Ohio State blew Michigan State out in the first half, and college football fans were stunned

And, of course, they had jokes.

Things got ugly very quickly in Saturday’s top-10 Big Ten matchup between No. 4 Ohio State and No. 7 Michigan State with the Spartans looking like anything but a top-10 team.

The Buckeyes scored a touchdown within the first five minutes of the game, and the pace only picked up from there, as quarterback C.J. Stroud racked up some incredible first-half stats while leading his team to a whopping 49-0 halftime score. With Ohio State picking up 500 yards in the first 30 minutes compared with Michigan State’s 116, Stroud went 29-for-31 for 393 yards and six touchdowns — again, all in the first half.

The Spartans’ defense, particularly the secondary, apparently decided to take the weekend off, while their offense was sloppy, stifled and beyond unproductive.

C.J. Stroud had a ridiculous first half performance: 29-31, 393 pass yards and 6 touchdowns pic.twitter.com/C1row39Vz6

— ESPN (@espn) November 20, 2021

And it was so bad that the massively lopsided game drew comparisons to the game between No. 1 Georgia and Charleston Southern, which also had a 49-0 halftime score. But understandably, there were very different expectations for these two contests.

In case the Ohio State-Michigan State score and total yards aren’t enough to demonstrate how unevenly matched these two top-10 teams are, here are a few more wild first-half notes: The Buckeyes had 26 first downs versus the Spartans’ seven. They also averaged 12.7 yards per pass, while Michigan State was at three, and the Buckeyes had three wide receivers — Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and Jeremy Ruckert — with at least 18 yards per catch.

Even Michigan State’s star running back and Heisman Trophy candidate Kenneth Walker III — who entered the game with 1,473 total rushing yards — was limited to just 24 first-half yards. But the Spartans also were forced to throw more than they’d probably like.

The game looked over long before the second quarter ended. And college football Twitter could not believe what a disaster of a matchup it was watching and had so many jokes.

Update: Ohio State won, 56-7.