The bad news: Will Howard had his worst game of the season.
The good news: Ohio State still came away with a top-five win over Penn State in Happy Valley Saturday afternoon.
After Howard started red-hot in the Buckeyes' previous six games, he did the complete opposite against the Nittany Lions. The quarterback threw a pick-six on his first pass attempt of the game, giving Penn State an early 10-0 lead. But he and the rest of the Buckeyes didn’t flinch, bouncing back to earn a big-time win and keep themselves in contention for the Big Ten title.
"We willed ourselves to win that game," Howard said following the win. "I can't give enough credit to my teammates. They bailed me out. Just winning a game like that, man, in my home state, it's unbelievable."
In all, Howard completed 16-of-24 passes for a season-low 182 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. His 66.7% completion rate was his lowest since the season opener (60.7% against Akron) and he has now thrown one interception in five of Ohio State's last six games.
“I probably played my worst game of the year, just right now (my) feeling walking off the field,” Howard said. “But we willed that game. We talked about it earlier in the week, man. We said, ‘We're going to have to will ourselves to win this game. There's no way we're going to be able to lose.' And that was the way we played.”
In Ohio State’s postgame press conference following its win over Nebraska, Howard made it known that he wanted to prove a point against the Nittany Lions, as the Pennsylvania native grew up a PSU fan but was never recruited by them. FOX's Joel Klatt believes that emotion played a part in Howard's inconsistency on Saturday.
.@joelklatt believes Will Howard played with too much emotion on Saturday, wanting to prove a point against Penn State, leading to his struggles.
— Josh Poloha (@JorshP) November 4, 2024
When youre playing through emotion, typically, you dont execute and you dont play within the details.
pic.twitter.com/gUjUN43cSJ
To take a closer look at how Howard performed in Ohio State's big-time win at Penn State, we charted all 24 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.)
While Howard threw his first touchdown of the season that was 20-plus yards through the air on the right side of the hashes, he completed just 1-of-3 throws at least 20 yards downfield against Penn State, all three of which were on the right side of the hashes. His 33% completion rate for deep balls on Saturday was his lowest since Howard missed his only pass attempt in that part of the field (an interception, to be exact) against Marshall in the third game of the season.
Of Howard's 16 completions in Beaver Stadium, only three were thrown 10-plus yards downfield, as Ohio State focused on its short-passing game to move the offense.
| DEPTH (YARDS) | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| 20+ | 11/20 (55%), 417 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT | 15/46 (32.6%), 452 yards, 6 TD, 4 INT |
| 10-19 | 29/47 (61.7%), 549 yards, 6 TD, 2 INT | 43/78 (55.1%), 789 yards, 6 TD, 4 INT |
| 0-9 | 71/94 (75.5%), 724 yards, 9 TD, 2 INT | 117/159 (73.6%), 1,043 yards, 7 TD, 2 INT |
| Behind los | 39/44 (88.6%), 287 yards, 1 TD | 43/46 (93.5%), 346 yards, 4 TD |
After attempting a previous season-low of seven play-action passes Nebraska a week prior, Howard attempted just five of those throws against Penn State, completing four for 61 yards and an interception.
Although he was very efficient throwing with play action, Howard completed just 63.2% of passes without play action in Happy Valley, his lowest completion rate of non-play action passes since completing only 53.8% of those passes against Western Michigan in the second game of the season.
| Play Action | Non-Play Action | |
|---|---|---|
| at Penn state | 4/5 (80%), 61 yards (12.2 per attempt), 1 TD | 12/19 (63.2%), 121 yards (6.4 per attempt), 1 TD, 1 INT |
| 2024 season | 61/76 (80.3%), 972 yards (12.8 per attempt), 7 TD, 2 INT | 72/104 (69.2%), 816 yards (7.8 per attempt), 10 TD, 2 INT |
| 2023 season At Kansas state | 66/104 (63.5%), 976 yards (9.4 per attempt), 16 TD, 4 INT | 152/254 (59.8%), 1,654 yards (6.5 per attempt), 7 TD, 6 INT |
While Penn State blitzed on 14 of Howard's 28 dropbacks (12 of his 24 pass attempts), he completed the same number of passes when he was blitzed (eight) as he did when the Nittany Lions didn't blitz (eight). Howard threw for 74 yards (6.2 per attempt), one touchdown and an interception when he was blitzed and 108 yards (9.0 per attempt) and a touchdown when he wasn't.
After Howard completed just two of 12 passes for 14 yards while under pressure in the first four games of the season, Howard has done a much better job under pressure over the past four games. Over the last four games, he has completed 12-of-18 passes for 169 yards, two touchdowns and an interception under pressure. Howard had one of his best games of the season under pressure against Penn State, completing 4-of-5 passes for 62 yards and one touchdown while under pressure.
