Justin Fields Talks About Ohio State Win Over Nebraska
Justin Fields had a monster day for the Ohio State Buckeyes, as the No. 5 team in the country rolled Nebraska, 52-17, in the season-opener.
Fields had perhaps his most efficient day as a Buckeye. He finished the afternoon 20-of-21 for 276 yards and two touchdown passes. His passer rating was 237.1 on the afternoon. But he was also extremely effective with his legs, running 15 times for 54 yards and a touchdown.
In fact, only Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan, who finished last year's game against Purdue 21-of-22 through the air, had a better completion percentage in any game in Big Ten history. Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz was also 20-of-21 on Friday night in Wisconsin's season-opening win over Illinois.
Fields said after the game that playing in an empty stadium was weird, but it made it easier for the offense to communicate with each other.
"I think we played well for Week 1," he said. "Of course there are a lot of things we have to work on, but that's what film is for ... It was definitely weird (playing in an empty stadium). I was looking up into the stands to celebrate with some fans, but nobody was really out there. Of course it was a little bit different, but we just try to bring our own energy to the game. It was different but I think we handled it well."
Fields wasn't the team's leading rusher (Trey Sermon had one more yard on the ground than Fields did), but he found himself moving out of the pocket quite a bit. He didn't have any designed run plays (aside from a couple of QB sneaks on short situations), but he was very effective in making something out of nothing when the team struggled to otherwise run the ball in the first half.
"I'm not sure about the little things in the run game in the first half, but that's what the film is for," Fields said. "We didn't come into this game with expectations though. We just wanted to go out there and play hard, play our game. Our main goal was to win and we're happy to have done that."
