Report card: Grading Buckeyes road win at Wisconsin

COLUMBUS — Add another resume-boosting win for Ohio State.

A week after taking down previously-unbeaten Penn State to give the Buckeyes two top-10 wins on the season, they went into Camp Randall Stadium and came home with a double-digit win. That’s hard to not appreciate.

But there’s a lot of improvement that needs to happen, especially on offense, if Ohio State is going to achieve its goals of winning the Big Ten and the College Football Playoff.

Lettermen Row is putting a bow on the Buckeyes win over Wisconsin with game grades in the latest Report Card.

Ohio State grade on offense: C

With Kyle McCord struggling early — and being banged up late — Ohio State recognized an area it could exploit and just ran with it. Literally. The Buckeyes gashed Wisconsin with TreVeyon Henderson runs in his first action in more than a month. He was special, and he lifted the entire offense out of the backfield in the passing game and with his rare ability on the ground.

“You can just see the difference he makes when he’s out there,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “The explosiveness, the speed. I thought he ran hard tonight, and he’s a weapon out of the backfield. … You can just see when he’s out there, the impact he’s having on our offense. And to get that run there in the fourth quarter was big.”

Of course, Henderson was the star of the night with more than 200 total yards of offense — 162 on the ground. But Kyle McCord must be better. He had one of his worst halves of football since becoming a starter, beginning the game 4-of-11 passing with three turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble. He did rebound, completing 13 of his final 15 passes and showing his arm talent at times in the win over Wisconsin. But he’s going to be counted on to make big plays in big games. He needs to be able to get that done for all 60 minutes moving forward.

If McCord can take the next step in his development and Henderson stays healthy to give the running game a boost, watch out.

Buckeyes grade on defense: A

What else needs to be said about this Ohio State defense? It shuts opponents down. It did the same against Wisconsin, aside from a field-goal drive that featured a Buckeyes goal-line stand and the opening drive of the second half, when the Badgers made some nice plays after halftime adjustments.

The Buckeyes defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage. Linebackers scraped off those linemen and made good plays. And the secondary just keeps chugging along. There’s not much else to say other than ‘well done.’

Our guys, they they played hard. They rallied to the ball,” Day said. “I thought the secondary played well, they got their hands on some balls. That was another really good performance by our guys.”

Day said it best. It was yet another good performance. And now it’s onto a worse offense to defense in Rutgers.

Ohio State grade on special teams: C

It’s more of taking the good with the bad when it comes to the Ohio State special teams. Jesse Mirco had a solid day punting, and Jayden Fielding knocked in a field goal. But the Buckeyes also gave up a long punt return in the first half when the game was still very much in the balance. Those errors can’t happen, so the grade for special teams remains at a C: painfully average.

Buckeyes coaching grade: B

On the offensive side of the ball, Ohio State is beginning to find some footing in the running game. Give a lot of credit to Ryan Day and Justin Frye. Since the Buckeyes publicly stated they were planning to simplify the rushing attack after a bad outing against Maryland, the Ohio State ground game is finding some success. Of course, it helps that TreVeyon Henderson is special. But the scheme is beginning to work, and that’s a good job done by the coaching staff.

And the defensive staff just continues to put together game plans that force offenses out of their best options. Last week, the Buckeyes forced Penn State to throw, taking away weapons such as the tight ends. And this week, Ohio State worked to take away the Wisconsin rushing attack. This staff is doing a tremendous job defensively.

All together, that equals a B.

Overall grade: B

Ohio State earned a win at Wisconsin, and did it by double digits. The Buckeyes hadn’t achieved that since 2000 before Saturday night. But there’s just so much room for improvement with the offense.

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