Ohio State undoubtedly silenced critics far and wide with Saturday's 52-13 win over Rutgers.
Perhaps C.J. Stroud most of all, as the redshirt freshman quarterback returned after missing last week's game to throw for 330 yards and five touchdowns.
After the game, Stroud admitted that the last time he suited up for Ohio State – Sept. 18's closer-than-it-should-have-been win against Tulsa – he was anything but healthy for the outing. In fact, Stroud said his shoulder felt like it was "gonna fall off" against the Hurricane.
“The whole week I had a good week of practice, and I definitely felt way better coming into this game with my shoulder," Stroud said. "That Tulsa game I really wasn’t feeling right at all. But this week I can actually step into my throws, actually really put something into my throws without feeling like my shoulder’s gonna fall off. Definitely a blessing to be able to be healthy.”
With a week of rest under his belt though, Stroud made sure his starting job is secure for the foreseeable future. The second-year Buckeye found Chris Olave for two touchdowns on the day, and the star wideout had plenty of good things to say about his quarterback after the game.
“That’s the C.J. we saw in fall camp, summer,” Olave said. “He came out there, he had some rest on his shoulder, so he felt like he was 100 percent. He was slinging it today.”
Stroud said his thoughts about the team have not changed after what was undoubtedly its most impressive showing of the season, and thinks that Ohio State will actually benefit from facing early adversity.
“I feel about my team how I’ve always felt. It doesn’t really matter what the world sees. Like everyone says, and even before I was here, it’s Ohio against the world. That’s true, like it took me to play to really understand that, and to come to this great university. It really is Ohio against the world, because everyone is counting us out right now – which is good. Which I feel is a great thing, because there’s a lot of weird, funky things in college football right now, and it’s just preparing us to be great.”
As good as the Buckeyes were on offense, they were no less impressive on defense. Ohio State caused three turnovers from the Rutgers offense, and forced the Scarlet Knights to turn the ball over on downs multiple times as well.
The first big play from the Buckeyes came when they snuffed out a fake punt attempt on the first Rutgers possession of the game, when redshirt freshman safety Cameron Martinez broke up a pass that should have been intercepted. Martinez has now started the past two games after returning an interception for a touchdown against Tulsa, and the Michigan native said these opportunities are the reason he came to Ohio State.
“I would say it has been a lot, but that’s definitely why I came here,” Martinez said. “You always have to be ready, you always have to be ready for these moments. I finally got that opportunity to play, to be able to play with our guys. I mean, it’s a dream come true.”
On the very next Rutgers drive, freshman cornerback Denzel Burke continued his stellar campaign with a pick-six against the Scarlet Knights that gave the Buckeyes their third in the past three games. Burke made it look easy with the 23-yard score, but had to remind members of the media after the game that he actually never had a chance to tally a pick-six previously, due to the position he played in high school.
“I’ve never had a pick-six in my career, so that was my first one. Never. I played receiver in high school.”
Ryan Day said the experience his young defensive players have gained in recent weeks has made a world of difference, and thinks the group is playing with much more confidence that it was only a couple games ago.
“It’s just a bunch of guys who are now maybe expecting to make plays,” Day said. “Before, I don’t think they really – they were just trying to get lined up, and everything they were doing was for the first time. I thought the defensive staff did a good job this week with the plan, I thought they mixed up the looks, I thought we created disruption in the backfield and then we were able to create some turnovers.”
Day said he saw a different team on the field Saturday, and that his group is suddenly in a good position to build off the performance and continue to improve moving forward.
“This was an important game for us, because I felt like September 2nd, a month ago, when we played Minnesota, we were a much different team. And I felt like that going into this week, but we hadn’t shown it yet,” Day said. “I felt like we saw some glimpses of that tonight."
