Ohio State-Maryland: Buckeyes score early, often in another blowout victory

Six and a half minutes later, Fields took it in himself from four yards out to cap an 11-play, 71 yards drive, and the rout was on.

Ohio State improved to 9-0 with a 73-14 win.

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With 1:56 to go, Fields found K.J. Hill in the flat, Hill picked up a couple of blocks and outran the pursuit to the goal line for give the Buckeyes a quick three-touchdown lead.

Through one quarter, the Buckeyes had a 192-1 edge in total yardage and 10 first downs to Maryland’s one.

The Buckeyes were 4-for-4 on third downs and averaged 7.4 yards per play while having the ball for 9:10.

Their dominance of the opening stanza was supplemented by a surprise onside kick in which Blake Haubeil popped the ball up to Chris Olave, who was sprinting along the sideline with no Terrapin tracking him. He caught the kick and the Ohio Stadium crowd erupted in approval.

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The Buckeyes continued in the second quarter, marching another 76 yards in 11 plays for a drive Fields capped by finding a wide open Olave in the end zone after the quarterback camped out in the backfield long enough for his receiver to run all the way across the field.

That made it 28-0 after less than 19 minutes of action, and Ohio State was not done.

J.K. Dobbins added a pair of touchdown runs — one from seven yards out and the other from 20 — to push the Buckeyes lead to 42-0 with less than a minute to go before halftime.

At the half, Ohio State enjoyed a 363-66 advantage in total yards and had 22 first downs to five.

The Buckeyes were 8 for 8 on third down while Maryland was 0 for 6.

Despite playing without the nation’s leader in sacks, Chase Young, Ohio State got to the Maryland quarterback five times in the first half.

Davon Hamilton had two sacks while Tuf Borland, Malik Harrison and Tyreke Smith all had one.

Young was inactive Saturday after it came to light he received a loan last year that could be a violation of NCAA rules.

Ohio State played reserves for the entire second half but still outscored the visitors 31-14 in the final 30 minutes.