Perry Hills became an unlikely thorn in Ohio State’s side on Saturday.
The redshirt junior quarterback, who started seven games as a freshman in 2012 but had taken a back seat to both CJ Brown and Caleb Rowe in the years since, had a career performance in the Horseshoe and was pretty much the lone bright spot for the Maryland offense. In particular was his dual threat ability as he finished with 170 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns in a game where the Buckeyes would eventually pull away in the second half en route to a 49-28 victory.
Buckeyes Struggle To Contain Perry Hills but are Otherwise Dominant in Win over Maryland
Hills exploits came close to overshadowing what turned out to be perhaps the most complete game of the year on both sides of the ball for the Buckeyes. Head coach Urban Meyer gave Cardale Jones his sixth start of the season, but it was how he used JT Barrett that proved most intriguing. Early in the week there were hints that Barrett would be utilized in red zone situations and that indeed turned out to be the case.
This came as a result of OSU’s downright ineptitude inside the 20 through five games. Only 37.5 percent of the Buckeyes’ forays inside their opponents 20-yard line had resulted in touchdowns thus far which ranked 121st in the nation. It was a far cry from 2014 when they were finding the end zone at a 71.62 percent rate when in the red zone.
Needless to say, Meyer’s gambit worked. The Buckeyes were a perfect 100 percent on the day at converting red zone possessions into touchdowns. Barrett wasn’t used much in the passing game but completed both his throws. More importantly he finished with three rushing touchdowns on 12 carries, half of which (all three scores included) occurred inside the Terps’ 20.
Barrett’s big day didn’t necessarily come at the expense of any struggles on the part of Jones. In fact, he arguably had his best day of 2015, notching career-highs in both passing yards (291) and completion percentage (75) while throwing for two touchdowns and having just his second game of the year without an interception.
Perhaps more promising was the return of Jones’ accuracy with the deep ball which was evident on a late first-half pass to Braxton Miller which went for 33 yards and was followed by the two hooking up on a red zone touchdown pass one play later to give the Bucks a 21-7 lead. Later in the second half with the game tied at 21 and the college football Twitter-verse collectively ranking OSU anywhere but number one, Jones connected with Jalin Marshall on a 48 yard score one play into a drive that followed a Terp three and out.
The Scarlet and Gray never looked back, scoring 21 unanswered and emphatically dominating the second half in virtually all facets of the game.
Not surprisingly, Ezekiel Elliott played his part in OSU’s ability to put the game away down the stretch. When all was set and done, he finished with his 11th straight game of 100 or more rushing yards. It came in emphatic fashion as well, with “Zeke” crossing the century mark on a 16-yard scamper for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, the Buckeyes held players not named Perry Hills to 83 total yards and did a great job at making the Terps one-dimensional on offense. Perhaps the most glaring example was the fact that Hills accounted for roughly 78 percent of Maryland’s total offense when you combine his rushing and passing yardage. OSU intercepted him twice down the stretch and his only passing touchdown occurred in fourth quarter garbage time when the game was out of reach.
Linebacker Raekwon McMillan continued to establish himself as one of the Big Ten’s hardest workers on defense, tallying eight tackles including one for loss. Only the Terps Jermaine Carter, Jr. has more total tackles on the season in the conference. Joey Bosa had a game-high four quarterback hurries and finally was able to register a sack on the season.
The aftermath of this game for Maryland will center around the future of their current head coach Randy Edsall. Reports surfaced late in the week that the school was preparing to fire him after this game with the Terps entering a bye week. Edsall actually stormed out of the post-game press conference after he was asked about the situation.
With the win, Ohio State extends the nation’s longest overall winning streak to 19 games and still has yet to lose a Big Ten regular season contest during Urban Meyer’s tenure. If the Buckeyes are ranked number one in the AP poll on Sunday it will mark their 102nd all-time appearance as the top-ranked team, breaking a tie with Oklahoma for the most in college football history.
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