Dwayne Haskins looks to bounce back from poor outing

EAST LANSING, Michigan — Ohio State’s offense had one plan going into its home game against Nebraska last Saturday — fix its struggling run game.

That plan led to a combined 254 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries between sophomore J.K. Dobbins and junior Mike Webber.

But deciding to focus more on the run game also meant there’d be less time spent working on its pbading attack. For a team whose quarterback is as close to a pocket pbader as they come, that decision came at a price.

“We didn’t do too much pbading the way we should’ve done,” sophomore quarterback Dwayne Haskins said. “But we learned from it. We did really good in the running game so I’m happy for the (offensive) line and the running backs, they deserved that game.”

The Buckeyes opted to change focus following a 49-20 road loss to Purdue. A game where Haskins completed 49-of-73 pbades for 470 yards, both career-highs.

For most quarterbacks, throwing for 252 yards and two touchdowns while completing 18-of-32 pbades is considered a solid game. But when you’re the starting quarterback at Ohio State and you’ve thrown for 311.2 yards per game on a 71.1 percent completion rate in your first nine games, that becomes the standard. Fumbling twice and throwing a preventable interception aren’t things to take lightly.

“I shouldn’t have even thrown it into coverage like that,” Haskins told Quincy Avery — an NFL and college quarterback coach — in an episode of UNINTERRUPTED. “I should’ve checked it down.

But the lowest point of the afternoon without question came when Haskins scrambled for just three yards before deciding to slide with no defense remotely close to him.

“I could have run a little more … I watched it on film,” Haskins said. “This week in practice I was working on running the football, working on making somebody miss in space. All the tools I need to make plays this week.”

Haskins ability to make plays with his legs has never been a strong point of his as he’d rather make plays with his arm. But he also credited that because of his throwing ability the chance to show any mobility he has aren’t necessarily available to him the way they were for former quarterback JT Barrett. Mainly because of the way defensives play him.

His 22-yard run that set up a Dobbins touchdown — the longest of his career —against Michigan last season was the result of the way defenses planned for Ohio State with Barrett under center.

“I feel like I haven’t had an opportunity to scramble like that,” Haskins said. “Just the way the play was set up it was (against) man coverage. I get a lot of zone coverage now because we throw the football so much.”

When Barrett graduated, the Buckeyes not only lost their starting quarterback but also their leader. It’s week 11 of the season and Ohio State is still looking for someone to fill that void. Head coach Urban Meyer stated that he felt Haskins could be that leader, but he still has a long way to go to get there.

“Dwayne is trying to get there,” Meyer said.“ That’s something that he’s improved greatly, but he still has a ways to go.”

After seeing two extremes the past two games Ohio State now must find a way to have a perfect balance between its pbading and running attacks. Haskins believes that the improved run game will only benefit him because it will open up receivers for the Buckeyes down the field, especially on third down.

“Now that we’re able to establish the run I feel like it will help on third down situations,” Haskins said. “Just having that running game going just means a lot for the play calling, because you don’t have to worry about running the ball and not getting any yards.”

No. 18 Michigan State comes into Saturday’s game with the best rush defense in the country holding teams to just 71.7 yards per game, which means that the game might come down to Haskins making plays with his arm. Because of that, he’s used every resource he can to prepare for those moments. That Included seeking out Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson for intel on the Spartans defensive schemes.

As a first-year starter Haskins is on pace to break a handful of Ohio State pbading records, including yards and touchdowns in a single season — he currently sits at third in both. His 32 touchdowns also sits fifth all-time in the Big Ten record books.

He won’t need to be dominant to reach those feats, but he also will need to be better than he was against Nebraska.

“We have to figure out what we need to be firing on all cylinders ‚” Haskins said to Avery. “We need to make some plays catching the ball, we have to make some plays running the ball… I’m going to get my guys right.”