Will Howard Rebounding From Oregon Loss, Looking Forward To What's Next

COLUMBUS — Ohio State starting quarterback Will Howard met with the media on Tuesday. He reflected back on the Oregon loss, lessons learned, and talked about what needs to happen with the Buckeye offense moving forward. The highlights of everything that was said can be found below.

On the deep passing game: “That’s something we want to do and push the ball downfield.” They haven’t done it a ton this season. “Throwing deep balls is fun.”
How do you feel physically? Good. This was a good week to recover a little bit.
On going through the backlash of losing a game? “It makes it real for sure.” They talked about wanting to flush that game but they’re not going to forget about. “I’m almost glad it happened now” instead of later in the season because they can address things now. “We’re trying to use this in the best way as a stepping stone. Everything is still in front of us.”
How’d he play against Oregon? Solid, but won’t be satisfied with anything but a win. You can play the best game of your life but if you don’t finish it right, it’s all for nothing.
What have you replayed in your mind on that last play? “Believe me, I’ve played it over in my head a million different times.” He saw the clock with two seconds and got down. He kicks himself for it but you can’t allow it to happen again and affect them down the road. “The game of football is cool because there’s a lot of different things that go into it.” The end of that Oregon game is proof of that.
Zen Michalski stepped up and did a really good job in that environment. “Going forward, he’s got to be the guy.” He could probably be a starter a lot of other places.
How was practice last week? “You could feel it. It was a little pissed off.” They were trying to be smart but the mindset was “we can’t let that happen again.” It’s a motivated, pissed off, ticked off mentality. The coaches brought it a little more last week. You’re human and things happen, and you don’t want to have to learn in this way but you can’t change the past. You have to use it for good now. Gotta run the table now and see them again in Indianapolis.
It looked like you were down with one second to go. “I thought I was.” They probably didn’t want to clear the field of all of the fans. But they talk about leaving no doubt and they didn’t.
Where did Autzen Stadium rank for you in terms of environment. “They brought it.” It’s a smaller stadium but it’s loud on the field. The fact that it was a good game the entire time kept the fans in it. It was a tough environment because of the noise.
Why aren’t you throwing the deep ball more? No reason in particular. They just haven’t shown it a lot in games. Defenses are giving them stuff underneath. It’s not something they’re worried about not being able to do.
You want to instill confidence in Zen Michalski but it can’t be fake. “I think he’s been doing a great job.”
If the safeties are going to stay back, then you can’t throw the ball deep and you take the intermediate stuff. That’s one of the reasons they’ve been so good underneath. Defenses are trying to stay back and protect against the deep shots.
Nebraska runs a 3-3-5 defense. Similar to what he saw in practice at K-State.