The entire offseason was spent wondering how Justin Fields would get better after a resounding success of a debut as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. He tossed 41 touchdowns compared to three interceptions, throwing for 3,273 yards while completing 67.2 percent of his passes and adding 10 scores and 484 yards on the ground.
Would it even be possible to improve in a second year with Ryan Day?
Well, we have our answer: A resounding yes.
Through just three games, Fields has risen to become the betting favorite for the Heisman Trophy by guiding an Ohio State team to three double-digit-point wins. He has completed 86.7 percent of his 83 passes for 908 yards.
Perhaps most impressively, the junior from Georgia has 11 passing touchdowns and 11 incompletions. Including his pair of rushing touchdowns, he has scored more touchdowns in 2020 than he has thrown incompletions.
Count Fields, himself, among those amazed by that statistic.
“I would have to go with more touchdowns than incompletions, for sure. That's the craziest one (of my stats),” Fields said on Wednesday.
Yet those numbers only tell part of the story. If you actually look at his 11 incomplete passes, more than half of them were catchable. His receivers got at least one hand on more than half of them, too.
Here’s a look at seven incompletions that we’d deem as throws his receivers could have caught.
Not all of those seven throws were perfect, on-the-money dimes. But he gave his receivers a chance to make a play. Let’s quickly run through them.
- First throw: An on-target deep ball to Chis Olave that traveled 50 yards in the air. Olave got both hands on the football, but Nebraska cornerback Dicaprio Bootle cut out the receiver’s legs. Olave couldn’t hang onto the ball as he hit the turf, leading to Fields’ sole incompletion in the opener.
- Second throw: A slot fade to Garrett Wilson, who got both hands on the ball but couldn’t hold on to the tad-too-tall pass.
- Third throw: Not a great on-the-move throw by Fields who hit Wilson at knee level. Still, the sophomore had a chance to make the catch but let the ball go through his hands.
- Fourth throw: Another end-zone fade to Wilson. He wanted a penalty called on the Penn State cornerback who kept his hands from reaching up for the ball in time.
- Fifth throw: Another just-off-target toss while rolling to the right. His throw to Jeremy Ruckert was a bit high, so while the tight end got his hands on it, he didn’t secure it.
- Sixth throw: A perfect throw to Julian Fleming who dropped it. As Fields said on Wednesday, he might have scored if he had reeled it in.
- Seventh throw: A sideline deep shot to Jaxon Smith-Njigba who attempted a one-handed catch. On 3rd-and-16, Fields dropped the ball into a tight window where only his freshman wideout had a chance to grab it. However, he couldn’t quite hang on.
A few of those were perfect throws. A few of them were a bit off target. A few were throws into tight windows where he gave his receivers a chance to make tough receptions. All seven were catchable.
Of the 11 incompletions on 83 passes, only four of them weren’t catchable.
Two passes were thrown late and deflected by defensive backs before reaching the intended target, including one on 2nd-and-6 where Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. thought he had a chance at an interception.
The other two uncatchable balls were batted down at the line of scrimmage and on a throwaway due to a mistimed snap from center Josh Myers.
Essentially, Fields has thrown four uncatchable passes through three games and only two or three were mistakes by him. Otherwise, he’s been just about perfect.
