Former 3rd-String QB Cardale Jones Is Ohio State's Best Hope Against Alabama
NEW ORLEANS — Cardale Jones will be maimed. Cardale Jones' head will spin. Cardale Jones isn't scrappy enough, and he hasn't seen pressure. Cardale Jones isn't a precise thrower. Cardale Jones won't process the changing looks of a defense and get his team in the right play.
The apocalypse is coming for Cardale Jones. This Thursday. Put it on your calendar.
That's the blather before the battle, at least. But the fact is the Ohio State quarterback, who has started just one game in his college career, is the reason No. 4 Ohio State has a chance against No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
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Two things gave Alabama's defense trouble this season: the deep ball and the read-option. The Ohio State quarterback, a third-string guy not long ago, can throw the deep ball and can high-step through a defense, if it gives him the option.
Ohio State averages 260.8 yards rushing per game, but it will run the ball against Alabama's front six only if Jones completes some deep balls or barrels into the secondary on the read-option. The Crimson Tide are not going to let Ohio State throw those swing passes to spread them out so running back Ezekiel Elliott can run inside.
The Alabama defensive line is too good, which is the hallmark of the SEC and why the D-linemen in the conference are called the Baddest Men on the Planet. The Buckeyes almost seem in awe of the size of the front they're about to see.
"You don't really get much movement off the line of scrimmage," Elliott said Sunday.
"Big, strong guys that can move," said left tackle Taylor Decker. "They aren't just space-fillers. That is going to be a challenge as far as the offensive line is concerned, because it is the best we have faced so far."
So it will be up to Jones. Big on big. He's 6'5", 250 pounds, and 'Bama's behemoths are going to have to wrestle him to the ground.
Jones has to run for 85 yards and throw for 200 yards…or Ohio State is going to lose by two scores, or more.
Jones is the guy who tweeted (via Rant Sports) two years ago, "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS" and now carries a 3.0 grade point average. He is a long way past being that knucklehead.
"It's been huge growing pain, my mature level was not where it needed to be coming into college, which is one of the reasons I went to military school," Jones said. "It's good to look back on it and see where I am now."
He wouldn't give in to the speculation of what a win Thursday night would mean for his career, given that Ohio State has two other quarterbacks with eligibility, J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller, who have been dazzling in their careers. Jones said he doesn't see anything "drastic" happening, where one of the three would leave Ohio State because of the bottleneck.
Jones is 22 years old, which means he is older than Marcus Mariota (21), and he will be eligible for the NFL draft in January. He's been out of high school four years, so Ohio State is not sending some peach-fuzzed kid against Alabama. He's started one game, but he has something of a clue with all his practice reps, not to mention a seasoned quarterbacks coach in Tom Herman to guide him.
Maybe Jones is right when he says about the changing looks of Alabama's defense, "I don't think the different looks will be a problem for me, actually."
If there is a film Ohio State can study, it is not just the Auburn game where the Tide were burned over and over by deep balls in the first half. It is the Tennessee game where Vols quarterback Joshua Dobbs ran 19 times for 75 yards, mostly on zone-read plays.
Alabama prefers to play two-deep and a nickel defense, and it takes a linebacker out of the middle of the field, which means there is no one there to account for the quarterback. Dobbs broke some big runs in Alabama's 34-20 victory by reading the Tide's defense and taking off.
"I think a lot of people got their eyes out of the wrong place, focusing on the pass, and a lot of times when spread out you don't have too many guys in the box like that," said Alabama cornerback Cyrus Jones. "It leaves you vulnerable for those types of runs."
Kirby Smart, the Alabama defensive coordinator, said the Crimson Tide were not ready for Tennessee, which had just switched quarterbacks to the faster Dobbs. Is 'Bama ready for the long strides of Jones?
"He's a mystery. Really don't know exactly what all he can do or what kind of offense they're gonna have come game time, so we're just preparing for everything and anything," said Alabama safety Nick Perry. "You know they're gonna come out there with something different on game day and we just have to be able to adjust and go out there and execute."
All it will take for Alabama to bring a safety a little closer to the line is Jones long-striding out of the backfield after reading the defense and going for 20 yards. You know what happens next? Alabama commits a safety and Jones will show that powerful arm and throw it down the middle of the field to the acrobatic flyer, wide receiver Devin Smith.
The other thing Ohio State can do with Jones against the changing looks of the Alabama defense is to sprint him out and limit how much of the field he has to process. He is not as experienced as Barrett or Miller, but his arm is stronger, and while they keep plays alive with their feet, he can keep plays alive with his brawn.
The inexperience worries Herman, the Ohio State offensive coordinator, because the new guy always feels he has to do more. An attempt to fire a ball into a receiver in the middle of the Alabama defense on third down can mean doom.
"I worried about that in the Big Ten championship game," Herman said. "Yeah, this week as well."
Herman should embrace an ambitious quarterback. He might have a real superstar on his hands for one game.
Just be careful before you go all-in against the Buckeyes.
A year ago, right here in the Sugar Bowl, with Alabama as the opponent, a quarterback made a name for himself. The stakes were much different, but Oklahoma's Trevor Knight had himself a night in the Superdome, and no one expected that to happen with the kind of regular season he had been through.
In 2006, no one expected Urban Meyer's Florida team to beat Ohio State in the national championship game. The Gators thrashed the Buckeyes with a quarterback, Chris Leak, whom many had insisted was ill-fitted for Meyer's offense.
The SEC defensive line that night mauled the Ohio State quarterback, Troy Smith, and the Buckeyes had no backup plan. Jones, the plan C quarterback, better be the remedy Thursday night when the SEC marauders come calling once again.
Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report.
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