It lay dormant against Notre Dame on Saturday night. To escape with a 21-10 victory

 Columbus, Ohio Perhaps the nuclear, earth-shattering, offense-heavy version of the Ohio State football offense has yet to unfold this season.

   He was inactive against Notre Dame on Saturday night.  To avoid a 21-10 victory, the Buckeyes became a gritty, defense-oriented team, relying on the heroics of their five-star, breakout wide receivers.

   Sorry, look it up.  I meant his fifth year, former walk-on receiver, Xavier Johnson.  On a night when OSU needed someone, anyone, to step up and pretend, Johnson scored two runs late in the third quarter that might have changed the course of the season.

   The first came when he opened up a third-and-11 at the Notre Dame 24 and hauled in a touchdown pass to C.J. Stroud.  Moments after catching his first career pass, his second catch gave OSU a 14-10 lead.

   On the ensuing kickoff, Johnson drove the coverage downfield and made an open-field tackle on the speedy Chris Tyree at the Irish 13 yard line.  With 106,594 awakened in Ohio Stadium, OSU found new life after three-quarters of mostly lackluster, uncharacteristically disjointed offense.

   Ohio State will wait to learn about Jackson Smith Nijigba's injury.  The record-breaking receiver suffered a foot injury on the second offensive series and was in and out of the game before sitting out the second half.

   Even with his top receiver down, OSU coach Ryan Day leans toward the passing game.  Despite rushing success from Travian Henderson and Mian Williams, he called two pass plays at one point in the third quarter as runs of the night.

   Ohio State committed to the ground game after taking the lead on Johnson's catch.  Henderson and Williams ran for 64 yards on 10 carries, leading 21-10.

   He covered 154 total yards as OSU's offense and defense answered some off-season questions about his physicality.

   However, the offense was not quick.  Notre Dame deserves some credit, and while Smith Njigba's absence certainly contributed, Day and Stroud need to grow from these performances.

   Lack of action

   The Stroud to Smith Njigba combo was the primary reason OSU was ranked among the nation's elite teams.  His connections were good for a receiver with 95 receptions and 1,606 yards last season - posing a game plan-changing challenge for every defense.

   The Noles' own defensive improvement project didn't require reaching impressive positions overnight.  It just needs to stabilize and give the offense more margin for error against the best defenses.

   The Buckeyes, however, played a significant portion of the first half without a potential All-American connection.  Smith Njigba suffered a lower body or leg injury on the second offensive possession.  He lost two complete series before coming in and out for the remaining half of the game.

   As a result, OSU scored just seven first-half points for the first time since a home loss to Oregon on September 11, 2021.  That game was also one of only two instances in which the Buckeyes did not score in both the first and second.  In the second quarter.

   Smith Njigba tried to play early in the third quarter.  Yet few receivers have swum as Heisman Trophy contenders, spending much of the second half without a helmet and with a towel wrapped around their shoulders.

   Ohio State clearly missed the defense and that affected his production.  Yet in his absence, Johnson was playing for the biggest catch of his life and the biggest catch of the season.

   Defensive debut

   Jim Knowles, recruited from Oklahoma State to fix OSU's defensive flaws in the off-season, was a hit in his offensive debut.  Cornerback Denzel Burke took the lead on the first play of the game and nearly got to Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buechner.  But for the first time, the starter caught an early pass and connected with Columbus native Lorenzo Stiles for 54 yards.

   This led to an early field goal and a 3-0 Irish lead.

   In the second series, the Noles used Jack Sawyer, a hybrid defensive end/linebacker in the now aptly named jack position.  Sawyer swings behind a three-down front, sometimes pushed to the side when his middle or gut isn't up.

   Buchner has hauled in four pass plays of 22 or more yards.  Ohio State helped him pick up a personal foul at the wrong time.  Yet the trap door that ruined OSU's 2021 season was solved by a defensive front that held Notre Dame to 2.5 yards per carry.

   Buechner, too, completed just 2 of 8 passes over a nearly 20-minute span in the second half as OSU turned a 10-7 halftime deficit into a 21-10 lead.

   Tommy Eichenberg, with nine tackles and a pair of sacks last spring, lived up to the confidence the coaches expressed in him.  Lathan Ransom, coming off an almost unbelievably quick return from a broken leg suffered in the Rose Bowl, played most of the night and made seven tackles.

   Redshirt freshman Mike Hall made his first career start and kept up the pressure all night in the middle of the night.  He sealed the win for Buchner after playing less than four minutes in the Irish field.

   What does this mean?

   Ohio State bucked a strange trend of losing these marquee non-conference home games.  USC in 2009, Virginia Tech in 2014, Oklahoma, Oregon in 2017 last season.  For the first time in a while, college football's attention was focused on Ohio Stadium for early season games, and the Buckeyes took care of business.

   What will happen next?

   Arkansas State arrived at Ohio Stadium with little fanfare for a Week 2 game.  The Red Wolves also started Saturday night against Grabling.