Stroud: no expectations, “I’m here to win”
Cover photo: Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud looks for an open receiver during the second quarter of their win over Iowa. Photo by Ric Kruszynski/Columbus Wired.
Ohio State’s wacky 54-10 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes (3-4, 1-3 Big Ten) in Ohio Stadium on Saturday was a testament to why both players and fans alike should never carry an expectation of how a game should “go”.
Despite the oddity of the No. 2 Buckeyes (7-0, 4-0) posting the third-most amount of points ever against the Hawkeyes yet managed to scrape together the second-lowest total offensive output in head coach Ryan Day’s four-year tenure (360 yards), Heisman hopeful quarterback C.J. Stroud doesn’t go into a game with any predisposed notions of how he should play. He takes every game as it comes and lets the chips fall where they may.
And if Buckeye Nation holds any expectations of what they should see out of him on the gridiron every weekend, then that’s all on them.
“I don’t have any expectations, I’m here to win,” he said after the game. “As for fans, that’s for the supporters, that’s for them to marry up and think about all the crazy things that we’re supposed to do.”
Every year, expectations are always high for the Scarlet and Gray and typically, the man under center is the most highly scrutinized player on the team. Fans see a highly recruited player out of high school and immediately the bar is set to a level sometimes only a world-class Olympic pole vaulter can surpass.
That seems like the case with Stroud. Coming out of high school, he was listed by some of the main recruiting services like Rivals, Scout, ESPN and 247Sports as one of the top QB’s in the country.
But who can blame folks for setting a certain level of what they expect out of the third-year guy and second-year starter when he’s the one who established a standard of what people expect out of him after one of the most prolific air attacks last season in school history.
After basically sitting out the entire 2020 season - where he played in only two games but notched one stat, a 48-yard touchdown run at Michigan State - the four-star recruit threw for 4,435 yards and 44 touchdowns, which are both second-best for a single season in OSU history. His 573-yard performance against Utah in the Rose Bowl is the new single-game passing yards record for not only the school but the bowl game itself, and it’s the only game in school history where one quarterback has thrown for 500 yards or more.
Regardless, Stroud just plays the game as he sees fit and if getting a win isn’t good enough for others, that’s their problem.
“If that means that I don’t own up to what everybody else thinks, then so be it but I think I played well.”
Stroud finished the Iowa game 20-of-30 for 284 yards, four touchdowns, one interception and one fumble, which was the result of a strip-sack, 11-yard scoop-and-score by Hawkeye defensive end Joe Evans. All four touchdowns and the interception happened in the second half whereas the fumble happened on the first play of OSU’s second offensive drive of the game.
Stroud said if it weren’t for a couple of bad throws, his performance would have been much better.
“You take away two bad throws, maybe three, and everybody is going to (think) different. You can’t ride the highs, you can’t ride the lows, you got to stay ahead and listen to what’s in the (sideline) huddle so that’s what I think I’m on.”
Indeed it was a roller coaster day of ups and downs for both Stroud and the Buckeyes, hitting manic highs as their fifth-rated defense stifled Iowa’s FBS worst-ranked offense for 158 total yards to hitting rock-bottom lows as the Hawkeyes’ seventh-ranked defense flummoxed the nation’s most efficient passer for the entire first half that carried over into the start of the second half when Stroud threw the interception.
The game started with a bang for the Buckeyes, though, as they forced the Hawkeyes to commit the first of six total turnovers on the first offensive play of the game. Iowa senior quarterback Spencer Petras flung his fourth interception of the season as he tried for a short pass to the left sideline and didn’t see OSU safety Tanner McCalister was sitting in the zone, waiting on it.
That set up the Buckeyes at Iowa’s 29 yard line but the nation’s second-rated offense was forced to kick a field goal as Stroud’s pass over the middle to wide receiver Emeka Egbuka on 3rd-and-9 was thrown behind and almost picked off.
Apparently, starting with a short field isn’t something an explosive offense is comfortable with.
“It’s tough starting with the ball at like the 30 or 40 (yard line), you know what I’m saying? It’s hard to build a rhythm right there,” Stroud said.
