Buckeyes QBs 'Clunky' In Debut vs. Hoosiers
Heading into Saturday, the assumption was that Ohio State Buckeyes quarterbacks Kyle McCord and Devin Brown would play an equal number of snaps.
It quickly became evident that wasn't going to be the case. McCord led eight Buckeyes drives compared to Brown's two, and that wasn't exactly what head coach Ryan Day wanted to do. Instead, he went with his "gut" instinct en route to Ohio State's first win of the season.
"We went three-and-out there (on Brown's drive in the first half), and I was worried that we weren't going to be able to get into a rhythm," Day said. "We already felt a little clunky early on. I didn't want to run the risk of putting ourselves in a bad spot by continually moving those guys in and out."
Day said the plan going in was to get Brown in the game "probably in the third series and then probably in the fifth or sixth," but it "just didn't quite work out that way."
McCord had two stretches of play where he was able to get into a rhythm — once in the first and another throughout the third quarter. In the first half, McCord completed nine of his first 11 pass attempts for 70 yards before throwing his lone interception.
"The pick was on fourth down, so didn't drop the way we'd like to," Day said. "I'm not going to blame him for that. If it went back the other way it would have been a disaster, but we got him on the ground."
McCord had another 9-for-11 stretch that spanned from early in the third quarter to the first five minutes into the fourth. In that time, McCord had three of his best throws of the day but only two counted.
The Mount Laurel, New Jersey, native connected with wide receiver Julian Fleming for 27 yards and tight end Cade Stover up the seam for 49 yards. He also had a 24-yard pitch-and-catch to Marvin Harrison Jr. that was nullified after an illegal touching penalty because the Buckeyes star ran out of bounds and then was the first to touch the ball afterward.
McCord finished 20-of-33 for 239 yards and an interception and said "there's a lot to learn" from his second career start.
"There were definitely some good plays, but as well I know there are some things I want to clean up," McCord said. "We definitely left some points there on the board. We moved the ball pretty well, just a few times in the red zone, you want to make touchdowns rather than field goals. I'll go back and watch [the film] and learn from it."
Brown was thrust into the game late in the second half and, after a pair of handoffs to Miyan Williams that went for nine yards, he was dropped for a three-yard loss on third-and-1.
Brown's only other action was with 1:44 to go in the fourth quarter. He had incompletions to tight end Joe Royer and wide receiver David Adolph with a completion to running back Dallan Hayden for -2 yards mixed in.
Day said there's a lot to evaluate after watching the film and adjustments will need to be made, but that, most importantly, the Buckeyes escaped a conference road game with a win.
"You just got to get the first win," Day said. "There's just unknowns when you have guys who are starting for the first time, and then you can kind of identify it and grow from there."
