No. 13 Ohio State took care of business by pounding Illinois 55-14 on Saturday night.
Now the Buckeyes can finally talk about the game of the year in the Big Ten next week at Michigan State. The Spartans ended a 24-game Ohio State win streak with a 34-24 victory in last year’s conference title game.
“The dream was ripped away from us, ripped away by a very good team,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said.
He added that his team wouldn’t require any rah-rah speeches in the coming days.
“We’re going to face a very good team that we have a lot of respect for. It’s all about the most prepared team; that’s (who’s) going to win this game,” he said. “We’ll do our part about motivation. But this is a motivated team.”
Curtis Samuel ran for two touchdowns and J.T. Barrett hit Devin Smith on two scoring passes – all in the first half – as the Buckeyes put first things first in the easy win over the Illini.
It extended their Big Ten win streak to a record-tying 20.
The Buckeyes (7-1, 4-0, No. 16 CFP) won their sixth in a row – five by lopsided scores.
No. 8 Michigan State (7-1, 4-0, No. 8 CFP) has also won its last six. The Spartans will be coming off a bye week.
“It was right when we got in the locker room,” linebacker Darron Lee said. “We usually have our coaches talk about who was good on O, D and ST. We skipped that. We know what’s coming up this week. It’s on. Honestly.”
Unlike a week ago, when the Buckeyes rolled to a 17-0 halftime lead at Penn State only to struggle before pulling out a 31-24 victory in double overtime, this one was a landslide early.
Barrett, nursing a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee and wearing a brace, left at halftime with the Buckeyes up 31-0. He completed 15 of 24 passes for 167 yards, his touchdown throws to Smith covering 32 and 8 yards.
Barrett gave way to Cardale Jones, who lofted a picture-perfect 27-yard TD pass to Dontre Wilson and also hit Michael Thomas on a 19-yard scoring pass. Jones was 5 of 9 for 82 yards passing.
Samuel ran for 63 yards on nine carries, his TDs coming on runs of 23 yards and 1 yard, and Ezekiel Elliott had 69 yards on nine rushes for the Buckeyes, who have won the last six meetings.
The Buckeyes substituted heavily in the second half while a crowd of 106,961 left early as the score mounted. The game was played in windy conditions with temperatures in the mid-30s.
The 20th consecutive Big Ten regular-season win matched the mark set by Ohio State teams from 2005-07.
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