One Good Thing To Come Out Of Ohio State’s Ugly Win At Northwestern
Saturday’s game in Evanston was painful to watch.
Let’s be clear, that wasn’t fun. Ohio State played the worst half of football in the Ryan Day era (by a wide margin) in the opening 30 minutes against Northwestern and they were fortunate to be tied 7-7 at the half.
The exceptionally windy day made it nearly impossible to move the ball through the air both directions. It wasn’t any easier to pass downwind, as Stroud routinely overshot his intended targets.
In his worst passing performance of his career, Stroud threw nine passes to Julian Fleming. He caught just one. Stroud finished the day 10-for-26 for 76 yards.
Ohio State’s first half rushing attack was also pretty lackluster, but admittedly they were more effective after the intermission.
There was one thing thought that I was glad to see in the second half: designed quarterback runs.
Ryan Day said afterwards that it’s a “break glass in case of emergency” scenario to run with Stroud … and today was an emergency. Day doesn’t want him taking unnecessary shots and has been extremely protective of him this year.
Ohio State’s best offensive plays happened when Stroud ran the ball, especially because he basically hasn’t done it all year. Fans have been clamoring for Stroud to run the ball more because he’s seemingly passing up on “free yardage” when he’s had room to run but thrown downfield anyways.
Today was an entirely different story.
Stroud’s 44-yard designed run down the right hand sideline essentially sealed the game. He also had a 16-yard run on a 4th and 1 in the second quarter to extend a drive, which ended in the end zone two plays later.
I’m pretty sure we aren’t suddenly going to see Stroud running wild like Braxton Miller or J.T. Barrett. But I think maybe one of the bright spots coming out of this game is that teams might have to actually start respecting the fact that he will actually tuck it and run.
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