Ohio State’s annual games against Rutgers have often served as an opportunity for backups to see increased playing time in the late stages of blowout wins, but that wasn’t the case this year.
Rutgers gave Ohio State its most competitive game since joining the Big Ten in 2014, taking a 9-7 lead into halftime and never allowing the Buckeyes to lead by more than 12 points until Marvin Harrison Jr. scored his second touchdown of the game with 2:07 to play to make the final score 35-16 in OSU’s favor.
As a result, most of Ohio State’s starters played four full quarters against Rutgers as only 52 of the 74 Buckeyes who made the trip to Piscataway saw action in OSU’s first game of November.