3 takeaways from Ohio State football’s win over Indiana

Ohio State football knocked off Indiana on Saturday. It wasn’t super pretty but 1-0 is 1-0 and here are three takeaways.

College football is back and for Ohio State and Indiana, they opened their seasons in a Big Ten conference game that saw the Buckeyes win 23-3. The experts believed Ohio State was a 30-point favorite, and if you took the under, you made yourself some money in what was a very unimpressive offensive performance by both clubs.

The Buckeyes came into the season ranked third in the Associated Press and may fall after what was an uninspiring season-opening victory. Gone is the steady hand of C.J. Stroud, who made things look easy at times for an Ohio State football offense that was one of the best in all of college football.

Indiana just wanted to see some improvement giving the Hoosier faithful hope that Allen can get this program turned back around and moving in the right direction once again. For Indiana, despite the 20-point loss, it appeared that that was exactly what they accomplished.

Here are three takeaways from Ohio State’s win over Indiana.

Ohio State’s quarterback situation seems like a work in progress

After all the talk about there being a quarterback competition between redshirt sophomore quarterback Kyle McCord and redshirt freshman Devin Brown, it was clear on Saturday that McCord is indeed the starting quarterback in Columbus, Ohio. Day stated earlier in the week that McCord had earned the start but that Brown has earned an opportunity to play in this game as well.

After a less-than-impressive start by McCord, Brown came into the game in the second quarter and went three and out after Day called three straight running plays. We didn’t see Brown again until the final series of the game after the contest was in hand. Brown went 0-2 in the only two passes he threw.

McCord played the majority of the game and it was apparent that he was the starter of choice by Day. It is unclear if Brown will receive more opportunities to unseat McCord as the starter, or if Day is going to go ahead and declare McCord as QB1 moving forward. McCord finished his second career start at Ohio State, his first being two years ago against Akron while C.J. Stroud nursed a shoulder injury, with 239 yards passing after going 20/33.

Indiana held Ohio State’s All-American receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka to a combined five receptions and 34 yards. McCord looked unsure in the pocket at times, throwing no touchdowns in the season opener against one interception. If Ohio State, who has National Championship aspirations, plans on getting back to the College Football Playoff, then it is critical that McCord improves dramatically over the course of this season.