COLUMBUS, Ohio - As the football sailed out of the back of the end zone after Justin Fields was stripped and Miami (Ohio) took an early lead off the safety, things seemed in disarray in Ohio Stadium. The defense was giving up chunk plays like we hadn’t seen this season and while it was only one drive for the offense, it still led to an opponent taking the lead for the first time this season.
Miami (Ohio) kicked a field goal on their ensuing drive to make it 5-0 halfway through the first quarter, and while it was concerning to see the early mishaps by the offense and special teams, Fields said the coaching staff and the rest of the team were never concerned about the adversity.
“No, not really. I mean, Coach [Ryan Day] always tells us that were going to eventually get punched in the face so it’s about how we responded,” Fields said. “I think we responded in a great way. Just have to keep doing it.”
While the first quarter was shaky for Ohio State, the second quarter began an offensive campaign of record breaking proportions. Fields found K.J. Hill on a 53-yard touchdown just 24 seconds into the quarter, and after the first career interception by Jeff Okudah of Miami (Ohio) quarterback Brett Gabbert, Fields again found the end zone just 32 seconds later on a seven-yard keeper.
It would take a bit of time to describe every time Ohio State scored again in the second quarter, but here’s the short of it; the Buckeyes found the end zone four more times, once by another touchdown run by Fields and three times through the air with a touchdown pass to Binjimen Victor and two touchdown passes to Chris Olave.
“I think it was a pretty good stretch. I don’t know about the best stretch we’ve had,” Fields said. “But it was a good stretch and I think we did a great job in the second quarter executing and doing our job.”
Even if Fields doesn’t think this was Ohio State’s best stretch on offense, history disagrees.
The 42-point second quarter by the Ohio State offense is the most points ever put up in a single quarter by the Buckeyes, at least dating back to 1960. The previous record was a 34-point clip in the first quarter against Florida A&M in 2013.
Six touchdowns in the second quarter is also the most ever scored in a single quarter by Ohio State, again topping the five touchdowns accounted for in the first quarter against Florida A&M.
For Fields’ part, he finished 14-of-21 for 223 yards and four passing touchdowns. On the ground, he ran for 36 yards on nine carries and added two more touchdowns, accounting for six total touchdowns on the day, tied for the most since J.T. Barrett accounted for seven against Nebraska in 2017.
The only true miscue by Fields was the safety he took on the Buckeyes’ first offensive drive of the game, but Day believed there was more at play there that caused the score for Miami (Ohio).
“It was a double move. It was a post-corner that takes a little time to develop,” Day said. “And looking back it was kind of a risky thing coming out, but I wanted to be aggressive in the game. We ran the ball for one or two yards. Let’s take a shot.”
The offense obviously had an impressive performance, but scoring six touchdowns in a quarter required some help from the defense. Of the six offensive drives by Miami (Ohio) during the second quarter, three of them ended in turnovers for the Ohio State defense. Okudah had the aforementioned interception, and Chase Young had two strip sacks. Not to mention, in between Young’s strip sacks, the special teams of Ohio State blocked a punt that gave the Buckeyes great field position.
It was a team effort to get those kinds of record-breaking numbers for the offense, and Day credited the way the defense and the special teams performed for giving the Buckeyes a short field.
“I think anytime your defense can do what they did, which is shut them down, create turnovers like that and then flip a short field, they were blitzing and so they were leaving a little bit of room out there, throwing the ball down the field,” Day said. “And I think we hit some of those which kind of opened up the game.
Though it was one of the most dominant performances in Ohio State history, Day doesn’t want to get caught up on reminiscing about the win. With a challenging Big Ten opponent on the road next week in Nebraska, he doesn’t want the team to get caught up in the praise of today’s win, and instead make sure they’re focused on next week.
“To come out like that after three weeks and a week of a lot of people telling us how great we were, to come out and dominate like that is pretty impressive,” Day said. “So, a job well done, but it’s what have you done for me lately, and we need to go to Lincoln and get a big win next week.”
