Can Ohio state comfortably take care of business?
In their season opener against University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Huskies were lethargic early on, trailing the Rebels after two quarters 17-10. He had four touchdowns in week two against Murray State.
“Cardale is the starting quarterback”.
The offensive line had trouble handling the blitzes Hawaii threw at it from behind a three-man defensive front, one reason the Ohio State offense struggled to play consistently.
At his Monday morning press conference following the game, Meyer’s message about his muddled quarterback situation was clear: It’s still Jones’ job-until it’s not anymore. “I don’t know where people have time to do all that”, Meyer said. “J.T. has not beat him out yet”, Meyer said on Monday at his weekly press conference.
The Ohio State defense gets less attention than an offense that has two returning Heisman Trophy finalists (Braxton Miller, 2012 and J.T. Barrett, 2014) and 2015 Heisman hopefuls Ezekiel Elliott and Cardale Jones. Obviously the competition has something to do with it, but the NIU quarterback is putting up ridiculous numbers to kick things off. Hitting 78% of the passes against air would be good, but Hare is bombing away throwing for 718 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions in the first two games.
“That’s kind of what we were asking for on the sideline, the offensive line, because we came in with a game plan, and it didn’t work necessarily as well as we wanted to, and, you know, go to what works”, left tackle Taylor Decker said.
“They’re a very good team”, Meyer said.
If that’s true, the Buckeyes weren’t supposed to find that out this early in the season.
The Northern Illinois defense is aggressive, with “big play” (INT, TFL, Sacks) similar to Ohio State’s.
Not that it seems to matter to them.
Coach Urban Meyer has noticed a difference. “Whatever he calls, whatever he orders, that’s what I do”.
“Both of them will continue to get reps”, Meyer said. “We know we’re going to get their best shot”. “It feels like normal Ohio State football now, not all over the place crazy”.
Continue Reading: Top 25 football: Ohio State coach expects more from quarterbacks
