We survived another week of Ohio State football, my friends.
It's Monday morning, so here are the things I'm thinking about this morning as Ohio State begins to prepare for Purdue.
Let’s talk about C.J. Stroud running the football.
I’m not sure that the argument and discussion about C.J. Stroud running the football is really about C.J. Stroud running the football.
When asked about it Saturday afternoon after the Buckeyes’ 26-17 win on the road against Nebraska, he opened with the quote that everyone has heard up to this point: “If my job was to run the ball, I would be a running back or something. I throw the ball for a living.”
This sparked an outrage, one calling for his job, questioning his leadership ability, calling him soft, weak, unable to take a hit.
But after saying this, Stroud’s answer took a bit of a turn.
Stroud admitted to mistakes. He admitted to the six throws into tight windows that turned into four pass breakups and two interceptions by the Nebraska defense.
It then shifted its focus to winning in general, Ohio State’s path to winning the Big Ten, how the Buckeyes found a way to fight and persevere against a team that’s been allowing opponents to fight and persevere all season long.
“Of course I wanted to play well,” Stroud said. “We wanted to play well more as an offense, finish drives, but sometimes it doesn’t go our way. We just have to keep fighting and persevere. I feel like we did that.”
When asked the same question, Ryan Day’s answer was similar.
After acknowledging the question, saying it’s something the Ohio State head coach will have to watch for in film and see, he began to talk about Stroud’s development.
“I think he’s made pretty good decisions up until this point. I think he forced a couple things in there early on, but that’s going to happen with a young quarterback,” Day said. “We’ve got to work through those things. But if there were times where maybe we could run the ball, we’ll have to look at it on film and go from there. But I thought he competed.
“He’s out there as a young quarterback — I guess this is his eighth start — and it’s not easy. It’s just not. When you play in November on the road against teams like this, it’s going to be a grind. It’s going to be hard. There’s going to be learning lessons along the way, but he also did some really good things, threw some very good footballs, made some good decisions. All part of the process.”
Should Stroud have run the ball in those situations? Probably. There’s four or five yards of green grass between him and a first down. When the redshirt freshman is under duress in the pocket, why not just tuck and run, getting the play and get a clean slate?
But I don’t think that’s the question here. I think it’s more about a question of stability.
Is Stroud the guy that will lead Ohio State to the College Football Playoff? Will Stroud give everything in his power to get the Buckeyes within reach of a national championship?
The answer is simple: We don’t know.
Ohio State is used to consistency. From two years of Justin Fields — a dual-threat anomaly that made everything look easy in both the running game and passing game — to J.T. Barrett, who showed a level of toughness basically representing the Urban Meyer era behind center.
Nothing about Ohio State’s quarterback room in 2021 is consistent. It was a battle for the starting job between two redshirt freshmen quarterbacks and a true freshman, adding on a high school senior in the fall who was supposed to be the centerpiece of the 2022 recruiting class.
No one knew what to truly expect from Stroud when he won the starting job. No one knew how different he would be after resting what turned out to be a separated AC joint in his throwing shoulder after the season opener against Minnesota.
After eight starts, Stroud is still somewhat of an unknown entity even with glimpses of stardom. It’s easy to focus on the certainty of those four-to-five yards of green grass, especially when mistakes happen when the quarterback decides to do something else.
But what about Dwayne Haskins? He wasn’t scared to run.
He wasn’t. That’s correct.
In his one season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback, Dwayne Haskins wasn’t scared of really anything. But he wasn’t much of a runner.
In two seasons with the Buckeyes, he was arguably much less mobile than Stroud in and around the pocket: taking a traditional three-step drop and firing using his cannon of an arm to a stable of wide receivers: Parris Campbell, Terry McLaurin, Binjimen Victor, Johnnie Dixon, Austin Mack, K.J. Hill.
In 2018, Haskins had two games in which he had more than 10 carries, recording 59 yards and three touchdowns against Maryland, and -5 yards in the Big Ten Championship against Northwestern.
Overall, in his Ohio State career, Haskins had 194 rushing yards on 103 carries — an average of 1.9 yards per rush — with four touchdowns, adding another on a goal line read option against TCU.
So how has Stroud actually done when he’s tucked and ran in non-sack situations?
Let’s start with the broad numbers.
Stroud has five rushing yards this season and no touchdowns on 21 carries. Yikes.
OK, let’s take away those seven sacks he’s recorded this season.