After forcing the Hawkeyes to go three-and-out on the next series, OSU and Stroud were literally hit with the first faux pas of the day as Evans got into the backfield untouched and walloped Stroud for the strip-sack, scoop-and-score. After only a mere two minutes into the game, both teams had turned over the ball and the Hawkeyes held a 7-3 advantage.
That lead would be short-lived as Stroud engineered a 10-play, 75-yard scoring drive on the ensuing possession that ended with running back Miyan Williams high-stepping tacklers into the end zone on a 3-yard run. Williams finished the game with 10 carries for 19 yards and scored the team's only rushing touchdown. Fellow running back TreVeyon Henderson led the Buckeyes with 11 carries for 38 yards.
The Buckeyes’ defense then forced their second turnover when defensive end Zach Harrison bullied his way past Hawkeye right tackle Connor Colby and caused his own strip-sack that was recovered by safety Lathan Ransom at the Iowa 27. However, another short field proved to be unfortuitous as the Hawkeyes clamped down, only allowing OSU four yards on three plays and the Buckeyes once again had to settle for a field goal.
Then after holding the Hawkeyes to another three-and-out, the Buckeye offense was yet again blessed with a starting position on the other side of the field when Iowa punter Tony Taylor ran a fake punt on 4th-and-6 to their own 34 that netted only four yards.
But Iowa once again held OSU to a field goal which ended the first quarter, giving the Buckeyes a 16-7 lead.
Some normalcy temporarily settled in to start the second quarter as the Hawkeyes’ offense finally managed to get points on the board when kicker Drew Stevens knocked down a 49-yarder with 10 minutes to play. And their defense would yet again stifle OSU’s offense after allowing them to get to their 11 but gain only three yards on three plays after that.
Ruggles would successfully make his fourth attempt of the day to give the Buckeyes a 19-10 lead with 3:38 to go in the first half.
But then the weird resumed on Iowa’s ensuing possession when OSU linebacker Tommy Eichenberg stepped in front of Petras’ first down pass and weaved his way into the end zone for a 15-yard pick-six. It was OSU's first defensive touchdown of the year. Eichenberg finished second on the team with seven tackles and one tackle for-loss.
That would be the end of the first half scoring as OSU took a 26-10 lead into the locker room. Stroud went 10-of-17 in the half for 105 yards, no touchdowns and the fumble for Iowa’s only touchdown of the game.
Then the roller coaster hit a crazy corkscrew after the teams came out for the start of the second half when back-to-back turnovers were committed within the first 11 seconds.
On the first offensive play, Stroud imitated what his Iowa QB counterpart did to begin the game by throwing his fourth pick of the season when he tried to force one into triple coverage over the middle to receiver Julian Fleming. Linebacker Jack Campbell sank back into the zone and snagged it at the OSU 44.
However, the Buckeyes would immediately get it back when they forced Iowa’s fourth turnover after junior Alex Padilla replaced Petras under center but fumbled the first down snap and the ball was recovered by defensive tackle Taron Vincent.
After that, Stroud got off the schneid, tossing all four of his touchdowns in the second half while the defense forced two more Iowa turnovers on a second McCalister interception thrown by Padilla early in the third quarter and a third fumble that was caused by true freshman safety Kye Stokes that was recovered by linebacker Palaie Gaoteote with a little over five minutes to go in the game.
Even Day acknowledged it was an atypical afternoon but was ultimately satisfied with the end result.
“Yeah, it’s an interesting game when you start off with so many balls in plus territory. You look at the end of the game and would the score have been different, you know? But I thought we played good football in the second half, got a good balance going a little bit. But that kind of goes back to what we’re talking about when someone’s going to stop one thing, you’ve got to do the other.”
He said Iowa did a good job up front and were taking away so many things in the middle to disrupt the run game that the Buckeyes were forced to start throwing a little sooner than they wanted.
“We didn’t do as good of a job executing running the ball early on but we knew it was going to take time to crack, that’s just the way they are.”
Even though he was pleased with his defense’s performance, Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz still acknowledged his team’s overall poor play.
"They are a talented team and we knew we'd have to play flawlessly, basically. We had to execute and take advantage of any opportunities. We really didn't do much to check any of the boxes. We never gave ourselves much of a chance.”
Ohio State’s next game is in University Park, Penn. on Saturday, Oct. 29 against No. 13 Penn State (6-1, 3-1) and will be FOX Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff.