Cardale Jones looks horrible in close game vs. NIU

Well, it’s not all rosy for Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes. From what I saw in the first game and the way the roster is constructed, it looked like Ohio State would coast into the college football playoff and it looks like they probably thought the same. Late in the third quarter, they were able to get a pick-six to secure a win against Northern Illinois, which played a tough game defensively.

The win was especially ugly for Ohio State QB Cardale Jones, who looked terrible in his limited time on the field. J.T. Barrett came in and replaced Jones, but he wasn’t much better save for a big time throw to Michael Thomas for a touchdown.

Jones, as was part of his kryptonite all along, struggled with over-throwing the ball and not driving it into the chest of his receivers. He finished the game with four completions on nine attempts with two interceptions and just 36 yards.

For a guy who had some serious first round aspirations before the season, the brakes have to be pumped a little bit. It hasn’t been an overwhelmingly great start for Jones, who has played poorly enough that Urban Meyer has used J.T. Barrett in all three of the Buckeyes’ games so far.

Also disappointing in this game for Ohio State was WR/H-back Braxton Miller, who totaled just 7 yards from scrimmage. He was overthrown by Jones on one of his two interceptions Saturday afternoon.

All in all, this was a really bad game for Ohio State, which was lucky to come away with a win here. In particular, Jones was disappointing as he and the Ohio State offense should have been able to come out and move the ball a lot better against Northern Illinois, despite the fact that NIU is probably a really good team.

We’ve come to expect a lot out of Ohio State, perhaps too much. This was an important game for their defense to also get some good work in, and they actually played really well. The interception for a touchdown from Darren Lee was the punctuation on a great performance overall by that unit, which looked a bit shaky in the first week of the season missing some key players.

Joey Bosa, the star defensive end, came up with a big play in the fourth quarter and Ezekiel Elliott had a hard-earned 108 yards on 23 carries with a pair of catches as well.

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