After being posed the question, all Cardale Jones could do was heave a deep sigh, roll his eyes and agree with the reporter who posed it.
"Oh, man," Jones exhaled. "As far as just because we could have put up a couple more touchdowns and it's my fault for the under thrown balls."
The redshirt junior was once again given the reins to Ohio State's offense Saturday, doing more than his part in a 38-12 victory against Western Michigan at Ohio Stadium. Jones finished 19-of-33 passing with 288 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, but the man known for his rocket right arm knew he left points and huge plays on the field by under throwing multiple receivers. It could have led to an even bigger day for not only him but the Ohio State offense, who were the talk all week long following a back-to-back anemic performances.
"Of course it's on me. You gotta go back and watch and every under thrown ball, the receiver had a guy beat by a decent amount of yards," Jones said. "They were easy layups."
The basketball-termed plays Jones mentioned littered the field all afternoon Saturday. He missed Jalin Marshall, Curtis Samuel and Corey Smith each deep down field throughout the course of the game. Each guy had a step or two on their defender, but Jones didn't unleash the ball like he's fully capable. One even resulted in his interception, when Marshall was open for a touchdown but the ball laid behind him and fell into the defender's arms.
"They were under thrown because the wideouts were behind (the defenders)," Meyer said. "So that's something I'm going to find out. The one thing that we do is, if we find out we're not good at something, we practice the heck out of it so we're going to practice the heck out of it."
Jones even admitted he under threw Michael Thomas on Ohio State's first drive of the game, a play in which the big wide receiver was left wide open by the Broncos, but had to wait for the ball. He broke a tackle and finished off the 38-yard scoring play, but if Jones had let it go, it would have been even easier.
"I talked to both of them, because J.T. (Barrett) had one, too," Meyer said of his quarterbacks. "And they're calling inside nines, and that's kind of a staple of our offense throughout these last three or four years."
“I think in general, we played better. We played with more tempo, we had more big plays, we left a few big plays out there, but we hit a few big plays. I just think we're starting to come around.”– Ed Warinner
Jones endured some other miscues in just his seventh game as a starting quarterback. He was called for intentional grounding on what ended up being the final play of the first half due to a 10-second runoff rule, negating any chance the Buckeyes had to add three points to a 24-6 halftime lead. He chose to throw the ball into tight windows when running lanes were open.
But overall, he looked better than he did in recent weeks, as did the entire offense as a whole.
"I think in general, we played better," offensive coordinator Ed Warinner said. "We played with more tempo, we had more big plays, we left a few big plays out there, but we hit a few big plays. I just think we're starting to come around."
Plenty of that rides on the massive frame of Jones, who said he still isn't sure if he would start next Saturday at Indiana as the Buckeyes open Big Ten play, but never really felt like he wasn't the starting quarterback at Ohio State.
"Just let the chips fall where they may and go out there play and compete to the best of my abilities and try to leave this offense in a great way," Jones said of his goals Saturday. "Try to avoid turnovers and three-and-outs. That's what kind of got us to this point now."
Jones threw a pair of interceptions last Saturday against Northern Illinois, getting yanked in favor of Barrett and not returning to the game. It led to a few interesting changes to his Twitter bio shortly after the game ended, acts that the 6-foot-5, 250-pound quarterback said were a result of immaturity.
"It was childish and I shouldn't have did it," Jones said. "Flat out."
He did, but he also helped Ohio State knock off a game Western Michigan squad, who sported a pair of wide receivers in Daniel Braverman and Corey Davis that at times gave the Buckeye defense fits.
And whether or not it is actually true what he said about being unsure who is the starter at quarterback heading into next week, his head coach is riding with him. That means the offense is riding with him, which means the No. 1 team in the country is riding with him.
Whether he likes it or continues to leave big plays on the field or not.
"Overall, I thought Cardale played OK. He threw for 288," Meyer said. "I still give him the OK because we have high expectations and a couple turnovers."
Added Jones, who said he'd grade himself as a C-plus or B-minus after his effort Saturday: "I'm always going to be looking over my shoulder. I mean, who wouldn't want to be the starting quarterback at The Ohio State University? Pretty sure there's people that want your job, so you gotta be looking over your shoulder. It's going to bring out the best in not just me, the offense, because it's competition. It's simple. It's competition."
