Ohio State QB Justin Fields 'Needs to Get His Crap Together'
After such an amazing season as Ohio State's starting quarterback in 2019, expectations were extremely high for Justin Fields coming into the 2020 season.
Fields threw for over 3,700 yards, accounted for 51 total touchdowns, and threw just three interceptions, while leading the Buckeyes to the College Football Playoff. Many around the country were expecting a repeat performance this season, but for whatever reason that just hasn't been the case.
The junior quarterback has already thrown 5 interceptions this season, despite having played in just six games and ESPN analyst David Pollack says that Fields just doesn't look like the same quarterback from a year ago.
"Taken a couple steps back, confused a lot, doesn't know how to get rid of the football, doesn't check the football down like you'd like to, not seeing it the way you would want to," Pollack said on ESPN’s CFB Podcast with Herbie, Pollack and Neghandi. "He might not be feeling great physically, but mentally, he needs to get his crap together. Mentally, he needs to get sharper and know what the answers are."
Pollack says that the decline in Fields play isn't the only thing different about this Ohio State team. That he sees a vast difference across the board.
"I think Ohio State has a lot of talent but I'll put it to you like this," Pollack said. "Ryan Day was telling us before the season that this was the most talented team he's ever seen, even when he was in the NFL. This team isn't even close to as talented as it was a year ago. This team isn't close to the team that it was last year, not even close, bro."
The fact that the Buckeyes have only played six games has been a hot topic of debate over the past few days. While some argue that it gives Ryan Day's team a competitive advantage due to the fact that they haven't been through the grind of a full season, Pollack says that playing so few games has also kept them from being able to get in any kind of real rhythm.
"I also don't think they're in any kind of rhythm," Pollack said. "Because nobody's practicing together, nobody's working together. They haven't played a bunch of games, like it looks like it's off-rhythm, off-kilter. It doesn't look like anybody's in a flow. When you play week after week after week and you get into a season, you get into the latter part, you feel really good about it. And I start to know exactly where so-and-so's going to be, and we don't even have to communicate, we can just look at each other and we know what we're doing. And Ohio State ain't there yet."
