Coming into Ohio State’s marquee game against Oregon last weekend, there were whispers that quarterback C.J. Stroud wasn’t 100 percent. The quarterback took a few hits against Minnesota in Week 1 and even made a tackle after throwing an interception.
During the loss to the Ducks, Stroud could often be seen rotating his shoulder in between plays, but after the game said he was “healthy enough to play.” Given that he hadn’t played a meaningful snap in essentially two years, and the Ohio State quarterbacks don’t take hits in practice, it stood to reason that Stroud might be a bit sore after two games against Power 5 opponents.
“That’s part of being a quarterback,” Buckeye head coach Ryan Day said when asked about Stroud’s shoulder on Tuesday. “You’re always going to have some bumps and bruises. And I think when you’re playing in the spring or you’re in the preseason, you have a black jersey on, you’re never touched. And then you go out there and conference play or this game this past weekend, you’re going to get banged around a bit.
“Justin (Fields) went through that, all these guys. J.T. (Barrett) went through that a ton and that’s part of being a quarterback at a big-time level. And so it’s something he will have to get used to and work through.”
Whether he felt the shoulder or not on Saturday, only Stroud knows, but the quarterback put on a passing display. His 35 completions on 54 attempts were both the second-most in program history. Stroud’s 484 passing yards against Oregon trailed only Dwayne Haskins’ 499-yard performance in 2018.
In the 35-28 loss to the Ducks, Stroud shouldered a major load. This all took place in Stroud’s second career start and the second college game in which he threw a pass.
“I thought he was really accurate on Saturday,” Day said. “I thought he made some throws that I haven’t seen a young kid make in a long time. So that was not our issue.”
For the second straight week, Stroud was a bit slow to start the game. After throwing for just 49 yards on seven attempts, four completions, in the first quarter, Stroud got going in the second quarter, passing for 94 yards in the period. In a stretch that went from late in the second quarter until after halftime, Stroud completed 12 straight passes.
Of course, because this performance was in a loss, fans will often focus on what a quarterback didn’t do to help his team win the game. Despite completing passes to help Ohio State convert on two fourth quarter fourth downs, Stroud’s late interception, which essentially sealed the win for the away team, was heavily criticized, as were some other missed throws.
The quarterback also wasn’t keen to take off and run. Given the Buckeye quarterbacks of the recent past, this is almost an expectation from those at Ohio Stadium, but Stroud often looked to throw first, sometimes waiting too long to take off, finishing the game with five carries for -3 yards, including sacks.
His one big run, an 11-yard scramble in the fourth quarter on third-and-10, was called back for a holding call on left guard Thayer Munford, but was an encouraging sign to Day and there will be more quarterback runs in the future.
“I don’t think he was that tentative. I thought he was pretty aggressive,” Day said. “I thought the third down that we got the holding call on Thayer, he did an unbelievable job. It was third-and-10, he tucked it, got the first down and took a good shot in there. He dropped his shoulder and took a hit in there. We got the holding call, so it ended up a third-and-20, which was a major call at a major point in the game and I thought he really competed in that moment.
“He is a threat with his feet, he is a threat with his legs. You saw last year with the 80-yard touchdown run he had (against Michigan State). So he’s had some good scrambles and we’ll continue to build on that as time goes.”
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Stroud’s performance against Oregon wasn’t perfect, but again, he’s not expected to be. In his second career start, Stroud put together another impressive showing, carrying the offensive load and nearly leading his team to a comeback win.
And while there is plenty to build on and plenty of talent behind him, some of which frustrated fans on the Internet have called to step in, Day is not looking to replace his starter any time soon.
“Not after how he played on Saturday,” the head coach said. “We’ve got to help him more. We’ve got to run the football better, we’ve gotta play better defense. That’s the bottom line.”
