Game Observations: Ohio State's Offense vs. Tulsa

Here are my initial thoughts in watching Ohio State's offensive attack this afternoon.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Sep 18, 2021 10:02 PM EDT

The easiest place to start here is the obvious, impressive rushing attack from TreVeyon Henderson on Saturday afternoon. This is a young man with incredibly lofty goals, and while he wouldn't elaborate much in the post-game press conference, he did let everyone know that he did actually have today's amazing accomplishment on his list.

Henderson broke a 49-year old Ohio State record for most rushing yards in a game by a freshman, set by Archie Griffin back in 1972 against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Henderson was unstoppable, and frankly he was darn close to breaking off a couple more big runs. I don't think anyone would be surprised if you told them he would break the all-time single-game rushing record that Trey Sermon set during last year's Big Ten Championship game.

The offensive line play was very solid overall, especially from Matthew Jones, who came in at left guard for the injured Thayer Munford. Good news on that front - Ryan Day says Munford's injury does not initially appear to be long term.

WATCH: Instant Analysis from Ohio State's Win Over Tulsa

I thought C.J. Stroud looked mediocre. He's playing fine. He's not a full-blown liability right now and he's clearly got the ability to make some spectacular plays. But he's also not hiding whatsoever that his right shoulder is bothering him, that he's trying to gut through it and that he's not going to make excuses.

But the overthrows have to stop. He's missing too many guys, and FAR too many of his misses are overthrown passes. Once he gets back into Big Ten play, he's going to start costing the Buckeyes.

On a positive note, his TD pass to Garrett Wilson was a great throw, with terrific protection and and Wilson ran a perfect route.

Ryan Day made it clear he wanted to have better balance in the offensive play-calling today, and I thought he achieved that. In part because TreVeyon "had the hot hand," Day dialed up 25 passes and 41 run plays.

Chris Olave was a ghost today. He was technically targeted just once and the pass was incomplete. However, he appeared to come up with his first catch came with 11:55 left in the game on a 47-yard bomb from Stroud. But the play was wiped out because of an offensive facemask penalty on right guard Paris Johnson Jr.

After playing sparingly during the first two games of the season, Master Teague saw a couple of opportunities in the first half. He ran hard and looked good, but it's hard to justify not giving the ball to Henderson right now with the way he's been playing.

If you're interested, here are my defensive observations from today's game.

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