Ryan Day Recaps Windy Victory Over Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. — Following Ohio State’s eventual 21-7 win at Northwestern on Saturday, Buckeye head coach Ryan Day spoke with reporters about the victory, including the difficult conditions contained therein. The highlights of everything Day had to say can be found below.

I’ve never been around conditions like this. “We saw this coming, so we had a plan.” They were under center. He was concerned about the shotgun snap. They tried to throw the ball but it was almost impossible.
“This was an extreme case” so they used CJ Stroud in the running game. “We have a couple of those in our back pocket if we need them. We don’t like to go there.”
The passing game wasn’t crisp because the ball was moving even on short passes.
Glad to have this game over.
Northwestern did a good job with their running game, but OSU’s defense wore on them down the stretch. “You could feel that field flipping.”
OSU needed to win the third quarter, which is why they took the wind.
What can you learn from a game like this? “You can learn a lot.” They found a way to win a hard game like this. “It wasn’t about anything other than winning the game.”
When there’s an extra defender in the box, you either read him or you throw it. And one of those wasn’t possible.
Any thought to taking Miyan Williams out as a changeup? Yeah, they talked about it, but they thought he was running well. There was just a lot of guys down in the box. They thought they would eventually break Northwestern’s defense and they did.
Concerned by Northwestern’s ability to run the ball and control the clock? At the end of the day, it comes down to scoring.
Pat Fitzgerald had a great game plan.
Running the ball with CJ Stroud is an emergency plan? Yes. “CJ wants to run.” “But we know how important it is to keep him healthy.” He is a weapon. He has good feet. You have to make good decisions on when to run him and when not to. You might get yards, but you’ll expose him today. But they needed it today.
Do the short-yardage situations concern you or is it more about having extra guys in the box? They’ll look at it. They don’t want that. They need to move those guys or convert if they can’t. When there is no threat of the pass, it’s a much different game. No excuse, have to do a better job.
Why don’t you want your QB taking shots? Hits pile up. They did for Justin Fields in 2020. CJ Stroud is such a weapon in the pocket, they have to be smart about putting him in those situations.
CJ seemed frustrated? “Not as frustrated as me.”