COLUMBUS (AP) — No. 4 Ohio State blew out hapless Rutgers 52-3 on a gray, rainy afternoon.
Dwayne Haskins threw for 233 yards and four touchdowns before giving way to backup Tate Martell early in the third quarter.
Rutgers’ starting quarterback Arthur Sitkowski was injured and did not play in the second half.
The Buckeyes expect a bigger challenge next week when they face No. 16 TCU in Dallas.
They became the second program in the nation yo reach their 900th win behind Michigan (944).
“It’s a whole lot of fun,” said Haskins, who finished 20 of 23 for 233 yards before taking a seat early in the third quarter after the game was in hand. “I want to run so many series, so many plays, that we ran out of time, and (were) up by so many points (that) we can’t do what we want.”
Johnnie Dixon grabbed two of Haskins’ scoring strikes , and backup quarterback Tate Martell added another touchdown pass and a zig-zagging 47-yard scoring run on the gray, misty afternoon.
The Buckeyes, playing in their second game without suspended coach Urban Meyer, piled up 579 offensive yards after amassing 721 in the opener.
Meyer was back conducting practices this week but will miss one more game — next Saturday’s contest with TCU — to finish out his three-game suspension for mismanaging fired assistant coach Zach Smith, who was accused of domestic abuse and other misbehavior. Co-offensive coordinator Ryan Day ran the show again Saturday and had few reasons to fret, save for the 11 penalties that cost Ohio State 131 yards.
“I thought we did a nice job of throwing the ball early and then kind of running it late,” Day said.
Ohio State’s defense, which last week gave up several big plays for touchdowns, tightened up against the Scarlet Knights, who managed just 134 total yards.