1. First and foremost, there's no such thing as a bad win in college football. You need a dozen of them to even have a chance at making the playoffs, and it's almost impossible to get twelve beauties in the books. With rare exception, every national champion has a clunker or two along the way, so I'm not going to complain too much about a nine-point win on the road against a 3-7 team with a lot to play for and nothing to lose. But an ugly win is a lot less impressive and meaningful when you already have an ugly loss on your résumé, so at this late date Ohio State cannot afford to limp home to victory anymore. Style points will matter from here on out, especially now that both Michigan and Michigan State have (at least) one loss heading into their respective showdowns with Ohio State.
2. Regardless of how much we might've liked the guy, I think that we all knew deep down inside that J.T. Barrett wasn't the answer, at least if the question was: "Can this guy lead us to a national championship?" Yes, Barrett was a master at running Urban Meyer's read-option offense. Yes, Barrett could lay 50-point beatdowns on the stiffs of the CFB world. Yes, Barrett set all sorts of total yardage and total touchdown records by piling up huge stats in games that didn't matter. But no, when it came down to being the guy to bring the championship trophy back to Columbus, Barrett simply was not the man.
After three years of absolutely knowing that the Buckeye QB was the man (2018 with Haskins, 2019-20 with Fields), we are once again presented with the sixty-four thousand dollar question: "Can
C.J Stroud lead us to a national championship?" I don't like asking that question after Week 9 with our two toughest opponents still left on the schedule. I really don't like asking that question when I have no idea how to answer it. I really really don't like asking that question when that answer might just be: "No".
Let's face some facts: In meaningless games against Big Ten bottom feeders Rutgers, Maryland, and Indiana, Stroud's stat line looks like this:
62 comp / 84 att (.738); 1002 yds (334.0 / game); 14 TDs (4.7 / game); 0 INT; 1 sack; 150 pts (50.0 / game)
However, in the other five games in which he has played (Minnesota, Oregon, Tulsa, Penn State, Nebraska), Stroud's stat line looks like this:
121 comp / 189 att (.640); 1673 yds (334.6 / game); 11 TDs (2.2 / game); 5 INT; 6 sacks; 159 points (31.8 / game)
Granted, Oregon and Penn State are top-20 teams with excellent defenses, but what about Minnesota (lost to Bowling Green and Illinois); Nebraska (plays tough but 3-7 don't lie), and especially Tulsa (3-6 in the American Athletic Conference)? Certainly, stats can be misleading, but I'd argue that Stroud has actually played worse than his stats in those five tough games, with plenty of bad decisions, poor execution, and overall lack of poise. Ohio State lost the Oregon game in large measure because C.J. Stroud was great for 53 minutes but collapsed during the final 7 minutes when the game was on the line ... and the Buckeyes beat Minnesota, Tulsa, Penn State, and Nebraska more in spite of Stroud than because of Stroud.
If you saw the boxscore but not the game, you'd think that Stroud had a decent showing against Nebraska: 36/54 (.667) for 405 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 2 sacks. But the game film would tell you something quite different - forcing the ball into coverage for one interception, an awful arm punt for a second interception, double- and triple-clutching in a clean pocket, retreating when the pocket broke down, unwilling to run with an open field ahead of him, an intentional grounding penalty in the fourth quarter, fumbling on the final drive with the game on the line, in general poor decision making all around.
Now I'm perfectly willing to accept the fact that Stroud might be injured. But Stroud's injury (allegedly his shoulder) didn't prevent him from rolling the bums of the Big Ten East, nor from making just enough plays when it mattered to eke out a win against a tough Penn State squad last week. What happened against Nebraska went beyond any shoulder injury. What we saw from Stroud yesterday was just bad quarterback play.
Over the final few games, C.J. Stroud has the opportunity to prove unequivocally that he is THE MAN going into the 2022 season. If he doesn't - and even one more stinker like Nebraska probably proves that he isn't - then we're going to have an epic and contentious quarterback battle next spring. Sure, iron sharpens iron, but I'd rather have the most important position on the field settled early on in 2022, thank you very much.
3. The tone of the game was set on the first drive. Facing 4th-and-1 from the Nebraska 43-yard line, the Buckeyes played aggressively and went for the first down. Instead of running one of the best backs in CFB behind one of the best offensive lines in CFB, Ryan Day called for a pass and C.J. Stroud tried to hit a tightly-covered
Jeremy Ruckert on a deep seam route. Despite the questionable play call from Day and the questionable decision from Stroud and the excellent coverage from the Nebraska defender, Ruckert still got both hands on the ball - TWICE - but somehow managed to drop it and kill the promising drive. If Ruckert catches that pass - and he certainly could have and maybe even should have - then maybe Ohio State finishes that drive with a touchdown, and puts the Huskers into an early hole, and takes their swag down a notch or two, and quiets the rowdy Nebraska crowd, and perhaps the rout is on. But Ruckert, in the midst of a disappointing senior season to cap a disappointing Buckeye career, failed to make the big play and instead the Huskers received a big boost of confidence that they never really relinquished throughout the rest of the game.
4. The lasting story of this game will be the play of
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who had 15 receptions (a Buckeye single-game record) for 240 yards (second-best single game in Buckeye history behind Terry Glenn's 253-yard outburst against Pitt in 1995), including a personal best 75-yard touchdown on which he displayed some open field moves that likely made TreVeyon Henderson jealous. It might be hyperbole to state that JSN single-handedly won the game for the Buckeyes, but when one player accounts for half of the team's total yardage (48.5 percent, to be precise) it's also not too far from the truth.
