CJ Stroud on his early struggles, late success in first Ohio State start

The first half of Ohio State’s season opener against Minnesota did not go how the Buckeyes hoped it would. Ohio State trailed 14-10 at halftime. The Buckeyes came out strong in the second half, though, scoring 35 points and defeating Minnesota 45-31. Quarterback C.J. Stroud had a slow start in the first half, but he showed off his arm and explosiveness many times in the second half.

Stroud finished the first half 8-of-14 with 58 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. With Ohio State trailing, Stroud knew that he needed to come out strong in the third quarter. Stroud led Ohio State on a seven play, 81-yard drive to open the third quarter that ended with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave. After Minnesota answered with a touchdown to re-take the lead, Stroud came right back out and wasted no time with a 56-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson on the first play of the ensuing possession.

In the second half, Stroud completed 5-of-8 passes for 236 yards and four touchdowns. Stroud averaged 47.2 yards per completion in the second half and had 38, 56, 70, and 61-yard touchdown passes. Following the game, Stroud  said that it was tough to stay in rhythm during the slow first half.

“I mean yeah, I have great teammates, but I think I’m a good player too,” Stroud said after the game. “The first half may not have shown that, but I think I did really good in the second half.”

Minnesota’s time of possession dominance made things hard on Ohio State’s offense

Minnesota dominated in time of possession. The Gophers held the ball for 38:41 compared to 21:19 for Ohio State. As Stroud mentioned, sitting for so long in between each offensive possession makes it hard to stay in rhythm and to get going.

While Minnesota continued to control time of possession in the second half, things took a big swing when Haskell Garrett returned a fumble 32 yards for the touchdown to give the Buckeyes a 31-21 lead. Otherwise, Minnesota continued to have long drives down the field. The only difference was, in the second half, Stroud and Ohio State capitalized on their opportunities and put the ball into the endzone.

“I mean, everything we called was great,” Stroud said. “Sometimes things just don’t go the way that you want them to. Time of possession was crazy, [Minnesota] held the ball way longer than we wanted them to. They held it for a while in the first half, so we got a little bit cold in the first half, but I was happy we got the win.”