The fatal flaw with every College Football Playoff Top 10 team after first rankings
By Josh Yourish
No. 1 Ohio State – Pressure on McCord
No, I’m not talking about the pressure to follow in the footsteps of CJ Stroud who was incredible in his final game as a Buckeye in the CFP last year and is now setting the NFL on fire as a rookie. I’m talking about actual pressure on Kyle McCord when he’s dropping back to pass.
McCord hasn’t been CJ Stroud, but he’s been serviceable for Ohio State, some numbers would say he’s been a whole lot better than just serviceable. McCord is fifth in the country in QBR at 83.4 with an EPA of 38.9 which ranks 22nd. However, when he gets pressured that all falls apart.
McCord has been pressured the 68th most times of any quarterback in the country with 100 or more dropbacks. The Ohio State offensive line only gives up a 28.1% pressure rate, and he is 29th in the country in pressure-to-sack percentage at 11.3% which is excellent. The problem is when he does throw under pressure, he makes a lot of mistakes.
So far this season, McCord has seven “turnover-worthy plays” when under pressure despite only throwing two of his three interceptions. Against pressure, he’s only completing 36.7% of his passes and averaging 3.8 yards per attempt which ranks 146th among quarterbacks who have been pressured on at least 25 dropbacks this year. Of the 68 quarterbacks who have been pressured at least 70 times, McCord is 64th in yards per attempt, 60th in completion percentage, and 13th in turnover-worthy plays.
Marvin Harrison Jr. solves a lot of problems on an offense, but he can’t block for his quarterback and catch his bad passes. Ryan Day needs to figure out a way to improve his quarterback’s numbers under pressure or he’ll sink the Buckeyes’ season.
