On September 21st ,2024, the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes hosted the Marshall Thundering Herd. Marshall is an unranked team from the MAC Conference and Ohio State is the third ranked team in the country. The matchup on paper was expected to be an easy Ohio State win. The game did live up to expectations.

Marshall did surprise the Ohio State faithful in Columbus by having a 7-0 lead almost midway through the 1st quarter. Ohio State did answer quickly with a Will Howard touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka for 68-yards. That tied the game by a score of 7-7.  In the 2nd quarter Ohio State went on to score the next 21 points in the game to take a 28-7 lead. Marshall did put up a fight. They scored a last-minute touchdown right before halftime and Ohio State led at the half 28-14.

In the second half Ohio State scored 21 unanswered points. The Buckeyes went on to cruise to a 49-14 victory improving their record to 3-0. And Marshall falls to a 1-2 record. This game was considered a final tune up for the Buckeyes before starting conference play next week. One of the stats that stood out for this game was the amount of rushing yards Ohio State had.

Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins had 173 yards rushing on 14 carries with 2 touchdowns, he averaged 12.4 yards a carry.  His teammate and fellow Buckeye running back TreVeyon Henderson had 76 rushing yards on 6 carries with 2 touchdowns. He averaged 12.7 yards a carry. The best way to dominate a team in football is to run the ball. And Ohio State did that with 280 yards rushing. The question is can it continue into next week?

Next Saturday September 28th,2024, at 7 pm eastern time, Ohio State will travel to Lansing Michigan to start conference play and take on the Michigan State Spartans. Michigan State is unranked, and Ohio State should stay at the number 3 spot in the rankings.  Again, on paper this game should be an Ohio State win. But the games are played on the field and not on paper. Come next month the schedule does get tougher for Ohio State and that is when Buckeyes fans will see how good this team is or is not.