Coming off an open week and forced to deal with the absence of Chase Young, it would've made sense if Ohio State came out flat against Maryland.
Instead, the Buckeyes flattened the Terrapins, scoring touchdowns on their first six possessions of a 73-14 obliteration.
Ryan Day's offense churned out a season-high 705 total yards with 383 coming on the ground as four Buckeye ball carriers ran for more than 77 yards.
Defensively, Ohio State held Maryland to eight pass completions and 2-of-11 on third down while cranking out seven sacks and two turnovers.
The win improved the Buckeyes to 9-0 with a scrimmage against Rutgers on tap for next Saturday. Before we turn the page to that laugher, here are Five Things from Ohio State's mauling of Maryland.
KING OF PRUSSIA
Garrett Wilson is a future All-American. It's a when, not if, scenario.
The freshman tied his career-high with four catches on six targets and set a new personal best with 82 yards including a touchdown against the Terps.
Wilson started his day with a 27-yard catch on an out route featuring a devastating cut before making his break followed by solid running after the catch.
He added a 35-yard grab on the first possession of the second half and a 14-yard touchdown catch on the ensuing Ohio State possession.
The touchdown reception came on a perfectly thrown ball by Chris Chugonov but Wilson's concentration and hands aren't freshman-like in any way.
Wilson also took over the starting punt returner job and while he didn't have any huge runs versus the Terps, he did do a nice job fielding a bouncing kick in traffic to save some yards.
With Austin Mack oft-injured and Binjimen Victor being somewhat inconsistent, Wilson's continued emergence should be huge for Ohio State's passing game down the stretch.
SPEAKING OF BIG TIME WIDE RECEIVERS..
Chris Olave continues to show maturity beyond his years.
The true sophomore led the Buckeyes with five catches against Maryland for 43 yards and another touchdown.
Olave is now just one catch behind K.J. Hill for the team lead (34 to 33). His 454 yards and nine touchdowns pace the receivers room.
Justin Fields actually targeted him 10 times today, just another illustration that Olave is the team's no-doubt go-to receiver.
The reason he's a Thing today however is for one running play that was probably innocuous to a lot of folks. Facing 3rd-and-4 from the Maryland 9-yard line on Ohio State's second possession, Olave's number was called on a sweep to the right side.
It feels like 99 times out of 100, a receiver taking a reverse or jet sweep will run the play all the way to the sideline, never cutting up in false hope of reaching the corner and eventually the end zone.
On this play, again a third down, Olave reached the far hash and smartly put on the breaks and cut up field, diving for yardage to move the chains.
I admittedly might be overcooking this - I just thought it was a hell of a heady play from a kid who has really only played about 12 games as a legit contributor. He continues to remind me of Terry McLaurin with his intelligence, instincts and skill-set. And he's producing about three years earlier than Terry did which means the sky is the limit.
TUF LOVE
I'm still not sure why Baron Browning has apparently entered witness protection but Tuf Borland played a damn good game in the middle yesterday.
Maryland's offense is hot garbage, I get it, but Borland did what he does best when he's a factor and that's stop the run especially against teams that want to play in a phone booth.
Borland tied Malik Harrison for team-high honors with five stops including a sack for a loss of nine yards on a 3rd-and-10 snap ending Maryland's third possession of the day.
Three of his other four tackles held Maryland players to no gain and the last came after a six-yard run by Jevon Leake.
Don't look now but Borland is tied for fourth on the team with 29 tackles on the season, trailing only Harrison, Jordan Fuller and Pete Werner. The redshirt junior has 19 stops over his last four games after posting just 10 in the first five games of the season.
I'm as critical of Borland as anyone but that's pretty damn good for a dude mostly splitting reps in the middle for the bulk of the season-to-date.
He's got his warts and he's no speed merchant but he leaves it out there.
SEEING RED
When you beat a team 73-14 there will be plenty of Nintendo stats to point and laugh at.
My favorite from yesterday: Ohio State made 12 trips to the red zone, scoring 10 touchdowns, which actually HURT its season red zone touchdown percentage.
Ohio State came into the Maryland game with 33 touchdowns in 39 red zone trips, good for a touchdown rate of 84.62%.
Yesterday's 10-of-12 effort, while hilarious, is only an 83.33% touchdown rate. Do better, fellas.
If you're keeping score, the first failure came via a Chris Chugonov fumble forced by former Buckeye Keandre Jones. The play came on 3rd-and-Goal from the Maryland 14-yard line.
The second came after Ohio State settled for a 23-yard Blake Haubeil field goal to make it 52-0. I guess we can allow that one.
ON THE DL
The whole Chase Young situation sucks like a Dyson but the Buckeyes sure didn't miss him in the trenches against the lowly Terps.
Defensive end Tyreke Smith had three stops and a pair of sacks while his counterpart, Zach Harrison, made his first career start and posted a sack of his own. Reserve defensive end Tyler Friday added a pair of stops.
The interior defensive line saw four different guys register at least one tackle for loss led by Davon Hamilton.
Hamilton quietly turned in outstanding work for the first chunk of the season but he's been on another level the last few games.
After posting a sack against Wisconsin before the open week, Hamilton destroyed Maryland's offensive line posting a pair of sacks. His 5-yard sack on the second play of the game helped force a Terrapin punt. Four possessions later, he shot through the middle on a 2nd-and-8 play for another sack leading to an eventual turnover on downs.
The dude was already setting up to be a mid-late round steal in next year's draft but he seems to improve his stock by the game at this point.
With the defensive line controlling things up front, Ohio State gave up just 139 total yards - the second-fewest of the season - while forcing six 3-and-outs on 14 total Maryland drives.
