Tale of the Tape: Army West Point

Well, the Ohio State pass game was not very good against Oklahoma. The Ohio State pass game has just not been very good this season, save two quarters against an Indiana team that started to wear down in the second half. J.T. Barrett is going to get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things don't go well. Right now he has been getting a double-helping of blame but it is not entirely fair with other issues in the throw game. Passes being dropped and curious play calls are not helping Barrett's cause. Terry McLaurin dropped a deep ball against Oklahoma that could have changed the complexion of the game against OU. Couple that with drops by Johnnie Dixon and Parris Campbell in week one. If all three of those balls were hauled in, would there be this much consternation going on about the Ohio State throw game? There are plenty of questions and no simple answers right now on how to get things back on track.

Army West Point has played in two games this season but only one against a Division I-FBS team (Buffalo) but it was the FCS team (Fordham) that actually threw the ball more on Army. Strangely enough, Army West Point has only given up one passing touchdown through two games. Is that a matter of the competition or a matter of Army West Point being pretty good against the pass? We tend to think that it is the prior and not the latter. That is not taking anything away from the Army West Point roster but we just think that once Army West Point starts to face more prolific passing offenses (not saying that we believe Ohio State is one of them at this point of the year) that the numbers will start to blow up. In Pass Eff. Defense, Army West Point ranks 85th and Fordham did throw for 240 yards but just could not break through and get into the end zone. Jaylon McClinton has the only interception of the year for Army West Point. One thing of note is that Army West Point has a pair of six-foot corners with Elijah Riley and Jalen Sharp. Will the Buckeyes be able to have success with any sort of passing game? We tend to think this is a game where the Buckeyes can get some confidence but the next couple of games are not Ohio State's stiffest challenges in terms of pass defense.

Based on what we saw last week however, how do we give Ohio State the edge in this part of the Tale of the Tape? The Oklahoma game was about as ugly as ugly could get. But facts are fact and emotion means nothing in this piece so here we go. Edge: Ohio State