Biggest Takeaways From Ohio State's Record-Breaking Annihilation Michigan State

Here are the most important things to take away from Saturday's record-breaking Buckeye win against the Spartans.

There is one superlative that appropriately explains the Buckeyes' total domination of Michigan State in the first half.

Perfection.

I don't want to say the second half was irrelevant, but Ohio State made the impression that it needed to make by throwing up seven touchdowns in seven possessions before halftime against the No. 7-ranked team in the country.

Look at their first half stats.

500 yards of offense and one negative play in 49 total plays. I'm not sure how else you can describe it. It was truly the best half of football I've ever seen played and I have to think it was the most prolific half in program history. The Buckeyes quite literally did whatever they wanted. Chris Olave and C.J. Stroud both broke team records in that first 30 minutes.

Former Heisman candidate Kenneth Walker was totally irrelevant in the Michigan State backfield. He finished the day with six carries and 25 yards.

In just his 10th career start, Stroud had his third 400-yard game and his fourth game with at least 5 touchdown passes. In fact, he tied the school record today by becoming the fifth player to have a 6-TD game. His final numbers through the first half, plus one drive: 32-of-35 for 432 yards, six touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Notably, Kyle McCord burned his redshirt today by appearing in his fifth game of his freshman season. The second team Buckeyes weren't nearly as efficient as the first team was, but the reality is, it's pretty much impossible to keep your intensity and focus in the second half after taking a 49-0 lead into the locker room.

Quinn Ewers also appeared for the Buckeyes for the first time in his career, handing off two times at the end of the game.

Early in the third quarter, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson all eclipsed 100 yards for the game. After never having three WR's accomplish that in school history, today marked the second time this season that trio has done it.

Pretty ironic they did it against Michigan state, after the Detroit Free Press said earlier this year that the Spartans had the best group of receivers in the nation.

In fact, the Buckeyes are closing in on becoming only the second team in the history of FBS football to have three 1,000 yard receivers AND a 1,000 yard rusher. TreVeyon Henderson and Smith-Njigba are already beyond the thresholds and Wilson and Olave are awfully close behind. 

Wilson (who missed the Nebraska game) had 813 yards through nine games and Olave opened the day with 708 yards in his 10 contests.

After today's incredible performance, Wilson needs just 61 yards and Olave needs 142 to hit the threshold. They finished with 126 and 140 respectively today.

On a pass-happy day for the offense, Henderson finished the day with 11 total touches for 71 yards.

Saturday's game marks the seventh time this season that the Buckeyes have scored at least 45 points in a game. They continue to lead the nation in scoring offense, yards per play and total offensive yards.

I know the Buckeyes were ranked fourth during the most recent College Football Playoff rankings and I also acknowledge those rankings are fairly irrelevant until the season is done. But after watching the Buckeyes over the last two months (and in particular, the last two weeks), you can't convince me they aren't at least the No. 2 team in the nation.

-----

Be sure to check out our new message boards, Buckeye Forums. We'd love to have you part of the conversation during the season.

-----

You may also like:

Halftime Analysis: Ohio State Breaking Records, Pounding Michigan State

C.J. Stroud Breaks Ohio State Passing Record For Consecutive Completions

Chris Olave Breaks Ohio State Program Record For Career Touchdown Catches

Ohio State OL Harry Miller Out For Season With Knee Injury

Building The Buckeyes Discusses Sonny Styles' Commitment, 2023 Class

-----

Be sure to stay locked into BuckeyesNow all the time!

Join the BuckeyesNow community!
Subscribe to the BuckeyesNow YouTube channel
Follow Brendan on Twitter: @BrendanGulick22
Follow BuckeyesNow on Twitter: @BuckeyesNowSI
Like and follow BuckeyesNow on Facebook!