After An Easy Win Over Michigan State, Is Ohio State's Offense Finally Hitting Its Stride?

welcome to Buckey tomorrow morning for Sunday November 12th I'm your host Tom Moore the Minnesota game is in 6 days the game against Michigan in 13 days Buckeyes took care of business Saturday night in the Horseshoe 38-3 over Michigan State and joined by Kevin noon of Buckey huddle.com Kevin it was a five touchdown win that was absolutely not as close as the score indicated you know who picked 383 as a final score someone who just took a complete shot in the dark no this guy right here two thumbs and a correct score but yeah it was uh it was a game where Ohio State got out to a really good start um you know scored on its first drive I think scored on its first couple of drives and uh Kyle McCord was sharp Marvin Harrison Jr did Marvin Harrison Jr type of things and uh even with a couple of key defensive players out uh the defense took care of business let's not pretend that michig state is any sort of world beater but they have helmets and shoulder pads and scholarships and issues like any of the rest of us so uh you know it's still a good win I don't think Michigan state has issues like the rest of us I don't want to speak for anyone else but their their issues may go beyond the issues that the rest of us have but you know one of their issues on Saturday night was hey they can't really stop the Ohio State offense because as you said the first uh first seven drives for Ohio State touchdown touchdown touchdown punt they went three and out touchdown touchdown field goal and got you to you know the basically the Midway point of the third quarter and at that point Ohio State started pulling starters off the field it was it was the first time in a long time maybe all season that this Ohio State offense has really looked like you know that that you saw them going down the field and it looked like what the CJ strout era Ohio State offenses have you know looked like against that Tye you know that type of opponent like this you know they put up 56 points in the first half in 2021 they didn't quite do that in this one but man they just it was just boom boom boom just there was like a Fourplay 71 yard drive it was just it looks like things are maybe starting to come together yeah maybe under stoud there were a lot more two three four play drives I think there was a 13 play Drive in there it was a little bit more Station to Station but we are not that far removed from Ohio State coming out and certainly being down 96 to ruter other games where Ohio State needs to really come on in the third quarter in this game that was certainly was not the case I mean Marvin Harrison Jr was a cheat code once again we haven't even really mentioned trevan Henderson uh he ran for what was it 63 yards uh but he still looked really good this was not a case of Trevon being stuck at 63 yards because he wasn't effective it's just not the course of the game the way that things went down Ohio state with 32 carries on the game but I think a lot of that too was because okay we're just trying to play out the clock now we bring in Evan PRI at that point to go I mean obviously they seem to be bound and determined not to play Allen Hayden at this point not going to burn his red shirt over this one but uh yeah I think that I think that we saw some glimpses to a much more functional offense than what we have seen at times this year and as I get ready to WR tail the tape for Minnesota I expect some of these offensive numbers to be a little bit better than what I wrote in the Michigan State game yeah and one of the reasons that the offense looks looked the way it did on Saturday night was Marvin har Harrison Jr he was targeted nine times seven catches 149 yards two touchdowns also had a 19 yard run for a touchdown so he basically you know uh what 68 yards 160 yeah 168 yards of total offense three touchdowns in just over one half of work it was you know this was the you know I think it's it's overly simplified to say like just throw out to Marvin Harrison every play cuz you know he makes amazing things happen even in bad situations and that is an oversimplification but also when you throw it to Marvin Harrison just about every play it seems like crazy good things happen pretty frequently and I think that he also benefits from having Cade Stover back out there Kade Stover had a big game mechaa maybe just didn't look right he was targeted five times only had the one reception uh but Marvin Harrison Junior just really was able to get out there and and and do his thing uh he had he was able to get his separation he just runs such great routes uh Michigan State obviously was not unaware of who W 18 was so he was not out there in a lot of cases of being in single coverage he was just able to go out and do what it is that he does and that is just make great plays but having Kade Stover back out there as well who played a half as well as he was coming back from uh from injury I think having that onew punch right there is is huge Ohio State still has some time I think to get a Mech bua back in in in Rhythm and that's really kind of one of these big things of where if Ohio state is able to have a couple of options in the passing game is able to have a healthy trevan Henderson with a chip trinum or somebody as kind of a change of pace that's going to be a big difference compared to what Ohio state has gone into the last two Michigan games with yeah no no question um on the defensive side of the ball Ohio state was playing without three starters you look at Michigan State's numbers this year and it was not like a big surprise that Michigan state was not a particularly gifted offense but even you know playing without Tommy ikenberg playing without both of your starting safeties you know no lean Ransom no Josh Proctor that was you know that's substantially short-handed Michigan state is not a great passing attack Michigan state is not a great rushing attack but the Buckeyes you know were not dominant in the way that they have been at times this season but they were you know they got off the field when they had to get off the field yeah you look at Michigan State 182 yards I think that they're going to be people they're going to be like well they gave up too much yardage on the ground well when you go and you look at it it was 94 yards oh there you know drives felt like they were prolonged well Michigan state was two of 14 on on third down so I think there's the moment of how you felt like right there in that moment but then when you sit there and you look at it more from a top down type of view it's like maybe it wasn't as bad as as we thought I mean sure they certainly missed Tommy ikenberg out there in my opinion I think that there were a couple of of of runs that probably would have been bottled up a lot