Ohio State Football: C.J. Stroud proves me wrong

The Ohio State football team finally put it all together. They destroyed a pretty decent Rutgers team 52-13 in a game that the Buckeyes were never threatened in. They were in complete control of the game from kickoff. Part of the reason for that was the brilliance of C.J. Stroud.

Stroud had struggled in previous games this season. He would overthrow receivers and make some poor decisions with the football. He did neither of those things yesterday. This was by far Stroud’s best performance of his career, and he proved me wrong.

He proved to me that he is the best quarterback the Buckeyes have on the roster right now. That shoulder injury was clearly something that was hindering Stroud’s ability to throw the ball down the field and be the most effective version of himself. Rest clearly did him some good.

Stroud put up great numbers, going 17/23 for 330 yards and 5 touchdowns. He was electric from the pocket and showed that he can make some good throws down the field now that he is more healthy. The best thing he showed me was his willingness to run, taking off twice for a total of 13 yards.

Showing the ability to run is important in this offense. He doesn’t have to be great, but he just has to be a threat to keep it every once in a while so the defense can’t just crash on TreVeyon Henderson. He had another good night as well, getting 8 rushes for 71 yards and a score.

My favorite part of the game was that Stroud got Chris Olave back involved in the game. He had 5 catches for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns. He had disappeared in the last few games for some reason. It was good to see him get more involved and make plays.

The same goes for Jeremy Ruckert. We all thought Ruckert was going to be more involved in the gameplan this season, but that hasn’t been the case so far. In this game, he had 4 catches for 40 yards and a touchdown. He’s a big weapon that Stroud should keep using.

It also helped that the Ohio State football team showed a strong effort on defense too. Denzel Burke‘s pick-six early in the game took all the pressure off of Stroud and that helped him be more effective too.

This was a great win for the Buckeyes and specifically for Stroud. This gives me much more confidence that he is the right man to lead this team, and I’m not afraid to say that I was wrong about him.