Ohio State's season-opening win streak was never really in doubt against a MAC opponent. It still turned into a full-scale evisceration.
This was the first-ever meeting between these two programs, and it played out exactly like a program with Heisman-finalist buzz around its quarterback hosting a team coming off a losing season should. Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith, back for a second year as one of the sport's best quarterback-receiver tandems, had the Buckeyes humming from the jump, and Ohio State's defense made sure Ball State never found a rhythm to counter with.
Ball State is 1 year into the Mike Uremovich rebuild after a 4-8 debut season, and this game was never about a moral victory. It was about survival. Ohio State scored on all 4 quarters and reached the end zone twice in each, a level of sustained execution that speaks to the roster depth Ryan Day has built even with a new voice, Arthur Smith, calling plays.
The line makers had this at essentially a 50-point spread and a total in the mid-50s, and the market leaned toward the under before kickoff even as the number sat historically favorite-friendly for Ohio State's opening game. None of that mattered once the Buckeyes started stacking touchdowns.
Ball State's lone points came on a second-quarter field goal, the only blemish on an otherwise complete defensive performance by Ohio State, whose defensive front made life miserable for a Cardinals offense that entered the year replacing pieces from a losing roster. Ohio State's 26-game season-opening win streak, the longest active run in the country, was never threatened.
For Ball State, the tape offers more questions than answers, though there's no shame in getting run off the field by one of the sport's more talented rosters on the road. For Ohio State, the day answered the only question that mattered in Week 1: whether last season's chemistry between Sayin and Smith would carry over. It clearly did.
