Ohio State Football: C.J. Stroud did not lose the Oregon game

C.J. Stroud looked far more comfortable standing in the pocket and delivering the ball to his receivers.

C.J. Stroud took his second career start and turned that into the second-most passing yards in school history. While it is not always about the stats, this is a good baseline of showing how much he was able to accomplish. With 484 passing yards, he was effective at moving the ball for large portions of the game and helped orchestrated drives that kept the Buckeyes within striking distance.

One of the big reasons for this change was the growing confidence you could see from the young quarterback. Stroud did much better moving on in his progressions to help spread the ball around more. As evidence by the three receivers he helped get over 100 receiving yards, Stroud had a better idea of how to find the open guy.

He also did a better job of knowing when to run. Stroud is never going to be Justin Fields with his feet, but he had a few runs (one which was called back) that picked up the first down and kept the defense honest. This is really all Stroud needs to do with his legs and he did well against Oregon.

There could be a time where Stroud actually keeps one of those handoffs and gets a lot of yardage. It remains to be seen if the coaching staff lets him do that or not, but it’s not for lack of ability. Stroud has some decent wheels.