In his 14 rushes in which he was not sacked, the redshirt freshman has recorded 70 rushing yards, including a season-high 17 yards in the Week 2 loss to Oregon — not including an 11-yard rush that was called back for a holding penalty by Thayer Munford.
In non-sack situations, Stroud is averaging five yards per carry. However, he’s only averaging two carries per game for positive yardage, including the Tulsa game in which he did not have a positive carry.
Including sacks, Stroud’s averaging 2.6 carries per game compared to Haskins’ 5.6.
So how does Ohio State fix this? Would another quarterback run the ball more? Should Stroud start running the option?
The quick answer is no.
None of Ohio State’s quarterbacks on the roster are built to carry the load in the running game like a Barrett or a Fields. That’s not how Day recruits quarterbacks. The head coach prefers a pro-style, mobile, yet throw-first quarterback, one like Stroud, Kyle McCord or even Quinn Ewers.
Even if Stroud boosted up his carry total to meet Haskins’ average of more than five per game, there would not be a dramatic change in the offense at this rate.
So what needs to change? It’s coach speak, but it’s true in this case: balance.
In the past two games, you saw a dramatic difference in the offensive game plan.
Against Penn State — a nine-point victory — the offensive plays were split in half exactly between run and pass plays. Despite the struggles and adversity, freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson still brought in 152 yards on 28 carries and a touchdown, while Stroud threw for 305 yards and a touchdown.
Against Nebraska — a nine-point victory — Ohio State attempted 54 passes compared to 30 rushes. The Buckeyes averaged three yards per carry, recording 92 rushing yards: their lowest output since their 2018 loss to Purdue. With that, Stroud, much like in the Oregon game, tried to do it all himself with 36 completions for 406 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
If Stroud’s ability to carry the ball is going to work, Henderson’s going to have to have success first. The offensive line will have to create clear alleys for backs to run through — something it hasn’t done in recent weeks — allowing them to get to the second level and do their own work from there.
There needs to be variety in play calling, something Ohio State did not have against Nebraska: not recording back-to-back run plays until the second quarter.
The Buckeyes have to keep opposing defenses on their toes. Over the past two weeks, opposing defenses have seemed to know what’s coming.
You know who could help? Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Hear me out: let Rockwall High School keep coming to the Midwest.
One week after wide receiver coach Brian Hartline said Jaxon Smith-Njigba had to get used to his lesser workload from his days roaming the fields of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, dominating Texas high school football, the sophomore broke the school’s record for most completions in a single game (15) and came within 13 yards of Terry Glenn’s record for most receiving yards in a single Ohio State game. It was a game in which he needed to shine like this, stepping up in the absence of Garrett Wilson, who was out with an injury against the Cornhuskers and is now "day-to-day."
But what makes Smith-Njigba special is his ability to work in the open field.
On his touchdown reception, the sophomore turned a seven-yard curl into a 75-yard score, weaving his way through the Cornhuskers secondary like it was nothing.
If Ohio State’s going to find consistency in its offense, find balance in its offense, it’s going to start with the short passing game: those crossing routes, curls and screens — not to the tight end/fullback Mitch Rossi like Stroud did against Nebraska — in which it gets receivers in space and allows them to do work.
It’s worked for Henderson, who brought in 44 receiving yards on six catches against Nebraska.
Really, it’s just an extension of the run game and allows for different looks so when Stroud does hand the ball off or take it himself, the defense won’t have it all planned out, calling out plays correctly before Ohio State even runs it like Penn State did.
This is a lot of offensive talk. Let’s briefly touch on the Ohio State safeties.
I wrote a lot about how important Samori Toure was going to be for Nebraska leading up to Saturday’s game. And, boy, was I right.
The senior wide receiver brought in four catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. His two big plays — a 72-yard touchdown reception and a 53-yard reception that set up a one-yard run by Adrian Martinez — were both, you guessed it, in the middle of the field.
Poor Lathan Ransom. The sophomore safety was credited for allowing three receptions for 124 yards against the Nebraska offense. Martinez was picking him and Bryson Shaw apart in the middle of the secondary, something that could continue to hurt them against Purdue slot receiver Jackson Anthrop next weekend.
Also, Ohio State missed eight tackles against Nebraska Saturday afternoon.
Shaw and linebacker Steele Chambers each were credited with two, while Ransom, Craig Young, Ronnie Hickman and Cameron Brown were each credited with one.
