After a couple of underwhelming offensive performances to start the season, Ohio State football fans were thrilled with the unit’s performance on Saturday against Western Kentucky in the 63-10 win.
The Buckeyes’ offense came out on fire, putting up 42 first half points scoring touchdowns on six of their seven drives.
Buy Buckeyes TicketsKyle McCord was named the full-time starter moving forward for the season before this matchup and he proved that was the correct decision. He got the ball to his elite playmakers throwing for nearly all of his 318 yards and three touchdowns in the first half.
The performance comes at a good time as with the Buckeyes traveling to South Bend to take on Notre Dame next Saturday, it was integral to find a rhythm offensively going into that game and that’s exactly what they did.
We break down each offensive position group’s performance using Pro Football Focus grades for each player. Though not the ultimate measuring stick, PFF is a good tool because it grades every player on every play.
Quarterbacks
Starter: Kyle McCord
PFF Grade | 62.8 (43 snaps)
Stats | 19-of-23 (82.6%), 318 Yards, 3 TD, 0 INT
Other: Devin Brown
PFF Grade | 80.1 (17 snaps)
Stats | 3-of-4 (75%), 40 Yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
What It Means
Aside from getting strip sacked on the second drive of the game, Kyle McCord operated the offense extremely well. He heads into the Notre Dame game next week playing with confidence.
Running Backs
Starter: TreVeyon Henderson
PFF Grade | 73.4 (36 snaps)
Stats | 13 attempts for 88 Yards (6.8 avg.), 2 TD, 1 Reception for 27 Yards
Other: Chip Trayanum
PFF Grade | 70.5 (10 snaps)
Stats | 5 attempts for 56 Yards (11.2 avg.), 1 TD
Other: Miyan Williams
PFF Grade | 66.9 (8 snaps)
Stats | 5 attempts for 23 Yards (4.6 avg.), 0 TD
Other: Evan Pryor
PFF Grade | 69.5 (5 snaps)
Stats | 3 attempts for 12 Yards (4.0 avg.), 0 TD
What It Means
Treveyon Henderson was the feature back for this game and played well, rushing for nearly seven yards per carry. Should he have gotten the ball more?
Wide Receivers
Starter: Marvin Harrison Jr.
PFF Grade | 80.2 (36 snaps)
Stats | 7 targets, 5 receptions, 126 Yards, 1 TD, 1 Attempt for 3 Yards
Starter: Emeka Egbuka
PFF Grade | 78.1 (30 snaps)
Stats | 4 targets, 4 receptions, 57 Yards, 2 TD
Starter: Julian Fleming
PFF Grade | 65.9 (42 snaps)
Stats | 3 targets, 2 receptions, 17 Yards, 0 TD
Other: Carnell Tate
PFF Grade | 77.3 (23 snaps)
Stats | 3 targets, 2 receptions, 40 Yards, 1 TD
Other: Xavier Johnson
PFF Grade | 57.0 (20 snaps)
Stats | 1 target, 1 reception, 0 Yards, 2 Attempts for 13 Yards
Other: Jayden Ballard
PFF Grade | 57.4 (5 snaps)
Stats | 0 targets
Other: Noah Rogers
PFF Grade | 60.5 (5 snaps)
Stats | 0 targets
Other: Brandon Inniss
PFF Grade | 58.0 (2 snaps)
Stats | 1 target, 0 receptions
What It Means
The strongest position group on the team had another strong performance on Saturday with Harrison Jr. and Egbuka each having good games, and true freshman Carnell Tate scoring his first career touchdown.
Tight Ends
Starter: Cade Stover
PFF Grade | 72.2 (40 snaps)
Stats | 5 targets, 5 receptions, 90 Yards, 0 TD
Other: Gee Scott Jr.
PFF Grade | 63.3 (24 snaps)
Stats | 2 targets, 2 receptions, 1 Yard, 0 TD
Other: Patrick Guard
PFF Grade | 56.9 (7 snaps)
Stats | 0 targets
Other: Jelani Thurman
PFF Grade | 59.6 (5 snaps)
Stats | 0 targets
What It Means
It was another good performance from Cade Stover Saturday. He recorded his second 90+ yard game of the season thus far. We’ll conveniently forget about the time he fumbled the ball on one of the receptions.
Offensive Line
Left Tackle: Josh Simmons
PFF Grade | 64.7 (50 snaps)
Stats | 68.3 run block grade, 68.8 pass block grade, 0 pressures allowed on 28 pass block snaps
Left Guard: Donovan Jackson
PFF Grade | 71.6 (50 snaps)
Stats | 69.4 run block grade, 85.1 pass block grade, 0 pressures allowed on 28 pass block snaps
Center: Carson Hinzman
PFF Grade | 66.0 (50 snaps)
Stats | 68.3 run block grade, 68.8 pass block grade, 0 pressures allowed on 28 pass block snaps
Right Guard: Matthew Jones
PFF Grade | 71.3 (50 snaps)
Stats | 72.2 run block grade, 68.4 pass block grade, 0 pressures allowed on 28 pass block snaps
Right Tackle: Josh Fryar
PFF Grade | 85.2 (50 snaps)
Stats | 85.7 run block grade, 72.3 pass block grade, 0 sacks allowed, 1 pressure allowed on 28 pass block snaps
Other: Luke Montgomery
PFF Grade | 64.2 (12 snaps)
Stats | 66.1 run block grade, 52.6 pass block grade, 1 sack allowed on 3 pass block snaps
Other: Tegra Tshabola
PFF Grade | 66.5 (10 snaps)
Stats | 65.6 run block grade, 74.5 pass block grade, 0 pressures allowed on 2 pass block snaps
Other: Victor Cutler Jr.
PFF Grade | 65.5 (10 snaps)
Stats | 63.9 run block grade, 73.4 pass block grade, 0 pressures allowed on 2 pass block snaps
Other: Enokk Vimahi
PFF Grade | 66.2 (10 snaps)
Stats | 65.2 run block grade, 74.5 pass block grade, 0 pressure allowed on 2 pass block snaps
Other: Zen Michalski
PFF Grade | 82.3 (10 snaps)
Stats | 81.4 run block grade, 76.2 pass block grade, 0 pressures allowed on 2 pass block snaps
What It Means
This was a strong performance all around from the offensive line. There was plenty of time to throw all game and the run game was effective. Next week will be a good measuring stick for this unit.
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