Desmond Howard: ‘Ohio State doesn’t look like No. 4’ - 247Sports

The Ohio State Buckeyes came away with a 45-31 win over Minnesota on Thursday night, but it required a number of adjustments to pull off. Although OSU came into the contest ranked as the No. 4 team in the country, the Gophers carried a four-point advantage into halftime and the Buckeyes appeared to have no answer for running back Mohammed Ibrahim.

The Buckeyes’ offense erupted for 35 points in the second half, reeling off big play after big play, but considering how long it took OSU to get going and effectively put Minnesota away has raised some eyebrows. Former Heisman Trophy winner and college football analyst Desmond Howard pointed out Ohio State’s struggles during Friday morning’s broadcast of Get Up, and suggested that maybe the Buckeyes are not a top-five team at the moment.

“I thought they did not look like the No. 4 team in the country last night,” Howard said. “Of course, CJ Stroud — the redshirt freshman quarterback — he struggled early. Made some big throws late and they had to rely on the big play to win the game. But they could not put an unranked Minnesota away.

“And then defensively, a very porous defense ... They're secondary, especially the cornerbacks, were very handsy. I don't know if these officials had those yellow flags stitched into their hands last night, but they would not throw PI on those DBs.

“So what I saw was not a team that looked like No. 4 in the country. But credit Ryan Day. He's a brilliant play-caller. Because of the way his quarterback was throwing early in the game, he went back to his playbook that he used against Penn State with Dwayne Haskins on the road in a Happy Valley whiteout. The second half, go to the quick game ... Ryan Day is a brilliant play-caller and he pretty much saved the offense in the second half with the way he came out in the third quarter.”

Despite Stroud’s first-half mistakes, Day never considered making a change at quarterback. The freshman started to settle down in the third quarter, coming out of the locker room completing three of his first five passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns. He then added a 70-yard score to freshman running backTreyveon Henderson in the fourth quarter, as well as a 61-yarder to standout wide receiver Chris Olave. Stroud finished Friday night going 13-of-22 for 294 yards and four scores with one interception.

After the game, Day remarked on how his team performed overall.

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“We’ll learn a lot from this experience. To say that I’m surprised with the way that it played out, I’m not. We played a lot of young guys, on the road, in a conference game. It was the first time playing in front of fans in a long time. We had a quarterback that hadn’t thrown a college pass before. The way we rallied and played, especially in that second half, will be a lot to build on. I’m very excited coming out of that last half.”

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