PISCATAWAY, N.J. – It was J.T. Barrett’s night. And it definitely wasn’t Rutgers’ night.
Barrett completed 14 of 22 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns to lead Ohio State to a 56-0 win over Rutgers on Saturday night.
He also rushed for 89 yards on 10 carries before back-up quarterback Dwayne Haskins came in with 3:50 left in the third quarter.
Rutgers (1-4, 0-2 Big Ten) was supposed to be improved this season, or at least that is what Ohio State’s coaches claimed in the days leading up to the game.
But the Scarlet Knights looked a lot like the Rutgers teams which lost to Ohio State 56-17, 49-7 and 58-0 the previous three seasons.
If Ohio State (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) hadn’t gotten off to a slow start it could have been even worse.
OSU had nearly as many penalties (five) as it had points in the first quarter (seven). But that 7-0 lead turned into a 35-0 lead by halftime and it was the Buckeyes’ much-criticized passing game that led the way in breaking down Rutgers.
After gaining only 33 yards in the air in the first quarter, Barrett was 7 of 11 for 183 yards and two touchdowns in the second quarter. He connected with Johnnie Dixon on touchdown throws of 70 yards and 39 yards and had a 46-yard non-scoring pass to Binjimen Victor in that quarter.
The senior quarterback also became Ohio State’s career passing yardage leader in the first half to break Art Schlichter’s 36-year-old record. Barrett finished the game with 7,622 passing yards in his career. Schlichter threw for 7,547 yards in his four years at OSU.
“It was incredible when they told me he broke Art Schlichter’s record,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. “That was an era I remember and there was the thought that it might never be broken.”
Mike Weber returned to a full-time job share at running back with J.K. Dobbins and scored three touchdowns in the first half. Dobbins had 53 yards on 6 carries and Weber gained 44 yards on 10 carries.
Meyer said Weber’s hamstring injury was more serious than he had disclosed. “It was a significant tear right before training camp. They almost had to do surgery on him,” he said.
“He ran hard. You had to knock the rust off him a little but there is no doubt we want to see both those guys (Dobbins and Weber) in there.”
Demario McCall finished as Ohio State’s leading rusher with 103 yards on 11 carries. Almost half of it came on a 48-yard touchdown run with eight minutes left in the game and he caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Dwayne Haskins earlier in the fourth quarter. All of his yards were in the second half.
McCall, who had a sports hernia, “is still not 100 percent,” Meyer said. “He’s still got more in the tank than I saw.”
Meyer also praised the defense, which played without two of its better players. “The defense was very good. Whenever you shut out an opponent, a Big Ten opponent, they (OSU’s defense) played great.”
Linebacker Chris Worley was held out for a second consecutive game because of a sprained foot and defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones did not make the trip to Rutgers because of what Meyer called “a freak injury” in which he suffered a bad cut from a locker in the locker room at the Woody Hayes Athletic Facility last week.
Even though Saturday night’s win came against an overmatched opponent for a third straight game, Meyer said, “We got a lot out of it. We’re on a roll and we’re realistic.”
Five OSU receivers had catches of 20 yards or more.
Ohio State’s first-half touchdowns came on drives of 60 yards, 87 yards, 63 yards, 50 yards and 75 yards.
Weber scored the first two on runs of one yard and three yards. They were followed by Dixon’s two scores and Weber scored on a two-yard run.
Barrett threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Victor with 8:02 left in the third quarter to raise the lead to 42-0.
McCall’s touchdown catch gave OSU a 49-0 lead. And his 48-yard run made it 56-0. Rutgers best chance to score came when Andrew Harte’s 31-yard field goal attempt late in the game hit the right upright and bounced off, preserving the shutout for Ohio State’s defense.
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