In his second game-week presser since returning to full-time duties, Urban Meyer's weekly media session mercifully focused on football ahead of Saturday night's showdown with Penn State in Beaver Stadium.
After racing out to a 42-6 halftime lead before a fourth quarter touchdown sealed the cover and a 49-6 win, Meyer fielded questions this week about the state of his rushing attack, Nick Bosa's health, and of course the impact of his quarterback, Dwayne Haskins, on the not just the offense's effectiveness but the actual construct of the offense itself around his ridiculous arm talent.
Q. You talked after the game about getting the rushing production up, and I know you’ve harped on balance. In a game like this coming up, how important is that, and what do you guys do to get that balance back to where you want it?
COACH MEYER: Teams are still defending us a lot of single coverage. That’s what Tulane did. And we’re at the point where we can execute the passing game pretty high. It’s a lot how — after watching the videotape, you know, the offensive line played pretty well. But then there’s a safety hitting you up for a 4- or 5-yard gain. And when that happens they’re leaving you up for single coverage. A lot of it is how they determine to play us.
Q. If you’re throwing the way you guys have been is it okay if it’s a little bit less balanced than it has been in the past?
COACH MEYER: Everyone knows my feeling on that — balance where you can. But there’s time where the dual-threat quarterback you equate numbers; A throwing quarterback, you throw to equate numbers. So that’s the difference.
...
Q. This sounds crazy given the way your offense has worked since you’ve been here and the running backs you have, but have you been completely satisfied with the way you guys have run the ball the last couple of weeks?
COACH MEYER: When you watch the film, it’s like I said, it’s not the same — it’s a very different offense right now. One was a run first, pass second. This is a do what they give you.
So it’s a very different — I don’t think we’ve ever had a team average over 300 yards passing in a game either. So it’s different. But the one thing that Ryan and Kevin have done is utilize the skill set we have of the offensive personnel.
Q. The way it’s changed, did you always envision that you might be able to do this offensively? Do you like this sort of — feels like a philosophy change?
COACH MEYER: Sure, when it works. Yeah, once again, you don’t go out and recruit just cookie-cutter players. You’re going to go out and recruit the best player you can.
When we recruited Dwayne he had a very good skill set. So it’s our job as coaches to adapt. I think we have over the years pretty good. We had Alex Smith and he had a unique skill set. And Cardale Jones, a different player than J.T. Then you had J.T. and Tebow, you had Braxton Miller.
So we’ve tried to have a — very good offensive coaches obviously, and they take what people can do and do what they do best.
As Meyer noted, defenses are still largely committing an extra hat in the box which might be slowing the running game a bit but in exchange, Haskins is facing a lot of single coverage.
In addition, the OSU braintrust had already committed to altering the offensive style seen over most of the last four seasons to better suit Haskins' skill-set and the way opposing defenses have chosen to attack Ohio State thus far has only played into the Buckeyes' hands.
It should be noted that a coached-up set of wide receivers have aided Haskins' effectiveness as has an offensive line that stood pretty sturdy against its only real test a few weeks back against TCU.
But at the center of the Ohio State universe is Haskins, a 6-foot-3, 220 pound gunslinger brimming with confidence – and rightfully so.
Through four games, his stat line is straight out of a video game: 87 completions on 115 attempts for a 75.7% completion rate, 1,194 yards and 16 touchdowns against one interception. And that's not all:
- Haskins' 16 touchdown tosses are the second-most ever by any Big Ten quarterback through the first four games
- He is the first Big Ten quarterback ever to post five touchdown passes twice in the first four games of a season
- Haskins' 16 touchdown passes and 75.7% completion rate both sit second nationally while his 207.04 rating ranks third
- Haskins already has two Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week awards under his belt through four games
In another major sign of the offensive shift in Columbus, Haskins has tallied at least 20 completions in all four games this season.
| QUARTERBACK | 20+ COMP GAMES | TOTAL GAMES |
|---|---|---|
| J.T. BARRETT | 13 | 50 |
| C. JONES | 1 | 23 |
| B. MILLER | 1 | 36 |
| T. PRYOR | 4 | 39 |
| T. BOECKMAN | 0 | 25 |
| T. SMITH | 3 | 32 |
| J. ZWICK | 0 | 22 |
| C. KRENZEL | 2 | 30 |
| S. BELLISARI | 2 | 20 |
| J. GERMAINE | 3 | 12 |
Going back the last 20 years, only two quarterbacks managed at least four 20+ completion games in their entire Buckeye careers.
It may surprise you that J.T. Barrett reigns supreme in this statistic with 13 outings with at least 20 completions in 50 total games.
It may surprise you even more than Terrelle Pryor is the only other Buckeye signal-caller of the last 20 years to register at least four 20+ completion outings, something he did exactly four times in 39 career games.
Troy Smith? Would you believe Troy did it just three times in 32 games with only two of those coming during his 2006 Heisman Trophy season?
Craig Krenzel? Lol, j/k. What about the legend Joe Germaine? His 1998 season which was good enough to win Big Ten MVP honors and set the school-record for passing yards in a season (3,330) saw him throw for at least 20 completions three times in 12 games.
We'll see if Haskins can keep it up this week in a nasty road environment against the best pass defense he's seen to date but go ahead and mark me down for the over.
