Ohio State football vs. Northwestern: Offensive grades

The Ohio State football team was able to beat Northwestern in an absolute slog of a game on Saturday afternoon. They only won by the score of 21-7 despite being 38.5-point favorites. The weather conditions were extremely tough to play in, but the offense still should’ve been better.

It was a rough game for C.J. Stroud. He wasn’t able to throw the ball well at all in the windy conditions. Winds were gusting at 50 mph at times. Whenever the Buckeyes were going into the wind, it was almost impossible for them to throw the ball at all.

Stroud threw for a career-low 76 passing yards on just 10/26. He seemed frustrated multiple times throughout the day about throwing in those conditions, although he didn’t get much help from his receivers. But Stroud did finally start to run the ball for once. He ran for a career-high 79 yards, which was enough to help get the win.

The numbers look better than they actually were about the running game. Miyan Williams was the only running back who got carries in this game because TreVeyon Henderson was hurt. It was surprising to not see any other back get carries also.

Williams had 26 carries for 111 yards and two touchdowns. A good chunk of that was on a 27-yard touchdown run. He still had issues finding holes that were open. His vision didn’t seem that great in this game, to be honest. When there were holes, he didn’t hit them very hard. The running game is a problem.

The offensive line was not at its best. It was a rough day for both guards. Matt Jones got called for multiple holding penalties and got beat multiple times. He’s clearly still dealing with that ankle injury. He should be held out next week to let that heal because he wasn’t good on Saturday.

Donovan Jackson wasn’t very good either. He got beat on the other side of the line a lot too. He is a freshman, so he has a lot of things to learn still. The offensive line didn’t allow a sack in the game, but the run blocking still remains a massive concern for this team moving forward.

Speaking of run-blocking concerns, Cade Stover has struggled to block in both of the last two games. His blocking seems to have regressed. He also only caught two passes, mainly because the conditions weren’t conducive to throwing the ball.

The receivers did Stroud no favors in this game. Julian Fleming had at least three drops in this game. Stover had two and Emeka Egbuka had one too. It seemed like the only one who didn’t bring a pair of stone hands was Marvin Harrison Jr. He had five catches for 51 yards.

The Ohio State football team needs to be better on offense. I understand the conditions were bad, but they still should have been able to score more than 21 points in this game.