Nebraska Report Card: Offense

LINCOLN, Neb. - In Ohio State's 48-7 win over Nebraska, the Buckeyes put up 580 yards of offense in another dominating game in a list of many this season. The passing game was smooth, the running backs were hitting their holes and the offensive line was making things easy for everyone.

It's difficult to find things to be upset about when a team blows out a conference opponent by 41 points on the road, but as you'll probably hear from Ryan Day, there will always be things to fix, so let's grade out Ohio State's offense this week and see what they need to work on.

Justin Fields had another impressive outing on Saturday against Nebraska. While this wasn't his best game of the season, he still had some highlight throws to Garrett Wilson and Luke Farrell and showed good decision making in throwing the ball away or tucking and running it when faced with the defense closing in on him. There were still some issues with accuracy on a couple of throws, specifically a deep ball to Chris Olave that would have gone for a touchdown, but he was mostly able to hit his targets today on 15-of-21 passing for 212 yards and three touchdowns.

The best thing about Fields' performance today, though, was in his running game. This was the most yards he has rushed for in a game with 72 yards on 12 carries, and he was able to extend plays with his legs and show off a side of his game that we had seldom seen this season. We knew he could do it, but Saturday was the first time he really went for a spin with them, and it showed opposing teams that they'll have to game plan for his passing as much as they will for his running.

Grade: B

The rushing attack for Ohio State turned in by far their best performance of the season with 368 yards on 53 total carries, good for 6.9 yards per carry on the day.

J.K. Dobbins led the pack with 177 yards on 24 carries, only getting caught once behind the line of scrimmage. He had a long rush of 26 yards, and on 6.4 yards per carry, he was able to gash the Nebraska defense all night. He couldn't find the end zone, but there were only a limited number of rushing touchdowns to be had with Fields accounting for four touchdowns, so you don't want to take points off for the guy since he was still able find holes and contribute in a major way to Ohio State's win.

Master Teague III finished the game with 77 yards on 12 carries and a career-high two touchdowns, so this was another good game for the backup working on only half the carries of the starter in Dobbins. Not to mention, Marcus Crowley was able to come into the game late and go for a 36-yard pickup.

Overall, a very solid day for the running backs. At 6.9 combined yards per carry, Nebraska simply couldn't stop them, and they showed the elusiveness that's helped them be so successful this season.

Grade: A

There was good distribution in the passing game on Saturday with seven receivers catching a pass and three hauling in a touchdown.

Austin Mack had three catches for 66 yards and a touchdown including an impressive 38-yard catch in which he made some good moves to shake his defender, though based on his reaction to the play, you can tell he wishes he'd taken it to the house.

Nobody really stood out in terms of yards today, though K.J. Hill led the team with five receptions. Hill now sits only four receptions behind Cris Carter for the second most in Ohio State history, so it will be something to keep an eye on over the next couple games.

Garrett Wilson continues to be a serious red zone threat for opposing defenses, hauling in a touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone that would have counted in the NFL. With every snap you wonder why he isn't on the field more often, and while he is a freshman and will make some of those mistakes that come with younger players, his talent is undeniable, so don't be surprised to see his usage increased as the season progresses.

Additionally, the two units did a nice job blocking to help open up some of the big runs in the second level. This isn't something the wide receivers are asked to do often, but they did a nice job, and the tight ends performed well in their block duties as usual.

Grade: A

You can't have 368 team rushing yards without a little bit of help from the offensive line.

Fields, Dobbins and Teague were all given plenty of big holes to open up their long runs of 41, 26 and 26, respectively. Nebraska couldn't penetrate the line to stop Ohio State from running the ball, so it led to a big day on account of the offensive line only allowing six tackles for loss (including three sacks given up).

In pass protection, the line struggled a bit at points with Fields taking three sacks and having to escape pressure closing in on him in the pocket. While some of this may have had to do with Josh Alabi starting in place of the injured Branden Bowen, you still don't want to see Fields get hit as often and as hard as he did on Saturday.

It doesn't appear that all five will be graded as a champion internally this week, but it was an overall good game by the offensive line that contributed to a big rushing performance and generally let Fields go to work in the pocket. There were certainly some mistakes that will have to be worked on this week around closing up the pocket and not letting Fields get forced out, but in a 48-7 win, it's difficult to nitpick the unit.

Grade: B-