Barrett routinely had efficient passing days, so Haskins’ 74 percent passing success rate isn’t absurd (again, especially given the competition), but his performance against the Beavers featured more middle and deep-passes (i.e., his passes covered more air yards), resulted in more explosive plays, and included passing attempts in the red zone. There are a few reasons to think that the passing game is actually improved over the Barrett era. Ohio State had an 86 percent drive efficiency, with Tate Martell’s drive being the only non-touchdown possession of the first half. Keeping in mind both that this only includes seven drives (stopping after Terry McLaurin’s 75-yard touchdown catch-and-run) and that Oregon State had one of the worst defenses in the country last season, things went about as well as they could have for the first team offense. Offense: This is the passing game you’re looking for Garbage time kicked in immediately after the Buckeyes’ first score of the second half, putting them up 49-14, so the data below only includes seven Buckeyes drives and nine Oregon State drives. 50 percent of necessary yardage on first down, 70 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third and fourth down. Success rate: A common Football Outsiders tool used to measure efficiency by determining whether every play of a given game was successful or not.
![ohio state 2017 football stats ohio state 2017 football stats](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/KJPE26/november-25th-2017-ohio-state-buckeyes-defensive-end-sam-hubbard-6-KJPE26.jpg)
Explosive plays are those that gain 15 or more yards.Rushing stuff rate is the percentage of runs that were for no gain or a loss.Rushing opportunity rate is the percentage of runs that gained five or more yards.Drive efficiency looks at the percentage of drives that were scoring opportunities.drives with a first down past the opponents’ 40-yard line. In the tables below, scoring opportunity efficiency looks at the average points scored per scoring opportunity - a.k.a.This Ohio State team is the most fun in nearly 20 years 5 things we learned from Ohio State’s Week 1 win against Oregon State Stock Market Report: Buy Dwayne Haskins, passing game. And the defense was mostly solid apart from a handful of big breakdowns. You probably don’t need a reminder, but the passing game was decidedly not fixed despite that output, and the season ended in a shutout loss to Clemson in the playoff.Įven with that comparison, there were encouraging signs that the passing offense really will be different with Dwayne Haskins at the helm. Barrett threw for 349 yards (11.1 yards per attempt), posting an 89.3 QBR and six touchdowns while the offense hit a school record 776 yards. The 2016 opener against Bowling Green is a good comparison: the Buckeyes scored 77 points, while J.T. That can work both ways - we might be overrating the offense and underrating the defense. Second, teams usually improve the most between weeks one and two, and everyone always overreacts to week one results. It’s possible that Oregon State’s new head coach, Jonathan Smith, has breathed some life into the Beavers offense, and that they’ll be better than the 91st S&P+ offense that they’re projected to be. First, Oregon State is likely the worst team on Ohio State’s schedule, and probably one of the worst Power Five teams in the country. So if you wanted to look on the bright side following the loss, we hope this post will do the trick.We need to significantly caveat all of the stats that follow. However, there are some signs of improvement from last year’s even worse defeat. The second forced fumble was recovered by JC Jackson at Ohio State’s 27-yard-line and was eventually punched in for a touchdown. This year, they were able to produce a pair of forced fumbles. Last year the Terps were unable to get any turnovers off the Buckeyes. So let’s give Max some credit for, at the very least, making sure no INTs occurred when he threw the ball. However, he did avoid throwing an interception, which did not happen in the 2016 contest. To put it lightly, Max Bortenschlager struggled against Ohio State. The field goal block unit had no such luck doing this in 2016, so you can chalk up another sign of progress for the Terps against Ohio State. On top of Ty Johnson’s kick return, the Terps blocked a field goal. While Maryland’s offense and defense certainly had their struggles, the Terps did everything could on special teams to make this a game. Last year’s game at College Park featured no such explosive kick returns, so we already have one improvement from 2016’s 62-3 drubbing.