The most remarkable part of Dwayne Haskins’ performance against Tulane was how unremarkable it seemed at times.
Haskins completed his first nine pass attempts. He finished the first quarter with 171 yards passing and three touchdowns.
By the time he threw a fourth touchdown pass on the Buckeyes’ fourth possession of the day, he had 238 passing yards with more than half of the second quarter still to play.
That’s more passing yards than OSU managed in any of the last six games of 2017. They finished with 208 vs. Iowa, 189 vs. Michigan State, 218 vs. Illinois, 124 vs. Michigan, 211 vs. Wisconsin, and 114 vs. USC.
There were still nearly 38 minutes of game action still to come.
He surpassed 300 yards through the air and threw his fifth touchdown before halftime. In less than 3.5 games, he had more touchdown passes (16) than Braxton Miller had in the entire 2012 season (15).
Welcome to the new normal in Columbus. Even Haskins is a little surprised with how things have gone.
“Probably better than what I thought,” he said. “I never put into an idea of what I could do. Just wanted to go out and win games, play really great.”
Tulane’s defense didn’t pose much of a challenge for Haskins or the Buckeyes, but he’s not interested in measuring himself that way.
“I just want to show how dangerous the offense is, and with me at the helm, a lot of plays can be made. Every game, whether running or throwing, trying to make as many plays as possible,” Haskins said.
All five of Haskins’ drives on Saturday ended with touchdown passes. Tulane head coach Willie Fritz came away impressed.
“He’s a very poised quarterback. Watching him on tape you would have thought he is a third year starter,” Fritz said. “He handles things really well out there. He’s got a big arm, good touch. He’s hard to bring down, big guy.”
Want some more perspective on Haskins’ start?
He has started four games for the Buckeyes and is already tied for second all-time in games with 5+ touchdowns passing with two.
Haskins already has more passing touchdowns this season than Craig Krenzel had in any season during his career.
He has as many passing touchdowns this month as Troy Smith did in 2005.
In fact, his 16 passing touchdowns would have been enough to at least share the full-season lead at OSU from 1999-2005.
OSU entered the season with fewer than 30 games all-time where a quarterback threw for 300+ yards. Haskins has already done it three times, and only missed doing it against Rutgers because the Buckeyes pulled him early.
His 304 yards on Saturday tied him for the 25th-best single-game performance in OSU history, and he did it in one drive less than a half.
The stats are all interesting, certainly, but they won’t mean much if Haskins struggles on the road at Penn State next week.
Playing against the Nittany Lions in front of a raucous White Out crowd will present Haskins’ toughest test as a starter.
After the game, head coach Urban Meyer said he has already seen signs that Haskins can thrive in tough situations like he’ll face at Penn State.
“We all know about that environment, but he’s answered the bell,” Meyer said. “Against TCU now, I think TCU is a top-10 team, and last year in the rivalry game stepped in there and did it. We’re all in this together.”
Penn State is an atmosphere where the Buckeyes have gotten extremely conservative in the past, and struggled to put up points.
Can Haskins break that trend?
Based on what he’s shown so far this season, it’s clear that everything it used to mean to be a Buckeye quarterback no longer applies.
Dwayne Haskins is doing more than creating a new normal at Ohio State, he’s setting the bar so high that even very good QB’s will appear sub standard. LOL, he still has no running legs…………..but………….WHO CARES!?! Right now there are only 2 front runners for the Heisman, Dwayne and Tua (Alabama). The good Lord willing these 2 collide in the playoffs.
I didn’t care too much for the pressure the OLine let through, and their run blocking was horrible today. I suspect the staff has real reservations about the ability of the left side of the OLine to be able to block anyone. Right now just a decent defensive line is able to completely neutralize half the field. They need to get better before next week, and A LOT better before that last game of the regular season.
Until then. Throw Dwayne Throw.
Malcolm Pridgeon holding again. That’ll be one to watch at PeeEssU
Pretty good for the “politically correct choice”, right James?
The kid has ‘shown’ way better than I anticipated and I think anyone other than a fanboy would have. The road is about to get tough and while I’m still not ‘on the bandwagon’ I don’t doubt that he can do well.
My main concern now that the defense has shored up some are the penalties. Those will cost the Bucks a game unless it’s reined in before it bites them and they now have 1 week left to fix it before it gets ‘real’.