Samuel runs for 2 TDs, Barrett hits Smith for 2 in No. 13 Ohio State's 55-14 win over Illinois
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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The 20th consecutive Big Ten regular-season win matched the mark set by Ohio State teams from 2005-07.
The Buckeyes relied on the Illini's largesse in the opening half.
Illinois threw two interceptions — both of which were off receivers' hands — and also lost a fumble. The Buckeyes failed on two fourth-down runs deep in opposition territory, punted once — and scored on the other five possessions.
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O'Toole was intercepted by Darron Lee nine plays after the opening kickoff, with the Buckeyes taking just three plays to cover 38 yards. Samuel — who got the start in place of leading rusher Elliott — covered the final 23 yards untouched.
Barrett hit Smith on his first scoring toss to make it 17-0 before Samuel split two tacklers and backed into the end zone from a yard out. Just before halftime, Barrett found Smith again to make it 31-0. The Buckeyes played plenty of backups the rest of the game.
Barrett still wasn't pleased with his performance.
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"It was very poor, just missing open guys," he said. "I knew where to go with the football, it was just more completing it."
Donovonn Young's 5-yard run late in the third quarter broke up the shutout for the Illini (4-5, 1-4). They have dropped four of five.
After their first possession of the second half, Illinois quarterbacks Reilly O'Toole and Aaron Bailey had combined for 58 yards passing — and 56 of them came on O'Toole's completion to Mike Dudek.
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On that play, Dudek set the school mark for yards receiving by a freshman.
Bailey, 9 of 16 for 79 yards without an interception, completed a 7-yard TD pass to tight end Matt LaCosse to close the scoring. O'Toole ended up 4 of 11 for 58 yards with two interceptions.
Illini coach Tim Beckman — a former Ohio State assistant who also worked under Meyer at Bowling Green — was asked when the game got away from his team.
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"Pretty early," he said. "We turned the ball over and got behind. You can't turn the ball over like we did."
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