Ohio State vs. Rutgers: 2023 game preview and prediction

Ohio State hits the road again this week. The Buckeyes will be in New Jersey to take on Rutgers, who they are 9-0 against all-time. A win over the Scarlet Knights on Saturday would mark the first time Ohio State has won their first 10 meetings with one opponent. Last year the Buckeyes had little trouble with Rutgers in Columbus, beating the Scarlet Knights 49-10. Ohio State has scored at least 49 points in each of their previous nine meetings with Rutgers.

Hendo, Harrison, and the rest of the Ohio State offense

Last week the Buckeyes were sparked by the return of running back TreVeyon Henderson, who put together a massive performance in the hard-fought win over the Badgers in Madison. After missing the previous three games after suffering an injury in the second half against Notre Dame, Henderson looked sharp against Wisconsin, rushing for 162 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, while also hauling in four passes for 45 yards. The 33-yard touchdown run with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter sealed the victory for the Buckeyes, extending their lead to two touchdowns.

Along with Henderson’s performance, wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. continued to state his case as a Heisman Trophy candidate. Harrison finished with six catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns. The second touchdown reception from Harrison broke a 10-10 tie in the third quarter, giving Ohio State the lead for good in the game. The wide receiver is now 111 yards from reaching 1,000 receiving yards for the second time, which would make him the only Buckeye receiver to ever record 1,000 receiving yards in two seasons.

Harrison is also working his way up the Ohio State career receiving record books. With another 100-yard receiving performance, Harrison now has 13 games where he has reached triple digits in a game, putting him just one 100-yard game away from tying David Boston’s school record. For his career, Harrison has 2,291 yards receiving, which is five yards away from passing Santonio Holmes for 10th place in school history, and 42 away from moving past K.J. Hill. Harrison also needs just five catches to move past Holmes’ career total of 140 catches, and move into the top-10.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Ohio State on Saturday night, though. The Buckeyes did turn the football over three times in the victory, marking the first time since the Indiana game in 2020 where they had three turnovers in a game. After throwing one interception in the first seven games this year, Kyle McCord was picked off twice against the Badgers, and he also coughed up the football which resulted in a fumble recovery by Wisconsin. To go along with his two interceptions, McCord completed 17 of his 26 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns in Madison.

While Henderson returned to the lineup last week, the Ohio State running back room seems like it is never fully healthy. Not only did Miyan Williams miss the game against Wisconsin, on Tuesday head coach Ryan Day announced Williams would miss the rest of the season after undergoing a medical procedure. With Williams now sidelined, that leaves Chip Trayanum’s bruising running style to complement Henderson’s speed and shiftiness. It will be interesting to see if Evan Pryor plays a bigger role with Williams injured since it’s obvious Day is doing everything possible to try and preserve Dallan Hayden’s redshirt.

The Silver Bullets continue to fly

On the other side of the football, the Ohio State defense continued their domination of their opponents this year. The Buckeyes have not only not allowed more than 17 points in a game so far this season, the Silver Bullets are one of just two teams in the country that have yet to give up a play of more than 40 yards this season, with Rutgers being the other team. Overall, the Ohio State defense is allowing just 260 yards per game, which ranks fourth in the country.

The Buckeye secondary received a boost with the return of Denzel Burke after the cornerback missed the Penn State game. Unfortunately the good health news wouldn’t last through the game, as safety Lathan Ransom was injured early in the fourth quarter on Saturday night after suffering an apparent lower leg injury. It is unknown how long Ransom will be sidelined for, but while Ransom is out of action expect Sonny Styles to step in at the “bandit” position. With Styles taking over for Ransom, cornerback Jordan Hancock will now see even more time at the nickel position, which is a spot where he and Styles had been splitting time.

