Breaking Down Will Howard’s Performance in Ohio State’s Dominant Win Over Western Michigan

Granted, the Buckeyes will go against much better competition in Big Ten play, but Howard continued to improve in his second game with OSU. In Ohio State's dominant 56-0 win over Western Michigan on Saturday, the fifth-year senior completed 18-of-26 passes for 292 yards and a touchdown in just over three quarters.

After starting slow and eventually finding his groove in the second half in the first game of the season, it was the opposite for Howard this past weekend. He completed each of his first 10 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown to begin the game. Ohio State scored a touchdown on five of its first six possessions.

"I like to get early completions and easy completions and I think we did a good job of getting me a couple of just easy completions and just letting the guys facilitate and getting the ball out of my hand," Howard said. "I think the first one I probably could have just gave to Trey and let him run, but it's all good. And I think we started off really fast, got some good plays and were able to move the ball down the field well."

Howard then completed eight of his final 16 attempts, a stretch that included no more than two completions in a row. That said, three of his incompletions were on plays where he scrambled out of pressure and threw it away and another was on an attempted pass that slipped out of his hand.

To dive into how Howard performed in Ohio State's shutout win over Western Michigan, we charted all 26 of his passing attempts in the game. (Note: The passing chart is categorized by how many yards the quarterback threw the ball in the air past the line of scrimmage on each attempt and whether the ball reached its target inside or outside the hashes, though the stats listed include yards gained after the catch on each completion.)

Much like they did in Week 1 against Akron, Kelly, Day and Howard continued to utilize Howard’s ability as a play-action passer in Week 2. In 2023, he completed 65-of-103 passes (63.1%) for 973 yards (9.4 yards per attempt), 15 touchdowns and four interceptions on 108 play-action dropbacks. Against Western Michigan, he completed 11-of-13 passes (84.6%) for 180 yards (13.8 yards per attempt) and a touchdown in play action. Comparatively, he completed 7-of-13 passes (53.8%) for 112 yards (8.6 yards per attempt) with no play action.

“Will's had a good demeanor. You can see the effect he can have in the pass game. You can see the effect that he can have with his feet,” Ryan Day said after the game. “I thought he threw some nice play-action passes tonight, a couple from under center. And to see Jeremiah catch that pass and run, you see the one that Carnell had last week, catch and run, those balls are all on time and they're on the money. And those guys are tremendously talented and do a good job of running after the catch. But a big part of running after the catch is timing and location of throws and accuracy. So, you know, he deserves credit on that. I think he did a good job out of the pocket on a couple of play-action passes that were well-designed. So a good day for Will.”

Good look at 3x1 condensed Yankee (PA). Eyes tied with the feet here with good pocket movement. Will need these type of throws in big games. pic.twitter.com/66uz5RqmOF

— Justin Whitlatch (@WingT_Football) September 9, 2024

Through two games this season, the fifth-year senior has now completed 19-of-25 passes (76%) for 321 yards (12.8 yards per attempt) and three touchdowns with play action (46.4% of dropbacks) and 16-of-29 passes (55.2%) for 199 yards (6.9 yards per attempt) and a touchdown with no play action (53.6% of dropbacks).

While Howard has had a few misses on longer throws, it's a small sample size, and he still has been much improved on his deep ball compared to 2023. Against Western Michigan, he completed two of three passes for 71 yards thrown more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage; in 2023, he completed just 15 of 46 attempts (452 yards, 6 TD, 4 INT) on 20-plus-yard throws.

He has allowed Ohio State's talent both in the backfield and out wide to make plays with efficient passing in the short and intermediate areas, such as when Jeremiah Smith turned a quick hitch into a 70-yard touchdown on Saturday.

One thing that Howard must improve on going forward is his effectiveness under pressure. He missed on all four of his passes under pressure against Western Michigan and has completed just 1-of-8 passes for eight yards while under pressure through the first two games of the season.

While there’s been a lot more good than bad from Howard through two games so far, he’s looking to keep improving what he hasn’t done well during the Buckeyes’ first bye week.

"I'm very satisfied with how it went, but I think the overwhelming message is that there was still meat on the bone," Howard said. "We feel good about it, but there's still so much to improve on and I'm excited to get into the film and look at what we did well, but most importantly what we didn't do well and what we can improve on."

Below, we take a look at Howard's best throw, a good decision, a bad throw and his worst throw of the game against Western Michigan.

Worst Throw: Underthrown deep ball to Jeremiah Smith

Howard was a little late since it was a play-action and he looked to the left side of the field first before moving his eyes to an open Smith deep on the right side of the field. Even then, this was a bad miss considering Howard just had to put a little more power into it and it likely would been a touchdown.

"The missed throw (hurts the most)," Howard said about missing Smith for a would-be touchdown. "That throw I underthrew to Jeremiah, it's going to really hurt me for a little bit. I think I played a pretty clean game for the most part, but yeah, coming out of a game like that, those are the ones that sting and burn and that I remember and that I don't want to let happen again.”

He explained what he will work on to improve on these types of deep balls going forward.

“Just letting it rip,” Howard said. “I think sometimes that can be my problem a little bit if I'm just trying to be too perfect, especially on deep balls.”

Bad Throw: Throw into double coverage, near interception

Against a better opponent, this one likely gets intercepted. Not sure what Howard saw here, to be honest.

Great Throw: 35-yard Pass to Emeka Egbuka

A dot, as the kids say. A perfectly thrown ball and a great catch by Egbuka.

Good Move and Decision: Will Howard Escapes Pressure, Throws it Out Away

Even an incompletion can be a very important play in a game, giving the offense another opportunity rather than potentially turning the ball over. Howard not only escaped pressure, but he was smart enough to throw the ball out of the back of the end zone and keep Ohio State's offense on the field.

“My favorite part of the whole day (for Howard) was when we missed the blitz on a play-action pass. A guy came free, he avoided the sack and then threw the ball away,” Day said. “To me, that was a good play. And those are the things that are going to matter in some of these closer games."

The Buckeyes scored a touchdown two plays later.

Howard not only had a great game against Western Michigan but added a six-yard rushing touchdown, his first at Ohio State. That part of his game could prove to be extremely valuable for OSU's offense throughout the season.

Will Howard, dual-threat quarterback. pic.twitter.com/9R66ZoyWhu

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 8, 2024

"I love getting that heavy setup and running the ball. Especially because that usually means we're in either short yardage or in the red zone. We were in that a lot today, which is great," Howard said about running the ball. "We made some good plays. I always say it's great to throw a touchdown, it feels awesome, it's a great feeling, but there's nothing quite like running a touchdown in and feeling the crowd and celebrating with your teammates in the end zone. There's no feeling like that. It was pretty awesome."

With OSU's backups also getting plenty of time given the blowout over Western Michigan, Devin Brown completed all five of his passes for 57 yards. Julian Sayin received his first snaps as a Buckeye and was a perfect 2-for-2 for 61 yards and a touchdown.

WIDE OPEN!

Bennett Christian with the @OhioStateFB TD this time pic.twitter.com/ZiHVFlaMwq

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 8, 2024

So far in 2024, Howard has completed 35-of-54 passes (64.8%) for 520 yards and four touchdowns. He also has used his legs to run for 24 yards and a touchdown on five carries.

Howard's passing chart through two games in the 2024 season: