COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Buckeyes’ game against in-state rival Cincinnati lived up to its billing as an offensive shootout, with the two teams combining for over 1,100 yards on the way to a 50-28 OSU win in front of a record crowd of 108,362 at Ohio Stadium Saturday night.
Scoring 30 unanswered points in first half gave the Buckeyes a margin they would need to hold off the stubborn Bearcats in a game of swings in which the pendulum swung in Ohio State’s direction wide enough and often enough.
Ohio State fans can be forgiven if they held their breaths after Gunner Kiel hit Chris Moore for a 60-yard score on the Bearcats’ opening drive for the game’s first touchdown.
But the Buckeye offense responded quickly and emphatically with touchdown drives of 75 and 91 yards. Joey Bosa knocked the ball loose from Kiel’s grasp on the first play from scrimmage after the second touchdown, sending it bouncing into the end zone where Bearcat tackle Eric Lefeld batted it out of bounds for a safety.
On a day when the Buckeyes would amass 710 yards of offense — 330 of them via the arm of J.T. Barrett — touchdown passes to Devin Smith and Evan Spencer gave OSU a 30-7 lead with only 2:26 elapsed in the second quarter.
Those 30 points did not remain unanswered for long as it became apparent that the OSU defense had not disarmed the Gunner.
A Curtis Samuel fumble led to a 19-yd touchdown pass from Kiel to Johnny Hilton with 5:23 remaining in the first half.
Following the Buckeyes’ lone punt of the first half, Kiel hit Moore down the middle of the field for an 83-yard strike with :26 left, cutting the margin to 30-21 at halftime.
After Ohio State opened the second-half scoring with a 25-yard field goal, Cincinnati showed it had a bit more Moore: A 78-yard catch-and-run cut the margin to five points with 9:20 to play in the third quarter.
Ohio State responded with 17 points in a little over 10 minutes.
Sean Neurenberger’s second field goal, a 24-yard scoring pass from Barrett to Dontre Wilson and a 29-yarder to Devin Smith gave the Buckeyes their 22-point cushion with 10:26 to play.
Despite some dropped passes, Barrett finished with 26 completions, including four touchdowns, out of 36 pass attempts while Kiel was 21-32 for 352 and four TDs, three of them to Moore who finished with 221 yards, all on the three scoring strikes.
Ezekiel Elliot enjoyed a breakout performance for OSU with 182 rushing yards, 51 receiving and a touchdown