Rutgers Notebook: Ezekiel Elliott's Streak, Ohio State's Near Shutout and More

By Tim Shoemaker on October 25, 2015 at 6:00 am
Nick Vannett and Michael Thomas celebrate a touchdown.
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It was early in the fourth quarter with Ohio State in the process of routing Rutgers, ahead 42-0, when running back Ezekiel Elliott had a conversation with Buckeyes’ head coach Urban Meyer.

Elliott was 13 yards shy of his 13th-straight 100-yard rushing game and wanted to continue his streak. Meyer, on the other hand, was hesitant to put his Heisman Trophy candidate back out onto the field with the chance of risking an injury.

“Coach Meyer really didn’t want to put me in on that last series; he was ready to bench me,” Elliott said. “He was like, ‘You better get it early, I’m only going to give you a couple plays.’”

Ohio State only needed two plays to score; Elliott just needed one carry.

After quarterback J.T. Barrett lost 1 yard on first down, the Buckeyes’ running back took the handoff on the next play and went untouched to the end zone for a 55-yard touchdown.

The run was Elliott’s second touchdown of the day and, perhaps more importantly, extended his streak. Elliott finished the game with 142 yards on 19 carries. He now has 1,130 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns through the first eight games of the season.

“It was just perfectly blocked,” Elliott said of his second touchdown run. “I didn’t have to do anything special but run fast.

Defense Pitches Near Shutout

Ohio State held Rutgers scoreless for 59 minutes, 47 seconds. The Buckeyes were just 13 seconds away from their second shutout of the season.

Andre Patton’s 4-yard touchdown catch with 13 seconds remaining, though, ended those hopes.

And while it didn’t get that coveted shutout, but Ohio State’s defense was dominant in Saturday’s win 49-7 win over Rutgers.

“It all starts with great defense and I really feel like our defense has been getting better all year,” Meyer said. “We had some plays that hit us the last couple weeks but for the most part you saw this coming.”

The Buckeyes limited Rutgers to just 293 yards of total offense. The Scarlet Knights gained just 104 of those on the ground.

It was quite the contrast from one week ago when Penn State’s Saquon Barkely ran for 194 yards on Ohio State’s defense.

“We didn’t really focus too much on what we did last week; we just focused on our base rules,” linebacker Darron Lee said. “Coming out, we felt like we had something to prove and that was stopping the run. We’ve had a couple leaks here and there, but never lost faith in anything, just came out and executed.”

Miller's Budding Role

Braxton Miller made one of the most spectacular plays of Saturday's game, but Meyer still felt like he needed to get Ohio State's dynamic playmaker more involved.

"He had three touches it looks like; I wish he had more," Meyer said. "I’m very pleased with how he’s blocking, how he’s catching the ball, his route running. I’m really excited for him.”

Miller had two catches for 55 yards and one rush for 16 yards. His 45-yard reception down the sideline on a ball from Barrett was an unbelievable display of adjusting to the football.

Miller's role in this Ohio State offense continues to be in flux. He only had three touches against Rutgers as Meyer noted, but all three produced plays of at least 10 yards.

The Buckeyes will take that.

"I think the coaches did a good job game planning," Miller said. "We executed and that's really the biggest, most important thing. We executed in practice and then in the game we just keep it moving. That's what the flow was throughout the whole game."

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