The Ohio State Buckeyes are currently leading the Toledo Rockets, 42-14, and the offense is hitting on all cylinders. OSU was favored by more than four touchdowns so this kind of domination isn’t that surprising, but the Buckeyes are on track to beat the spread for the first time this season.
There isn’t a whole lot to dislike other than the defense allowing a few big plays from the slippery scrambler at quarterback, Dequan Finn, but that was to be expected with that type of gunslinger. Most of the positives come from the offensive side of the ball, which shouldn’t be surprising with that many points on the board. Let’s dive into three glaring things we noticed from the first half.
Julian Fleming is special when healthy
Julian Fleming catches his second touchdown pass of the night to make it six straight scoring drives for Ohio State.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) September 18, 2022
Julian Fleming is the oft-injured former five-star recruit who we have seen flashes of greatness from and today is another longer flash. He currently has three receptions for 23 yards and two touchdowns. With Fleming in the lineup and fully healthy this receiving corps is truly unstoppable.
Denzel Burke is back
Denzel Burke with a third-down pass breakup. I believe that's the first time he's been targeted tonight after his rough game last week.
— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) September 18, 2022
Denzel Burke has looked like velcro today sticking to his man all game and when he was targetted earned a deflection. Burke only has one tackle on the game and isn’t filling up the stat sheet, but that’s good news for a player who was straight-up awful last week.
C.J. Stroud is cooking
Ohio State’s drive chart in the first half:
– TD
– TD
– TD
– TD
– TD
– TDQB C.J. Stroud has twice as many TD passes (4) as incompletions (2). pic.twitter.com/gfPXAerVf1
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 18, 2022
The tweet above says it all. C.J. Stroud is cooking and has currently completed 18 of 20 pass attempts for 297 yards and four touchdowns. Stroud and his receivers had moments of not being on the same page earlier in the season, but those issues have gone away.
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