It hurt Ohio State dramatically on Toure’s 53-yard reception, who evaded tackles by Ransom and Shaw to get out in space, getting within striking distance of the end zone.
Time to take a look at how that team up north did this week.
Michigan didn’t have any issues with Indiana, beating the Hoosiers, 29-7, at home despite holding a 10-point halftime lead.
After passing all over the Michigan State offense the week before, the Wolverines approach returned to the running game, this time with Hassan Haskins as the featured back, recording 27 of the team’s 38 carries for 168 yards and a touchdown.
Running back Blake Corum was taken out of the game after one carry for four yards, appearing back on the sideline in a walking boot in the third quarter.
Cade McNamara was efficient in the passing game, completing 10-of-18 attempts for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
The Michigan defense took advantage of Indiana’s freshman quarterback Donovan McCulley, recording nine quarterback hurries while only recording two sacks, limiting him to 10 completions on 25 attempts for 88 yards.
So where is Ohio State at heading into the second week of College Football Playoff rankings?
Based on what the committee decided last week, it seems like Ohio State will be in the top four this week.
Michigan State will drop down after falling victim to Purdue on the road for the Boilermakers’ second top-three win of the season, leaving a spot to be taken. Oregon continued its win streak, beating Washington by 10, while Alabama survived a close home matchup with LSU.
Here’s my guess to how the Top-10 will shake out:
Here’s some quick highlights of what I’ll be looking for as Ohio State starts its season Tuesday against Akron.
Like I introduced a week ago, each song this month with be from Martin Scorsese’s 1978 documentary “The Last Waltz,” depicting The Band’s last concert on Thanksgiving Day 1976.
This week, I’m going to go with actually two “Forever Young” and “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down:” the two songs The Band played with Bob Dylan shown in the film.
Look at guitarist Rick Danko’s smile as the two songs transition at 4:33.
This is art, my friends.
See you on the board.
It's Monday morning, so here are the things I'm thinking about this morning as Ohio State begins to prepare for Purdue.
Let’s talk about C.J. Stroud running the football.
I’m not sure that the argument and discussion about C.J. Stroud running the football is really about C.J. Stroud running the football.
When asked about it Saturday afternoon after the Buckeyes’ 26-17 win on the road against Nebraska, he opened with the quote that everyone has heard up to this point: “If my job was to run the ball, I would be a running back or something. I throw the ball for a living.”
This sparked an outrage, one calling for his job, questioning his leadership ability, calling him soft, weak, unable to take a hit.
But after saying this, Stroud’s answer took a bit of a turn.
Stroud admitted to mistakes. He admitted to the six throws into tight windows that turned into four pass breakups and two interceptions by the Nebraska defense.
It then shifted its focus to winning in general, Ohio State’s path to winning the Big Ten, how the Buckeyes found a way to fight and persevere against a team that’s been allowing opponents to fight and persevere all season long.
“Of course I wanted to play well,” Stroud said. “We wanted to play well more as an offense, finish drives, but sometimes it doesn’t go our way. We just have to keep fighting and persevere. I feel like we did that.”
When asked the same question, Ryan Day’s answer was similar.
After acknowledging the question, saying it’s something the Ohio State head coach will have to watch for in film and see, he began to talk about Stroud’s development.
“I think he’s made pretty good decisions up until this point. I think he forced a couple things in there early on, but that’s going to happen with a young quarterback,” Day said. “We’ve got to work through those things. But if there were times where maybe we could run the ball, we’ll have to look at it on film and go from there. But I thought he competed.
“He’s out there as a young quarterback — I guess this is his eighth start — and it’s not easy. It’s just not. When you play in November on the road against teams like this, it’s going to be a grind. It’s going to be hard. There’s going to be learning lessons along the way, but he also did some really good things, threw some very good footballs, made some good decisions. All part of the process.”
Should Stroud have run the ball in those situations? Probably. There’s four or five yards of green grass between him and a first down. When the redshirt freshman is under duress in the pocket, why not just tuck and run, getting the play and get a clean slate?
But I don’t think that’s the question here. I think it’s more about a question of stability.
Is Stroud the guy that will lead Ohio State to the College Football Playoff? Will Stroud give everything in his power to get the Buckeyes within reach of a national championship?
The answer is simple: We don’t know.
