I've been thinking about this for a week or two now, and moreso after Saturday. My opinion may change once I see the passing chart from the 11W staff this week. Maybe I'm overthinking it so please let me know but here goes:

Will Howard's noted weakness coming to OSU was his deep ball. He wasn't bad at it, but it was not where he excelled while at KSU. So far at OSU there is nothing about Howard that disappoints me, even his deep ball. He's had the one underthrow to JJ against WMU, and the one from yesterday that was a true 50/50 ball (JJ should have made a better effort here, it should not have been intercepted at the very least).

My thoughts lead me here though: when we play a team, like Michigan, who has a very good D-line that can get pressure with four guys and potentially contain some of our rushing attack with fewer guys, do they drop 6-7 back between the LOS and about 15 yards back and give Howard serious trouble?

We have had massive gains off of short-to-intermediate passes (both Egbuka and JJ's TDs for example) all season and few attempts at throwing it downfield. Some of that may be Chip's influence leading us away from the passing attacks we're used to with Day running the offense. But if a team is able to take away those intermediate passes with sound LB play and good corners, do we end up in a problem because we can't open things up reliable with the deep ball?

Again, nothing about Howard disappoints me at this point and we haven't needed the deep ball to be a consistent part of the game plan yet. But when it does, can we be confident in what we have?

Just putting thoughts out there and would love to know what everyone thinks. We know we have the receivers, but can we get them the ball down the field?