Ohio State football: 5 reasons the Buckeyes will dominate Rutgers
By Alec Hartman
5. Offense will be even better
It was a very productive day for the Buckeyes’ offense against the Oregon State Beavers last weekend as they put up more points than any other offense in college football.
The Buckeyes threw mostly underneath crossing routes. A big factor in how the Buckeyes scored all those points is that they punted just once, the drive where they punted was also led by Tate Martell rather than Dwayne Haskins.
Those underneath throws to H-backs Parris Campbell and K.J. Hill may be a big reason for Haskins’ hot start but that is OK. That was a great move in order to get Haskins rolling and in rhythm. The good thing about this is that it doesn’t look like this type of offense will be a preview of what is to come with Haskins at the helm.
The difference between Haskins playing in the dink-and-dunk offense and former Buckeyes quarterback J.T. Barrett playing that way is the matter of necessity. Haskins is playing that way in order to gain confidence with his receivers to start the season while Barrett had to play that way throughout entire seasons due to limitations or necessity from sub-par receiving from his cast.
There’s no guarantee that the Buckeyes will choose to open up the offense even more against the Scarlet Knights but there’s also a reason for why they should. All of the talk about Haskins has been regarding his arm strength and ability to hit his targets down the field. It may be in the Buckeyes’ best benefit to put that to the test more in this game as we’ve already seen his ability to lead the offense and choose his targets across the middle of the field.
Whether we get a glimpse of an unleashed Dwayne Haskins or not against the Scarlet Knights, it’s almost certain that the Buckeyes will still put on a show offensively even if it’s on accident.
This offense is too powerful to be held in check by any team let alone a building team like Rutgers. The Buckeyes rank first in the nation in total offense. Expect the Buckeyes to further refine their stacked offense against the Scarlet Knights.