Ohio State is used to consistency. From two years of Justin Fields — a dual-threat anomaly that made everything look easy in both the running game and passing game — to J.T. Barrett, who showed a level of toughness basically representing the Urban Meyer era behind center.
Nothing about Ohio State’s quarterback room in 2021 is consistent. It was a battle for the starting job between two redshirt freshmen quarterbacks and a true freshman, adding on a high school senior in the fall who was supposed to be the centerpiece of the 2022 recruiting class.
No one knew what to truly expect from Stroud when he won the starting job. No one knew how different he would be after resting what turned out to be a separated AC joint in his throwing shoulder after the season opener against Minnesota.
After eight starts, Stroud is still somewhat of an unknown entity even with glimpses of stardom. It’s easy to focus on the certainty of those four-to-five yards of green grass, especially when mistakes happen when the quarterback decides to do something else.
But what about Dwayne Haskins? He wasn’t scared to run.
He wasn’t. That’s correct.
In his one season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback, Dwayne Haskins wasn’t scared of really anything. But he wasn’t much of a runner.
In two seasons with the Buckeyes, he was arguably much less mobile than Stroud in and around the pocket: taking a traditional three-step drop and firing using his cannon of an arm to a stable of wide receivers: Parris Campbell, Terry McLaurin, Binjimen Victor, Johnnie Dixon, Austin Mack, K.J. Hill.
In 2018, Haskins had two games in which he had more than 10 carries, recording 59 yards and three touchdowns against Maryland, and -5 yards in the Big Ten Championship against Northwestern.
Overall, in his Ohio State career, Haskins had 194 rushing yards on 103 carries — an average of 1.9 yards per rush — with four touchdowns, adding another on a goal line read option against TCU.
So how has Stroud actually done when he’s tucked and ran in non-sack situations?
Let’s start with the broad numbers.
Stroud has five rushing yards this season and no touchdowns on 21 carries. Yikes.
OK, let’s take away those seven sacks he’s recorded this season.
In his 14 rushes in which he was not sacked, the redshirt freshman has recorded 70 rushing yards, including a season-high 17 yards in the Week 2 loss to Oregon — not including an 11-yard rush that was called back for a holding penalty by Thayer Munford.
In non-sack situations, Stroud is averaging five yards per carry. However, he’s only averaging two carries per game for positive yardage, including the Tulsa game in which he did not have a positive carry.
Including sacks, Stroud’s averaging 2.6 carries per game compared to Haskins’ 5.6.
So how does Ohio State fix this? Would another quarterback run the ball more? Should Stroud start running the option?
The quick answer is no.
None of Ohio State’s quarterbacks on the roster are built to carry the load in the running game like a Barrett or a Fields. That’s not how Day recruits quarterbacks. The head coach prefers a pro-style, mobile, yet throw-first quarterback, one like Stroud, Kyle McCord or even Quinn Ewers.
Even if Stroud boosted up his carry total to meet Haskins’ average of more than five per game, there would not be a dramatic change in the offense at this rate.
So what needs to change? It’s coach speak, but it’s true in this case: balance.
In the past two games, you saw a dramatic difference in the offensive game plan.
Against Penn State — a nine-point victory — the offensive plays were split in half exactly between run and pass plays. Despite the struggles and adversity, freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson still brought in 152 yards on 28 carries and a touchdown, while Stroud threw for 305 yards and a touchdown.
Against Nebraska — a nine-point victory — Ohio State attempted 54 passes compared to 30 rushes. The Buckeyes averaged three yards per carry, recording 92 rushing yards: their lowest output since their 2018 loss to Purdue. With that, Stroud, much like in the Oregon game, tried to do it all himself with 36 completions for 406 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
If Stroud’s ability to carry the ball is going to work, Henderson’s going to have to have success first. The offensive line will have to create clear alleys for backs to run through — something it hasn’t done in recent weeks — allowing them to get to the second level and do their own work from there.
There needs to be variety in play calling, something Ohio State did not have against Nebraska: not recording back-to-back run plays until the second quarter.
The Buckeyes have to keep opposing defenses on their toes. Over the past two weeks, opposing defenses have seemed to know what’s coming.
You know who could help? Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Hear me out: let Rockwall High School keep coming to the Midwest.
