Ohio State is sticking with Cardale Jones as the starting quarterback of the defending national champion Buckeyes, but did Urban Meyer make the right decision?
Cardale Jones will remain the starting quarterback of the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes despite being benched for J.T. Barrett in the last two games when he struggled.
Jones has completed 56.5 percent of his passes for 334 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions, the latter being the biggest reason Urban Meyer considered benching him this weekend against Western Michigan.
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The same type of dynamic playmaking we saw last year from Jones hasn’t been seen this year, despite the Buckeyes’ 3-0 start and No. 1 ranking, but neither has the record-breaking play we saw from Barrett last year.
Meyer’s decision to stick with Jones should mean he gives him a longer leash this week against a second straight opponent from the MAC and lets him work through any struggles he has, because Meyer clearly hasn’t seen enough from Barrett in practice or in limited duty in the games this year.
Barrett has a 57.1 completion percentage (20-35) for 193 yards, two touchdowns and one interception but hasn’t shown the same rhythm we saw last year when he broke the Ohio State single-season record for total offense and a new Big Ten record for total touchdowns with 45.
Meyer has to stop playing musical chairs with his quarterbacks and play Jones extensively, because he’s made his decision and now stuck with it, so he can’t continue to flip-flop and try to make both Jones and Barrett happy. At some point, he has to stick with one guy and ride him through the rest of the year and he did that today after practice.
Jones gets a nice landing vs. Western Michigan who have the nation’s No. 94 total defense, so he should be in an opportunity to succeed and he shouldn’t have to worry about looking over his shoulder every incompletion. This should be the confidence boost he needed and with Ohio State relying on the vertical pass more than the zone read in year’s past, he has the potential to put up some monster numbers against the Broncos.
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