5. Speaking of
TreVeyon Henderson, he had a rather quiet day with 21 carries for just 92 yards (4.4 average) and no touchdowns. However, Henderson did have his two biggest runs of the day (11 yards; 22 yards) on Ohio State's final drive which helped put the Buckeyes' in position to kick the game-clinching field goal. Henderson's underwhelming performance can be blamed on a combination of several factors: an offensive line that has seemingly forgotten how to block; a quarterback who is not a threat to run; opposing defenses that have figured out Ohio State's tendencies and developed schemes to stop the Buckeyes' rushing attack; and a Buckeye coaching staff that has done a poor job countering those tendencies and beating those schemes (i.e., has not made the proper adjustments).
6. On a related note, it should tell you something that opposing teams are willing to sell out to stop TreVeyon Henderson in running game ... which means that they are simultaneously daring C.J. Stroud to beat them with his arm. So far, I'd say that's the best recipe for success against Ohio State - shut down Henderson, take your chances with Stroud who has proven to be erratic. And the numbers to some extent confirm this: Ohio State has been held under 30 points twice this year (Nebraska 26 points; Oregon 28 points), and in both of those games Stroud has thrown the ball 54 times. In the remaining six games with Stroud at the helm, the Buckeyes have averaged 41.3 points (not counting defensive scores or points scored after Stroud left the game), with Stroud throwing an average of 27.5 passes per game.
7. The defense played a great game yesterday except for two huge plays, which is kind of like saying my vacation in New York City was great except for getting mugged twice. Those two huge plays were passes of 72 yards (touchdown) and 53 yards (near touchdown) to
Samori Toure, who can now be added to the list of uninspiring wide receivers who have torched Ohio State in recent years (Chris Moore, Jared Abbrederis, Jeremy Gallon, Ty Fryfogle, JD Spielman, etc.). For the game, Toure had 4 receptions for 150 yards and a touchdown.
8. Now on to the good side of the defensive ledger. The defense held Nebraska to 361 total yards on 65 plays (5.6 per play), but if you subtract out the two big passes to Toure the numbers look a lot better: 63 plays for 236 total yards, or 3.75 yards per play.
Ten of Nebraska's fourteen drives went 30 yards or less; eight for 16 yards or less; and four for negative yardage. However, Nebraska's remaining four drives went for 54 yards (FG); 73 yards (missed FG); 75 yards (TD); and 75 yards (TD), with both of the TD drives primarily consisting of one long pass to Toure. In other words, Nebraska had two sustained drives for 3 points and two big plays for 14 points, and did nothing for the rest of the game.
In a huge improvement over last week, the defense held Nebraska to just 2 for 13 (15.4%) on 3rd downs, with the Buckeyes stopping the Huskers on their first 9 attempts. Both of the Huskers successful conversions came in the fourth quarter on 3rd-and-3 plays.
The defensive line once again generated a lot of pressure in the passing game, with five sacks, four hurries, and a forced fumble. After being MIA for the first half of the season,
Tyreke Smith has finally emerged as a force (5 tackles, sack, hurry, batted pass);
Zach Harrison is beginning to show some of that five-star potential (4 tackles, sack, forced fumble); and true freshmen
J.T. Tuimoloau and
Jack Sawyer look damned near unblockable. Linebacker
Steele Chambers returned in the second half from a targeting suspension to ice the game with an interception.
9. In true Tresselball fashion,
Noah Ruggles continues to be the team MVP as he connected on all four of his field goal attempts yesterday. Ruggles remains perfect on the season, making all 49 of his extra points and all 15 of his field goal attempts.
10.
Jesse Mirco had a 26-yard punt that was downed at the 10-yard line. That's right - Ohio State punted from the opponent's 36-yard line (granted, the Buckeyes were facing 4th-and-11, but still that's quite a reversion to the Stone Ages of Tresselball). Mirco also had a 49-yard punt at was downed at the 4-yard line.
11. The officiating was simply awful yesterday, but since a good portion of that awfulness actually went in Ohio State's favor for once, I'm not going to complain too loudly.
12. As I've stated in the past, "there must be
indisputable video evidence for an officiating call to be changed" by the replay official (that's the Big Ten's bold type and underscoring, by the way). It is not the job of the replay official to "get the call right" but rather to change any call that was obviously wrong. With that being said,
Julian Fleming made an amazing catch down the left sideline midway through the fourth quarter that was ruled an incompletion on the field. On review, it looked like Fleming probably had a foot down in bounds and might have had control of the football before going out of bounds. Was that video evidence enough to overturn the ruling on the field? No, because the video evidence was not
indisputable and that's what it take to overturn a call. It was a tough break for Fleming because it negated a highlight reel play, and for Ohio State because it negated a 2nd-and-19 conversion that would've put the Buckeyes in field goal range. As things turned out, Fleming got an "A" for effort and the Buckeyes got a rare opportunity to punt from the opponent's 36-yard line (see above).
13. All season, really, it seems like Ohio State has lost the battle of effort and energy. If a coach on the verge of being fired in the midst of a disappointing 3-6 season can rally his troops and get his team fired up for a meaningless game, then why can't the coach of a playoff contender get his team up for a meaningful game? I understand that there is some benefit to having a businesslike approach, but football at its core is a game of emotion and there's no excuse for Ohio State consistently playing flat and getting out-hustled by inferior opponents. That's how pretenders lose tight games in November....
14. Ohio State finishes the regular season with games against an underrated Purdue team, a surprisingly good Michigan State squad that looks like it's running out of gas, and the Michigan Wolverines who might actually be as good as their 8-1 record indicates. At this point, I will be mildly surprised if the Buckeyes win out and make it to Indianapolis to face someone from the Wild West in the Big Ten Championship Game.
