Three improvements Ohio State Football must make after IU game
By Ryan Stano
2. The quarterback play must improve for the Ohio State football team
There was no bigger glaring weakness for the Ohio State football team than the quarterback play. Kyle McCord started the second game of his career and did not look good at all. He was 20/33 for 239 yards and threw a terrible pick on a fourth-down play.
McCord also could have been called for a fumble in the red zone as well but got bailed out by a review. He looked uncomfortable in the pocket and hardly tried pushing the ball downfield. While he did have some good throws, he didn’t make nearly enough of them.
For some reason, Devin Brown played just two series in this game and only attempted two passes. This was despite Ryan Day saying Brown was going to get meaningful snaps in the game. I think he needs to play more in next week’s game against Youngstown State.
McCord needs to play better. It’s as simple as that. If he wants to keep his starting job, he needs to throw touchdown passes and not interceptions. With the amount of talent the Buckeyes have at wide receiver, not throwing a touchdown pass is completely unacceptable. That’s especially true against an IU defense that finished near the bottom of the Big Ten in every major category last year.
The quarterback play is going to be the biggest story all year for Ohio State. McCord is going to be under a microscope. He needs to be able to deal with the criticism and not let it affect him. Ohio State can’t play like that again against a good team, otherwise, they will lose.
The last thing that needs a big-time improvement might be the most important thing the Buckeyes need to fix.