My Thoughts.....UNLV

               

                  On a sweltering, sun-drenched afternoon in The ‘Shoe, the Ohio State Buckeyes, as expected, demolished the UNLV Rebels 54-21.  This went about as expected. Ohio State dispatched UNLV very, very quickly before emptying the bench of second-string, third-string and walk-on players. The Buckeyes went up 44-7 through two quarters and then coasted in the second half. The Rebels outscored the Ohio State bench players 14-10 in the second half, but it hardly mattered.  Ohio State opened up the air attack as I expected.  13 different players caught a pass, racking up 474 yards with a B1G Conference record seven different receivers catching a touchdown pass.  The offense came out focused on getting the ball to their most explosive athletes in space, knowing that the Rebels couldn’t stop it.  Because of the focus on the short and medium passing game, the run game production was down a bit, but J.K. Dobbins continued his strong running with 95 yards on 14 carries.  Despite still showing a bit of deficiency in the deep routes, quarterback J.T. Barrett still picked apart the Rebel defense with five touchdown passes and 209 yards in less than two quarters.  The YAC (yards after catch) by the receivers, particularly Parris Campbell, continues to make the difference.  Campbell finished the game with three catches for 105 yards, including a 65-yard touchdown. He also had an 82-yard kick return which set up a Johnnie Dixon touchdown.  It is clear that, despite his struggles with the deep routes, J.T. Barrett is still a master at distributing the ball to his playmakers around him in other ways.  The reserves on offense also had a stellar day.  Despite throwing a pick-six, quarterback Dwayne Haskins again showed a rifle arm and remarkable accuracy.  His touchdown toss to walk-on receiver C.J. Saunders was threaded right between two defenders.  Speaking of which, Saunders had a break-out day of his own with six catches for 102 yards and his touchdown.

Ohio State's defense held UNLV to under 100 yards passing on Saturday. That said, the Buckeye defense surrendered five first downs to the Rebels by way of penalty.  The Buckeyes were whistled for three pass interference calls and a defensive holding penalty in the secondary against UNLV. Three of those four penalties were called on Ohio State cornerback Kendall Sheffield,  To be fair, a couple of those penalties were ticky-tack calls, but there were still those that were legit and even with a couple of interceptions, it shows the secondary is still a work in progress.  Overall, the Ohio State defense has rebounded well from a poor showing in its first two games. After ranking dead last in the FBS in pass defense after two games, the Buckeyes have held their last two opponents under 100 yards. The Ohio State front seven again dominated a lesser opponent and Nick Bosa had perhaps his best game, accounting for one of Ohio State’s four sacks and had three tackles for loss.  Bosa also deflected the pass that led to an interception by Damon Arnette.  Ohio State's other three sacks came from safety Isaiah Pryor, linebacker Jerome Baker and half-sacks from linebacker Malik Harrison and defensive end Tyquan Lewis. 
The Buckeyes also recorded a safety in the win over UNLV, as Dre'Mont Jones stopped a Rebel running back behind the goal line for two points. It was the first Ohio State safety since a 2014 victory over Cincinnati.

Even though the opponent was UNLV, it was impressive in that Ohio State set an all-time school record for passing yards in a game; the 474 yards eclipsing the 459 yards garnered in a 1981 game against Florida State.  Defensively, the Buckeyes had more tackles for loss in a game since 2008 against Michigan.
Next week, Ohio State visits Rutgers and so begins conference play exclusively and the onset of cooler weather as the Buckeyes continue work on the downfield passing game and issues in the secondary.  Fortunately, their next serious chance for a loss doesn’t come until October 28 against Penn State, so there is still time to correct those issues.