Ohio State First Thoughts: It's on to Michigan after a weird win against Rutgers

The Buckeyes won their final home game on Saturday. Now, The Game.

Bo Jackson scores a touchdown in the first half of Saturday’s game against Rutgers. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State athletics)

COLUMBUS — First thoughts on Ohio State’s 42-9 win against Rutgers in the final regular-season home game this year.

1. Receiver Watch continues. Carnell Tate missed his third-straight game. Jeremiah Smith, who was limited to 22 snaps last week against UCLA, also did not play against Rutgers. Head coach Ryan Day was mum on each player's status all week. So their absence on Saturday was unsurprising.

OSU’s offense, however, struggled to kick it into gear without them.

A Buckeye receiver did not log a reception until the 7:32 mark of the second quarter. David Adolph, a senior walk-on, started the game and seemed to log the most outside receiver snaps with Smith and Tate out. Bryson Rodgers played sparingly. Mylan Graham did not appear until the second half and played only a handful of snaps. Freshman Quincy Porter was also unavailable.

Two catches apiece for Adolph (23 yards) and Brandon Inniss (10 yards) accounted for Ohio State’s only receiver production. Inniss did secure a tough catch in the end zone on a ball thrown over his shoulder from Julian Sayin, maintaining possession as he fell to the ground.

Tight end Max Klare led the Buckeyes with seven catches for 107 yards and a touchdown.

Smith and Tate spent the game next to each other on the sideline, both in street clothes — Tate primarily seated on a cooler and Smith on a stationary bike that he occasionally pedaled, presumably to keep whatever is ailing from stiffening up too much. Neither appeared to be laboring much during warmups or the game while walking the sidelines, but their status remains unclear. The expectation is that Day will not provide an update on Smith and Tate’s availability for next week’s game at Michigan, but we’ll update this story if he does.

Update (here’s what Day said): “The only thing I’ll say really is that they are day to day. The staff and those guys are working really hard to get ready to play next week.”

It goes without saying that, after watching the last two weeks, Ohio State needs them to be even functional on offense.