One week after wide receiver coach Brian Hartline said Jaxon Smith-Njigba had to get used to his lesser workload from his days roaming the fields of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, dominating Texas high school football, the sophomore broke the school’s record for most completions in a single game (15) and came within 13 yards of Terry Glenn’s record for most receiving yards in a single Ohio State game. It was a game in which he needed to shine like this, stepping up in the absence of Garrett Wilson, who was out with an injury against the Cornhuskers and is now "day-to-day."
But what makes Smith-Njigba special is his ability to work in the open field.
On his touchdown reception, the sophomore turned a seven-yard curl into a 75-yard score, weaving his way through the Cornhuskers secondary like it was nothing.
If Ohio State’s going to find consistency in its offense, find balance in its offense, it’s going to start with the short passing game: those crossing routes, curls and screens — not to the tight end/fullback Mitch Rossi like Stroud did against Nebraska — in which it gets receivers in space and allows them to do work.
It’s worked for Henderson, who brought in 44 receiving yards on six catches against Nebraska.
Really, it’s just an extension of the run game and allows for different looks so when Stroud does hand the ball off or take it himself, the defense won’t have it all planned out, calling out plays correctly before Ohio State even runs it like Penn State did.
This is a lot of offensive talk. Let’s briefly touch on the Ohio State safeties.
I wrote a lot about how important Samori Toure was going to be for Nebraska leading up to Saturday’s game. And, boy, was I right.
The senior wide receiver brought in four catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. His two big plays — a 72-yard touchdown reception and a 53-yard reception that set up a one-yard run by Adrian Martinez — were both, you guessed it, in the middle of the field.
Poor Lathan Ransom. The sophomore safety was credited for allowing three receptions for 124 yards against the Nebraska offense. Martinez was picking him and Bryson Shaw apart in the middle of the secondary, something that could continue to hurt them against Purdue slot receiver Jackson Anthrop next weekend.
Also, Ohio State missed eight tackles against Nebraska Saturday afternoon.
Shaw and linebacker Steele Chambers each were credited with two, while Ransom, Craig Young, Ronnie Hickman and Cameron Brown were each credited with one.
It hurt Ohio State dramatically on Toure’s 53-yard reception, who evaded tackles by Ransom and Shaw to get out in space, getting within striking distance of the end zone.
Time to take a look at how that team up north did this week.
Michigan didn’t have any issues with Indiana, beating the Hoosiers, 29-7, at home despite holding a 10-point halftime lead.
After passing all over the Michigan State offense the week before, the Wolverines approach returned to the running game, this time with Hassan Haskins as the featured back, recording 27 of the team’s 38 carries for 168 yards and a touchdown.
Running back Blake Corum was taken out of the game after one carry for four yards, appearing back on the sideline in a walking boot in the third quarter.
Cade McNamara was efficient in the passing game, completing 10-of-18 attempts for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
The Michigan defense took advantage of Indiana’s freshman quarterback Donovan McCulley, recording nine quarterback hurries while only recording two sacks, limiting him to 10 completions on 25 attempts for 88 yards.
So where is Ohio State at heading into the second week of College Football Playoff rankings?
Based on what the committee decided last week, it seems like Ohio State will be in the top four this week.
Michigan State will drop down after falling victim to Purdue on the road for the Boilermakers’ second top-three win of the season, leaving a spot to be taken. Oregon continued its win streak, beating Washington by 10, while Alabama survived a close home matchup with LSU.
Here’s my guess to how the Top-10 will shake out:
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Oregon
- Ohio State
- Cincinnati
- Michigan
- Oklahoma
- Michigan State
- Notre Dame
- Oklahoma State
Here’s some quick highlights of what I’ll be looking for as Ohio State starts its season Tuesday against Akron.
- Can Zed Key be a dominant force in the paint? Can Joey Brunk help?
- Will E.J. Liddell thrive with the responsibility of being what defines the overall success of Ohio State?
- Does Jamari Wheeler’s tenacity in the defensive backcourt feed into the overall identity of this team?
- How quickly with Meechie Johnson Jr. and Malaki Branham grow up?
- Will Justice Sueing’s and Kyle Young’s injuries linger? How will it affect the depth at forward?
Like I introduced a week ago, each song this month with be from Martin Scorsese’s 1978 documentary “The Last Waltz,” depicting The Band’s last concert on Thanksgiving Day 1976.
This week, I’m going to go with actually two “Forever Young” and “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down:” the two songs The Band played with Bob Dylan shown in the film.
Look at guitarist Rick Danko’s smile as the two songs transition at 4:33.
This is art, my friends.
See you on the board.
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