J.T. Barrett has been effective throwing and running the ball and the Ohio State defense has handled a fired-up Rutgers team, giving No. 1 Ohio State a 21-0 lead at the half.
Rutgers accepted the ball to open the game and marched 64 yards in 12 plays, chewing up nearly five minutes, but Kyle Federico‘s 29-yard field goal try clanged off the left upright. Rutgers’s next five touches ended in punts, and three of those possessions traveled 11 or fewer yards.
Ohio State’s first possession ended in a Barrett fumble, but the sophomore has been otherwise flawless in his first start of the season, completing 5-of-7 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown while rushing 10 times for 85 yards and a score. Barrett hit Michael Thomas for a 50-yard touchdown pass to put Ohio State up 14-0 with 6:48 to go in the second quarter, and then found Braxton Miller for 45-yard gain on the Buckeyes’ next possession, setting up his own two-yard touchdown run with 3:02 remaining before the break.
Ezekiel Elliott carried nine times for only 15 yards, but one of those was a two-yard jaunt to open the scoring with 10 ticks left in the first quarter.
Overall, Ohio State out-gained Rutgers 248-145 in the first half while holding the Scarlet Knights to six first downs.