BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Another Saturday, another great day for Ohio State's offense. The offense that head coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson put together is a well-oiled machine that will grind up anything in its path. Though this may seem like an egregious act of hyperbole, can you come to any other conclusion after watching the offense's performance against Indiana? These are world beaters, and I will grade them accordingly.
Quarterbacks
Saturday was another good performance for Justin Fields, if a bit subdued compared to his outings against Florida Atlantic and Cincinnati. Fields began the game a little shaky with some inaccuracy on some of his early throws, but he was eventually able to settle in as the game progressed.
Fields finished 14-of-24 for 199 yards and three touchdowns. He also picked up 11 yards and a touchdown on the ground. The only glaring mistakes with his game this week was his lack of touch on the deep ball. Missing a handful of targets throughout the game, Day said that the long ball will be something Fields is going to need to work on. There was also a near scare where a tipped pass on an inaccurate throw fell through the hands of an Indiana receiver, so Fields has yet to have a turnover in three games.
At the time of writing, Fields is currently the leader in the nation for touchdowns accounted for with 13, so you can't ask for much more from him this early in the season.
Grade: A
Running Backs
If 141 yards against Cincinnati wasn't good enough for J.K. Dobbins, how about 193 yards? The junior running back ran all over the field on Saturday throwing stiff arms and fighting through contact to turn out one of the best games of his Ohio State career. Averaging 8.8 yards per carry on 22 carries, the Hoosiers' defense didn't have an answer for Dobbins.
Moving forward, I don't know if we should expect nearly 200 yards from Dobbins every week, but the expectation is now there that he'll be a dominant force week in and week out, and that hasn't been put more on display than it was Saturday.
For his backup Master Teague III, it was another career day for the redshirt freshman as he took off for 106 yards on only 10 carries. The main difference from the first two weeks is that Teague received snaps in the first half for the first time this season, once even getting the ball in a critical 3rd and 3 situation. He's been running hard lately and there seems to be no reason why he won't get more carries here in the future.
With an impressive performance by everyone in the running game and no turnovers, I think it's time to hand out a highly coveted grade.
Grade: A+
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Fields has had a great first three games, and it certainly doesn't hurt that his receivers are making it easy for him.
Binjimen Victor had another strong showing, leading the team with four catches for 66 yards. Chris Olave hauled in three receptions and a touchdown and led the team with 70 receiving yards. While it isn't a part of his duties as wide receiver, he also blocked a punt that resulted in a safety for Ohio State. Overall, the offense was getting the ball to a lot of different players (with the exception of the tight ends, who were again unfortunately blanked out on the stats sheet) with seven players with at least two receptions. Fields clearly favors getting the ball to Victor, Olave or K.J. Hill, but he isn't afraid to spread the love around.
The tight ends had another nice week blocking, but again, not much to note in the passing game. Fields had Jeremy Ruckert open down the sidelines but overthrew him in one of the few (if not only) targets of the game to a tight end.
The only blatant drop in the game was actually by Dobbins, but he made it up later in the game with a more impressive touchdown catch anyways.
Grade: A
Offensive Line
This was another strong performance for the offensive line this season. This starting five has coalesced well since some early pass protection issues against Florida Atlantic, and they have turned in some strong film as of late.
While Dobbins and Teague obviously had a lot to do with the combined team total of 314 rushing yards, the offensive line paved the way by opening gaps and leaving them room to do their jobs.
Fields got rushed around in the pocket a little bit in the first half and took a blindside sack, but beyond that, he had a good amount of time to work in the pocket and kept his jersey clean for the most part today. Overall, you didn't really notice the offensive line today, which is almost always a good thing.
Grade: A