One defensive back that will be itching to have a big performance on Saturday is Davison Igbinosun, who grew up in New Jersey. The cornerback has had little trouble settling into his role at Ohio State after transferring to Columbus after one season at Ole Miss. Igbinosun has 35 tackles this season, three pass breakups, and after recovering a fumble last week against Wisconsin, he now has two fumble recoveries this season. As if returning to his home state wasn’t motivation enough for Igbinosun, he’ll also want to outperform his brother, who is a safety at Rutgers.

One thing Ohio State wasn’t able to do a lot of against Wisconsin was put pressure on the quarterback. There was one exception, as defensive tackle Tyleik Williams recorded a sack and two tackles for loss against the Badgers. Williams is now the team’s leading tackler amongst defensive lineman, as he has 33 stops, and his eight tackles for loss are a team-high. Along with the strong work he is doing on the defensive line, Williams has also been able to get his big paws up at the right time, registering five pass breakups so far this year.

A big reason the Buckeyes weren’t able to put quite as much pressure on Wisconsin quarterback Braedyn Locke was because J.T. Tuimoloau was injured in the first half against the Badgers. Even though Tuimoloau was able to return to the game in the second half, it was obvious he wasn’t at 100 percent. Since he wasn’t able to get to the quarterback, Tuimoloau saw his three-game streak of recording at least one sack snapped.

Even though Ohio State’s defensive line wasn’t able to get into the backfield much on Saturday night, defensive end Jack Sawyer was still working hard in the game. Sawyer finished the contest with a career-high six tackles. The tackle output for Sawyer ranked second on the team in the game, one behind Tommy Eichenberg and one ahead of Steele Chambers. The linebackers are the team’s top-two tacklers so far this year. Eichenberg heads into the Rutgers game with 61 tackles, while Chambers has 47 stops.

The Schianoman is thriving at Rutgers

This isn’t quite the same Rutgers team we have become used to since they joined the Big Ten. The improved Scarlet Knights are playing with pride and confidence. With their 31-14 win two weeks ago over Indiana, Rutgers is already bowl eligible. Their 6-2 start is their best start to a season since they started the 2012 season 7-1. Not only do the Scarlet Knights have six wins before entering November for the first time since joining the Big Ten, their three conference wins already have tied a season-high.

Standing across the sidelines from Ryan Day will be Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano. These two coaches are very familiar with each other since they were both members of the Ohio State coaching staff under Urban Meyer. Day knows Schiano is going to throw every trick he can at the Buckeyes, and it’s likely Schiano will have even more odd looks up his sleeve for Ohio State on Saturday since Rutgers is coming off a bye week. Under Schiano, the Scarlet Knights are 11-5 when coming off a bye.

The offense of the Scarlet Knights

One of the biggest surprises this year in the Big Ten has been the improvement of Rutgers on offense. The Scarlet Knights are the most improved team in the conference on offense, averaging 45 more yards of total offense per game this year, as well as 10.7 more points per game. The area on offense where Rutgers has been excelling the most this year has been with their running game, as the Scarlet Knights already have four games with at least 250 rushing yards. Prior to this year, Rutgers had just four games with 250 yards rushing over their last 70 games.

In their most recent game against Indiana, Rutgers ran for 276 yards, which set a school Big Ten record. Leading the charge on the ground was quarterback Gavin Wimsatt, who ran for 143 yards, which was the most be a quarterback in school history. Wimsatt also found the end zone three times on the ground. For the season, Wimsatt has ran for 362 yards and seven touchdowns. Along with his rushing prowess, Wimsatt has thrown for 1,134 yards and seven touchdowns, but also has tossed four interceptions.

Along with Wimsatt, Kyle Monangai powers the running attack of the Scarlet Knights. Monangai is the workhorse of the Rutgers ground game, carrying the football 144 times, which is the most in the Big Ten. Monangai has rushed for 744 yards and seven touchdowns entering Saturday’s contest. Not only has Monangai hit the 100-yard mark on the ground in four games this season, he has done so in each of the last two games. With 76 rushing yards, Monangai will reach 1,500 career rushing yards.

