Since nitpick season seems to be in full swing here at Eleven Warriors, I figured I'd do my part and nitpick what has undoubtedly been the most excellent and least problematic asset in the Buckeyes' arsenal: the QB play of Justin Fields. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert when it comes to QB play (or anything, really), but even someone like me can see that Justin Fields is a special player. 94.5% of his passes this season have been catchable--that's an absolutely absurd stat. Fields also has as many touchdowns as he has incompletions, and though he hasn't needed to use his legs much, we all know he can burn a team with his feet. 

But if Fields has one glaring weakness in his game, it's that for whatever reason he never throws the ball away, even when doing so would be advantageous (not to mention the safe thing to do for himself and the team). This was a problem last year, and the number of sacks Fields took was just about the only bad stat line the 2019 Buckeyes had to their name. The problem seems to have only gotten worse for Fields. 

Every time that Fields has been under pressure, he seems to hold onto the ball to try to make something happen. There were 3-4 occasions on Saturday when Rutgers got after him, and while it was marvelous to see him utterly toro a charging defender, it was equally frustrating to see him hold the ball and take a sack rather than even considering chucking it away. 

I have two theories for why he does this: (1) He's chasing history and is very mindful of his incompletion numbers, and is thus fixated on never throwing incompletions, even when doing so is strategically sound, (2) Fields is (understandably) overconfident in his ability to make an incredible play happen even when it seems impossible, even when his receivers are jammed and his pocket is collapsing and he has no room to scamper. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing this is a serious problem (yet) because so far it hasn't really made a difference. I do hope though that when Ohio State is in a dogfight, Fields starts doing the smart thing and is willing to throw the ball away rather than take a sack that can kill a drive and potentially get him injured.