Revisit Ohio State’s best plays in their 45-16 win over Maryland

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You wouldn’t know it to look at the commanding 45-16 final score, but Ohio State’s homecoming win over Maryland was sloppy at best.

While many of the reps went to guys a little deeper in the depth chart than usual as Ryan Day tried to rest starters where he could ahead of Indiana next week, penalty flags seemed to fly left and right, and it took the Buckeyes far too long to find their footing against a struggling Terrapin team. 

Still, the game wasn’t all bad (how could it be when the Buckeyes ultimately pulled off a 29-point win?)—some of the highlights were particularly flashy this week (one player even broke a record—and it wasn’t Jeremiah Smith). 

A Trio of Plays from Jeremiah Smith

Smith had just four receptions against the Terrapins, but in true J.J. form, even the non-scoring plays were note-worthy as the best player in college football still managed 93 yards and two touchdowns. 

His first catch of the game was the 33-yard touchdown reception that put the Buckeyes on the board, an impressive catch-and-run that proves if you can just get this guy the football, he’ll take care of the rest. 

His second catch of the day was a 40-yard touchdown reception about halfway through the second quarter.

At this point, there’s very little that can be said about Smith that hasn’t been said before. He sits alone in Ohio State’s record book in career receiving yards, receptions and touchdowns. He needs just one more 100-yard game to hold the record for career games with 100 yards or more.

The junior is essentially out of records to break at the school level. 

His two touchdowns today put him just one touchdown shy of the Big Ten career touchdowns record, which Michigan’s Braylon Edwards currently owns for his 39 touchdowns between 2001-2004. 

Another two-touchdown game out of Smith will put him all alone at the top of the conference as well. He sits just 314 yards shy of the Big Ten’s all-time receiving yards record (currently held by Purdue’s John Standeford at 3,788 yards. And while Edwards and Standeford both played four seasons, Smith is just halfway through his third. 

The thing with Smith is that even when he’s not scoring, he can usually be found doing some freakishly athletic thing.

An 8-yard reception for him, like this one today, would have been dropped by a lot of other receivers. Smith, on the other hand, one-hands it and goes, making it look easy, putting the Buckeyes in the red zone with less than 90 seconds remaining in the first half. 

A pair of tight end touchdowns 

After an early blunder that led to an incomplete pass, tight end Nate Roberts bounced back in style with a 68-yard catch-and-run near the end of the first quarter to put the Buckeyes up, 14-3. 

Roberts’ touchdown—his second of the season—is the longest touchdown on record for a Buckeye tight end, bringing him to 160 yards on the year. 

The Buckeyes made good use of their tight ends, as Roberts wasn’t the only one to find the end zone. Mason Williams also had a nice down-low catch in the end zone just before the end of the first half, his first of the season. 

Bo Jackson touchdown 

The Buckeyes focused a lot on their ground game today, and while they still averaged fewer yards per carry than I would like (just 4.3), Bo Jackson had a solid effort with 107 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries.

As the end of the third quarter started to creep up, Jackson found a hole on 4th-and-2 and took off on a 25-yard run—his longest of the day—straight into the end zone. 

After a day of challenges with the offensive line, this was the exact kind of explosive run play fans have been craving, with a beautiful hole carved out just for Jackson and a nice read on the play by the running back. 

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