With how much they run the football, the Rutgers receivers don’t have huge numbers. That doesn’t mean Ohio State can overlook Wimsatt’s targets. Senior wide receiver Christian Dremel leads the team with 23 catches, 294 yards, and three touchdowns. JaQuae Jackson ranks second with 17 catches and 290 yards. The only other receivers with more than 100 yards receiving are Isaiah Washington and Ian Strong.

Rutgers on defense

Not only has the offense of Rutgers reached new levels this season, the defense of the Scarlet Knights has been stout. The 126 points allowed through their first eight games is the fewest points given up at this point of the season since 2012 when they allowed just 114 points through their first eight games. Like the Buckeyes, Rutgers is averaging less than 300 yards per game entering Saturday’s contest.

Leading the way for the defense of the Scarlet Knights are linebackers Tyreem Powell and Deion Jennings. Powell leads Rutgers with 53 tackles, while Deion Jennings is just two tackles behind his partner at linebacker. At the third linebacker spot is Desmond Igbinosun, who is the brother of Ohio State cornerback Davison Igbinosun. The Rutgers Igbinosun has made it a habit of making his way into the backfield of opponents this year, registering 5.5 tackles for loss. Mohamed Toure has also played a big roll with the unit as he has comeback from a knee injury suffered last year.

Even though they’ll have their work cut out for them against the Ohio State receiving corps, Rutgers does have some quality talent at defensive back. Safety Flip Dixon leads the secondary with 48 tackles and five pass breakups. At cornerback, the Scarlet Knights have a couple players who have made some impact plays throughout the season. Robert Longerbeam has two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and a pick. On the other side, Max Melton has a sack, interception, fumble recovery, and forced fumble.

On the defensive line, defensive ends Aaron Lewis and Wesley Bailey lead the team with three sacks each. On the inside of the defensive line are tackles Isaiah Iton and Mayan Ahanotu. As a team, Rutgers has 17 sacks through their first eight games this season, and will look to add to that total against an Ohio State offensive line that has struggled so far this year.

Summary

As if Ohio State didn’t already have a big enough target on them as one of the top teams in the Big Ten, that target got even bigger on Tuesday night when the Buckeyes were put atop the College Football Playoff rankings. Ohio State knows they have a showdown in Ann Arbor with Michigan at the end of the month that will have massive implications in the Big Ten, as well as the CFP. The Buckeyes can’t afford to overlook their opponents the next three weeks.

What Ohio State needs to do on Saturday is play sound football. Greg Schiano knows the Buckeyes are the more talented team, so he’ll have to come up with some quirky ways to generate offense. We saw it back in 2020 when the Scarlet Knights threw about every trick play they could at Ohio State in the closest matchup between the two teams, although the Buckeyes still won by more than three touchdowns in Columbus.

The key for Ohio State is going to be to get Kyle McCord into a rhythm early on. If McCord is on his mark and finding Harrison and tight end Cade Stover, it will allow things to open up for TreVeyon Henderson, who can take over a game with his big play ability. Where McCord gets into trouble is when he gets flustered early and starts missing passes. While he usually ends up settling down in the second half, when he is off it allows opponents to hang around longer than they should.

The defense for Ohio State shouldn’t have too much trouble bottling up the Rutgers offense. Since they don’t have a ton to offer throwing the football, the Buckeyes should be able to load up to stop the run. If Ohio State is able to force a few quick punts they could put some distance on the Scarlet Knights early, which will be a problem for Rutgers because they aren’t built to put points on the scoreboard quickly.

Obviously it’s not a good idea to overlook a Greg Schiano team since he has ways to help his team stay close. Ohio State should be able to handle their business against the Scarlet Knights, much like Michigan did against Rutgers. While the Scarlet Knights will play tough as they try and defend their home turf, there is still a pretty big gap between the two teams. About the only things Rutgers will likely accomplish in this game is hold the Buckeyes under 49 points for the first time in 10 meetings between the schools.