Ohio State had all day Saturday to watch their Big Ten brethren falter before its night game against Western Michigan.

Michigan laid an egg against No. 3 Texas. Penn State eked out a one-touchdown win over Mid-American Conference opponent Bowling Green. Iowa blew a lead and lost to Iowa State.

Heck, even No. 5 Notre Dame lost to the MAC's Northern Illinois.

Could No. 2 Ohio State possibly find itself in a tussle against their MAC opponent, which led Wisconsin last week in the fourth quarter before losing?

Uh, no.

The Buckeyes scored touchdowns on five of their first six possessions and their defense got its first shutout in exactly five years in a 56-0 victory in front of 102,665 at Ohio Stadium.

"We wanted to start fast in this game and really build on the energy in the entire stadium," Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. "I felt we did that and continued to play the whole game."

Day was happy with this week's practices and expected the Buckeyes' play to reflect that.

"I felt we were going to come into a game where we were going to dominate like this, but it came down to the players playing really hard," he said.

Quarterback Will Howard completed his first 10 passes for 177 yards and ran for OSU's final touchdown of the first half. Howard finished 18 of 26 for 292 yards and one touchdown in 2½ quarters of action.

Ohio State's other major skill-position transfer addition, running back Quinshon Judkins, scored on two 23-yard touchdowns while running for 108 yards on only nine carries. Those numbers would have been far gaudier had an 80-yard touchdown run not been called back because of a penalty.

Then there was the defense, which last blanked an opponent on Sept. 7, 2019 in a 42-0 win over Cincinnati. The Buckeyes allowed three first downs on Western Michigan's first four snaps and then only one in the Broncos' next 23.

The Buckeyes outgained Western Michigan 683-99. Western Michigan gained only 5 yards in the second half when backups played most of the snaps.

"It speaks volumes to how deep we are," senior defensive end Jack Sawyer said. "The guys behind the starting group could probably start anywhere else in the country all levels -- safeties, linebackers, the D-line."

Ohio State flirted with shutouts several times the last couple of seasons. On Saturday, they finally got it.

"I feel like we've been close 100 times the last three years," Sawyer said. "It's something that we're chasing week in and week out. We know we've got the guys to do it. To get that first one is great, but I hope we get a couple more."

Ohio State's domination started right away

In their 52-6 win over Akron, the Buckeyes led by only a touchdown deep into the second quarter. They vowed to start faster this week, and they did.

Middle linebacker Cody Simon, a captain who didn't play last week, had a sack on third down to force a three-and-out on the game's opening series.

The Buckeyes then drove 55 yards to score in six plays without needing a third-down conversion. Emeka Egbuka had two catches for 31 yards, and TreVeyon Henderson ran twice for the final 9 yards.

Western Michigan answered with their best drive of the half, reaching the OSU 25. At first, the Broncos looked like they were going to go for it on fourth-and-3 before attempting a field goal after calling timeout. But Luka Zurak's 42-yard kick missed after glancing off the right upright.

The Buckeyes then made it 14-0 when freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith caught a short curl pass in space and then turned on his speed to outrun the Broncos' secondary for a 70-yard score with 4 minutes left in the first quarter. Smith had five catches for 119 yards.

Judkins' two 23-yard runs capped drives of 73 and 65 yards that each required less than 100 seconds, and the rout was on.

The defense gets its goose egg

After that first Western Michigan drive, Ohio State's starting defense didn't allow the Broncos past the Buckeyes' 49. OSU's starters didn't force any turnovers after forcing three last week, but the Buckeyes did have three sacks and were mostly suffocating.

Western Michigan averaged only 2.1 yards per play. Excluding sacks, Ohio State allowed only 1.6 yards per carry with a long of only 8 yards.

The Buckeyes played most of the game without cornerback Denzel Burke. He was ejected for targeting on the next-to-last play of the first quarter when his helmet collided with Akron's Jaden Nixon after safety Caleb Downs' first had helmet-to-helmet contact.

Ohio State's backups shine, too

Ohio State's starters played only part of the third quarter, adding a 16-yard TreVeyon Henderson touchdown run, before backups played the rest of the game. Devin Brown led a drive that ended in a 12-yard touchdown run by freshman James Peoples.

Freshman Julian Sayin entered the game with seven minutes left and threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to tight end Bennett Christian to make it 56-0.

Ohio State is off next week before playing Marshall in its final non-conference game.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Will Howard sharp as Ohio State football blows out Western Michigan