Ohio State shutout the Cincinnati Bearcats by a score of 42-0 on Saturday behind an oppressive defensive performance and a machine-like offense that overwhelmed the in-state rival.
Over 24 hours removed from the win, we look back at the questions we asked heading into the game and see how things turned out for the Buckeyes in the “Answered” portion of Five Questions.
Can Ohio State avoid an offensive lull this week?
The end result was the same at halftime - a 28-0 lead for Ohio State - but the path to get there was very different from last week against Florida Atlantic.
The offense got off to a bit of a late start, not scoring until the 8:28 mark of the first quarter, at which point they were driving for their fourth touchdown of the game last week. Scoring took off in the second quarter with two touchdown runs by J.K. Dobbins and a touchdown pass from Justin Fields to Garrett Wilson, the first of his Ohio State career.
Fields ran it in for his second rushing touchdown during the third quarter and threw another touchdown pass to K.J. Hill early in the fourth quarter, so the offense was much more spread out this week, and they never punted on back-to-back drives like they did during the seven consecutive drives they didn’t score on last week. Overall, the play calling was improved from last week and it never felt as though Ohio State was out of sync when Fields and the offense took the field.
Answer: Yes