quicker by Tommy than than what we saw out there but I mean you're still held a big 10 team a team coming off of a win even though that I think maybe that was more of Nebraska doing Nebraska things than Sparty doing Sparty things it was still a very good effort and we know that it's there's so much about emotion and building off of off of successes and Ohio State is going to be going into Minnesota with successes and if Ohio State's able to continue that through through the Minnesota game which I think everybody's going to be expecting haven't seen a line yet here at this late hour that we're recording the show uh you know you're going to be feeling pretty good going into that Michigan game and I'll tell you Michigan can sit there and say bet all at once or whatever it doesn't know what's going on necessarily in terms of its coaching uh makeup of its team and everything else but Ohio State certainly is going to be in that spot to uh to to try and play him a big 10 East title and get itself to Indianapolis and slay a pretty annoying Dragon known as the Michigan fan base while it's at it yeah well before we get to Michigan we should talk just a little bit more about Saturday night game well we're going to talk about the the interesting stuff that happened towards the end because the game was settled at halftime the game was over over at halftime but you did get a chance to see really for the first time it feels like this year some real extended run for the younger guys like I I I know they played against Youngstown State in the second half a little bit and a little bit against um Western Kentucky but now you got some of the true freshman who you know maybe came in you know Lincoln keing hols for example came in over the summer so really got a late start was not ready to come in even in garbage time earlier in the season same thing with like Calvin Simpson hunt for example on the defensive side of the ball you got just lost his black stripe just lost his black stripe this week and then goes out and and you start you you're starting to see him make a little bit of an impact on the field very late in the games you're not expecting big things from him in the next two weeks or anything but you you sort of start to see the flashes it's like you know September baseball where you call up you know some of your prospects and it's like okay a little something to think about for the future Lincoln keing holes you know it's two of three you don't want to read too much into two of three for 18 yards but controversy yeah yeah let's yeah let's not let's not hand him the starting job just yet but you know you saw him you saw gelani Thurman I think people people saw enough of galani Thurman it wasn't it was n a ton it was uh two catches for 18 yards but there's a little something to get excited about with gani th he just looks different yeah I mean this was this was a little bit of a okay for the you know the few the proud that stuck around uh through the cold in uh and the late evening hours of a blowout game they were rewarded with you know some some interesting stuff to uh think about for the future yeah I think that I think that the Huddle message board over at Bucky huddle.com is going to have a lot of talk about that once people kind of sleep off tonight I'm sure enjoyed a couple pops along the way or whatever go back and do that rewatch and be like okay got an idea of of what it is that you know Ohio state has coming next I mean Lincoln keenholts elevated a little bit because Devin Brown during warm-ups looked a little gimpy so I think that just moved everybody up at that point and I'm sure they wanted to get a good look at Keen Holtz as much as they could at that point uh there was a point out there where I looked and it was pretty much you know freshman DBS across the board with Brian Turner thrown in there as well uh we certainly saw I had to check my I had to check my roster for some of the guys that we saw on dline I saw C CJ Hicks with a big tackle for loss I mean there you could see what the future is going to look like and while everybody's excited about the future you only get so many games in the present so let's not wish away any of these games with two left in the regular season and if everything goes according to the plans of BU fans five games in total with with the potential of three in the postseason yeah and only one more home game left in the 20123 Ohio State football season that doesn't seem possible and then you know here we are what I say at the start of the show 13 days until the game against Michigan boy it is after Michigan took care of Penn State that not much question you know unless Maryland or Minnesota pulls off a real shocker next week that is going to be 11-0 versus 11-0 up in Ann Arbor and uh boy will won't this be an eventful a couple weeks as we head into that game as Michigan gets its whole legal situation sorted out and whether Jim Harbaugh gets to coach in that game or the Maryland game or you know presumably potentially the Big 10 championship game if they make it that far we'll be sorting all that stuff out at Buckey huddle.com all week long and uh for the next couple weeks as we head into that Michigan game uh we hope you can join us there it has been a uh very very Ive and uh mostly fun few uh few weeks uh on the Huddle board there it is uh I I have never seen a thread uh a message board thread takeoff quite like that one did um thousands and thousands of posts at this point and just constant activity and new information coming out you get disappointed when you look and it's like no nobody's talking to it for like 15 minutes like is this thing on yeah and and that's sometimes at like 4 in the morning that no one has posted in it for 15 minutes but yeah so you can you can find us there you want to talk to us you want to talk to uh Mark ier about recruiting you want to talk to Ross and uh Justin and uh Mikey about Mickey about our our ex's and no's making you a smarter football fan that is all on the Huddle board presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse all at bucka huddle.com so if you've thought like yeah maybe maybe I'll try this it'd be nice to you know support those guys or just hey might be good to get access to a little more information during what is a pretty high Stakes time of year for the Ohio State football team between the Michigan game early Signing Day all that kind of stuff you can sign you can sign up today at Bucky huddle.com try it for a month see if you like it if you do great stick around but uh you know that that first month is going to give you a lot of information during a uh very very uh significant time of year and time in history for the Ohio State football program so that will do it for today thank you guys all for joining us have a great day we'll talk to you tomorrow