That said, he had one of his worst games of the season when he was kept clean, completing just 12-of-19 passes for 120 yards, one touchdown and an interception in a clean pocket.
| PRESSURE | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| KEPT CLEAN | 135/174 (77.6%), 1,799 yards (10.3 per attempt), 17 TD, 4 INT | 172/256 (67.2%), 2,075 yards, 15 TD, 6 INT |
| UNDER PRESSURE | 14/30 (46.7%), 171 yards (5.7 per attempt), 2 TD, 1 INT | 46/102 (45.1%), 555 yards, 8 TD, 4 INT |
| NOT BLITZED | 99/134 (73.9%), 1,242 yards (9.3 per attempt), 10 TD, 4 INT | 135/224 (60.3%), 1,565 yards, 10 TD, 8 INT |
| BLITZED | 50/70 (71.4%), 728 yards (10.4 per attempt), 9 TD, 1 INT | 83/134 (61.9%), 1,065 yards, 13 TD, 2 INT |
Howard ran for a touchdown in five consecutive games earlier in the season but was unable to do so on Saturday for the second consecutive game. He came very close to running for a score against Penn State but instead fumbled the ball, which turned into a touchback for the Nittany Lions.
A touchback is ruled after review of the Will Howard fumble
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024
Do you agree with the decision? pic.twitter.com/bz4T875jap
Howard finished the game with 12 carries for 24 yards, his most carries in a game since Sept. 18, 2021. Removing sacks from that equation, Howard would have had nine carries for 39 yards.
Below, we take a look at four of Howard's best throws and two worst throws from the game.
Bad Throw: Pick-Six
Howard's game couldn't have started worse. Penn State showed man, played Cover 2 and tricked Howard into thinking Jeremiah Smith was open on the RPO only for cornerback Zion Tracy to get an easy interception and return it for a touchdown.
PENN STATE PICK SIX @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/JpisM5PoXL
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024
"Man, I was just like, hey, I made this a little harder than it should have been on myself and us. But, you know, the mindset can't change," Howard said after the game. "If you let that play affect the next play, that's when it becomes a problem. As much as I'd love to go back and change that play up, you know, and see it in the zone and not throw that ball, I would. But how you respond is how you have to come back."
Good Throw: 25-yard Touchdown to Emeka Egbuka
Howard rolled left following a play action and connected with Egbuka for Ohio State's first touchdown of the game.
That didn't take long
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024
Will Howard finds Emeka Egbuka for the instant response by @OhioStatefb pic.twitter.com/RQTytXdcrF
Bad Throw: Missed Touchdown to Carnell Tate
This was certainly one that Howard would love to have back, though it ultimately didn‘t affect the result of the drive as the Buckeyes went on to score a touchdown on a 21-yard connection between Howard and Brandon Inniss.
On what would have been a 47-yard touchdown pass, Tate threw the ball too wide toward the boundary, preventing his open receiver from being able to catch the ball in bounds.
Yeah, Will Howard's going to want this one back. He had Carnell Tate open downfield. pic.twitter.com/GD1ppt4Jcn
— Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom) November 2, 2024
Good Throw: 19-yard Pass to Jelani Thurman
With Abdul Carter running straight at him, Howard was able to avoid Penn State’s star edge rusher and threw a pass across his body to Thurman, who bobbled the ball multiple times before securing it to get the first down on 4th-and-1.
On 4th & 1 the Buckeyes pick up a WILD first down @ohiostatefb pic.twitter.com/kKeMojlvLt
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024
Good Throw: 18-yard Pass to Jeremiah Smith
On play action, Howard had an unblocked Penn State pass-rusher running at him and was able to move backward and create space for himself and then threw the ball nearly 20 yards off his back foot to a wide-open Smith for a first down.
When in doubt, find Jeremiah Smith @ohiostatefb pic.twitter.com/vKz1e2MtIJ
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024
Good Throw: Would-Be Long Touchdown to Jeremiah Smith
Whether Smith lost the ball in the sun or unintentionally slowed down a tiny bit, the wideout had a step on the defensive back and dropped a would-be 51-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Even then, Smith almost made a remarkable one-handed catch to secure the reception, but it was a perfectly placed deep ball by Howard either way.
Jeremiah Smith nearly had one here pic.twitter.com/cOdlan4w6S
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 2, 2024
For the season, Howard has the third-best QBR (84.3) in the Big Ten behind only Indiana's Kurtis Rourke (91.6) and Oregon's Dillon Gabriel (88.1). His 9.6 yards per attempt are sixth-best in the FBS.
Howard's passing chart through eight games in 2024:
