COLUMBUS, Ohio - No team in Ohio State history has outscored its opponents the way the 2019 Buckeyes have done to date.

Not the 1960s teams of Rex Kern; not the 1970s teams of Archie Griffin; and not the recent teams led by coach Urban Meyer.

Ohio State is outscoring its opponents by an average of 40.4 points a game this year -- the product of the nation’s No. 3 scoring offense and the country’s top-ranked defense for fewest points allowed. At 48.3 points a game, the 2019 Buckeyes rank No. 1 in school history for scoring. The 7.9 points allowed per game ranks 33rd lowest in 129 seasons of Buckeye football.

Tougher games ahead, including regular season matchups against Penn State and Michigan, could shrink the margin, but the 2019 Buckeyes have a wide lead in point spread over the next best OSU teams.

Here are the 10 top OSU teams for point differential:

* 1 - 2019 - 40.4-point margin (scoring 48.3 and allowing 7.9 points per game).

* 2 - 1916 - 32.7 margin (36.9 and 4.1).

* 3 - 1969 - 32.2 margin (42.6 and 10.3).

* 4 - 1917 - 31. 8 margin (32.4 and 0.7).

* 5 - 1973 - 31.7 margin (37.5 and 5.8).

* 6 - 1934 - 29.1 margin (33.4 and 4.3).

* 7 - 1996 - 27.0 margin (37.9 and 10.9).

* 8 - 1974 - 25.7 margin (36.4 and 10.8).

* 9 - 2010 - 24.5 margin (38.8 and 14.3).

* 10 - 2016 - 23.9 margin (39.4 and 15.5).

Note: due to rounding, some the the numbers for the individual years may appear not to add up.

Buckeye Numbers is a weekly feature during the football season on cleveland.com. See previous Buckeye Numbers at this link.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See more data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.