When Ohio State’s players and coaches galloped out of their locker room and onto the field at Byrd Stadium Saturday afternoon, they were promptly met with jeers of “O-VER-RAT-ED” from a student section flaunting hastily-made signs that mocked them.
And while you have to applaud the tenacity and confidence of Maryland's young and faithful, it’s often a poor idea to poke at and heckle your opponent before the game — especially when you're an eight-point underdog at home.
So the Buckeyes — who were a tad bit offended and a tad bit pissed off — felt compelled to deliver a not-so-friendly Welcome-to-the-Big Ten message in a game that was hyped as one of the biggest in Terrapins school history.
In the end, Ohio State pummeled Maryland 52-24 and made it look rather easy at times. In particular, the Buckeyes leaned on a dominant run game that's surging behind sophomore running back Ezekiel Elliott and an offensive line that's found footing after replacing four starters from a year ago.
"That’s what we want to do, we want to run the ball first of all to open up the passing game," Elliott said. "That’s how we want to come out every day."
As such, head coach Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator Tom Herman dialed up 53 plays on the ground — most of which were for Elliott and redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett, who was able to find lanes behind a wall of protectors in front of him.
But it was Elliott, of course, who shouldered the load Saturday. He ran for 139 yards on 24 carries. The outing —and the way Elliott earned each of those yards — in and of itself was impressive. Yet It comes on the heels of an even more impressive performance against Cincinnati the weekend before, where he had 182 yards on 28 carries.
It's reflective of an offense that's coming together as Ohio State enters the meat of its schedule. It's kindled by a rebirth in the run game and anchored by Elliott and, equally critical, his offensive line.
“They’re playing the asses off," tight end Nick Vannett said. "They’re doing everything that our coaches want them to do. They just go to work every day in practice and you saw it today."
Added Herman: "The biggest impressive thing, I think, is for three or four weeks now, we’ve prepared for something and gotten something totally different and our guys are fairly football smart — especially up front, that’s where all the communication and the adjustments have to take place.
"We’re not perfect by any stretch, but our guys do a really good job of in-game adjustments. (Offensive line) Coach (Ed) Warinner’s doing a great job getting those guys juiced up and giving me feedback from the offensive line when they come off the field, saying hey we’re getting this or getting that and here’s what we need to go to. We do practice really well and we are very well-prepared, but you can throw that all out the window a lot of times when teams get a week to prepare for you too and they can do whatever they want."
Even so, the Buckeyes imposed their will on the ground with little opposition against the Terrapins and a defense that was battered all afternoon. They did the same thing to the Bearcats a week earlier, where they totaled 380 yards on the ground.
"I think we’re playing decent, I think we can be a lot better," Elliott said. "We have a lot of potential to be play better."
If that's true, opposing defenses could have their hands full in the near future.
