Poor Marshall.

Nearly a 40-point underdog against No. 3 Ohio State, the Thundering Herd scored touchdowns on their first and last possessions of the first half. The Herd dinked and dunked down the field for their scores, executing efficiently with little margin for error.

And then when Ohio State got the ball, it scored quickly, almost tauntingly, in a 49-14 win in front of 103,871 sweltering fans at Ohio Stadium.

"We wanted to play fast today," Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said "We felt like that was the right approach.

"I thought we had a good tempo about us on offense today. We had an opportunity to wear them down and be explosive, so I thought that was well done."

In the first half, the Buckeyes had the ball for barely eight of the 30 minutes. That's all they needed to score four touchdowns. Ohio State averaged 14.6 yards per play in the first two quarters.

The Buckeyes (3-0) did it by air and land.

After Marshall's 13-play, 75-yard touchdown to open the game, Ohio State scored on its second play, a 68-yard touchdown on a short pass from Will Howard to Emeka Egbuka.

Quinshon Judkins ran for an 86-yard score to make it 21-7 after Howard scored on a 1-yard sneak on the previous drive.

TreVeyon Henderson added touchdowns on runs of 14 and 40 yards. Judkins, the transfer from Ole Miss, gained 173 yards in 14 carries. Henderson added 76 yards.

Freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith had a quiet first half before taking a short pass from Howard and going 53 yards for OSU's sixth touchdown on another one-play drive. Howard finished 16 of 20 for 275 yards with an interception on a deep throw to Smith.

"When the run game is clicking like that, man, it makes my job easy," Howard said.

The Buckeyes gained 569 yards.

"I was sitting on the sideline today talking to some of the other quarterbacks, Devin (Brown) and Julian (Sayin)," Howard said. "I was like, our offense is so explosive, it's crazy. Literally, every play could be a touchdown."

OSU far from perfect

But if the Buckeyes were looking for a performance as dominating and clean as they were in the 56-0 win over Western Michigan two weeks ago, that didn't happen.

Even coach Ryan Day got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for arguing with officials.

Marshall (1-2) moved the ball semi-consistently against the Buckeyes, which was without injured defensive tackle Tyleik Williams. The Thundering Herd used quick passes from its Air Raid offense and timely quarterback runs to keep the Buckeyes on their heels a bit.

Ohio State hadn't allowed Akron or Western Michigan to penetrate its red zone, let alone score touchdowns, in its first two games.

Marshall quarterback Stone Earle entered the game completing only 44% of his passes. He was 16 of 21 for 132 yards before he was knocked out of the game in the third quarter.

Marshall converted six of its first 10 third-down chances. Backup defensive end Caden Curry had a third-down sack to end one drive but was ejected for targeting, a penalty that contributed to Marshall's touchdown at the end of the first half. The score came on a terrific catch by Elijah Metcalf, who barely kept a foot inbounds in the back of the end zone for a 13-yard score with 6 seconds left.

Curry's sack was the only one for the Buckeyes defense in the first three quarters and OSU didn't force a turnover.

"There's still a lot of things that we're going to watch on this film that we're not going to be pleased with, just the overall excecution," Day said. "I know (defensive coordinator) Jim (Knowles) is going to be that way."

Miscues on special teams

Ohio State's kicking game was an embarrassment for much of 2023 but had been improved in the first two games with a coaching-by-committee approach instead of a dedicated special-teams coordinator. Saturday was a step backward.

Punt returner Brandon Inniss dropped a fair-catch attempt early in the second quarter, and Marshall recovered the ball at the OSU 14 with OSU ahead 14-7. But the Buckeyes were bailed out by an illegal-formation penalty on the Thundering Herd, which preceded Judkins' 86-yard touchdown run. Without that penalty, the score could have been tied at 14 instead of the Buckeyes having a two-touchdown cushion.

Jayden Fielding had a nightmarish game on kickoffs. The junior hooked balls out of bounds on three straight kicks in the first half. Austin Snyder replaced him in the second half.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Quick-strike offense helps Ohio State football pull away from Marshall