Ohio State had been getting past opponents with relative ease without Urban Meyer on the sidelines. With him, nothing has changed. As expected.
In Meyer’s first game back, No. 4 OSU, which entered the game as 37.5-point favorites, barely covered the spread in blowing past overmatched Tulane 49-6 in Columbus. The head coach had missed the first three games of the season, wins over Oregon State, Rutgers and TCU, because of a suspension stemming from his handling of domestic abuse allegations involving one of his now-former assistants.
As has been the case thus far this season, the Buckeyes were led by first-year starter Dwayne Haskins.
In the first half alone, Haskins completed 21 of his 24 passes for 328 yards and a career-high-tying five touchdown passes. His passer rating for the first two quarters? A fairly-impressive 262.6. Those would serve as Haskins’ final numbers as he watched from the sidelines the entire second half.
Haskins has now thrown 16 touchdown passes in the first four games against just one interception, and that lone pick came in the season opener against the Pac-12 OSU. For the season, he’s also completed 75.7 percent of his 115 pass attempts.
It’s the touchdown tosses, though, that are defining the strong-armed sophomore.
Now, imagine if he played every down and Ohio State didn't take foot off the pedal. pic.twitter.com/OtyaInWAmL
— Brent Yarina (@BTNBrentYarina) September 22, 2018
Dwayne Haskins is the first @OhioStateFB player since Todd Boeckman in 2007 with 2+ TD pass in each of the first 4 games of the season. (Boeckman started that season with 10 such games) #OhioState #Buckeyes
— BTNStatsGuys (@BTNStatsGuys) September 22, 2018
Parris Campbell caught eight of Haskins’ passes for 147 yards and two of the touchdowns. All of those numbers came in the first half as well.
Overall, Ohio State held a 570-254 advantage in total offense. Tulane managed just 2.4 yards per carry -- on 41 attempts -- in the contest.
OSU will jump back headfirst into Big Ten play with a huge East Division matchup against No. 10 Penn State in Happy Valley.