Urban Meyer on Ohio State’s win vs Navy: ‘We won and it’s in the rear-view mirror’
It wasn’t pretty for Ohio State in their victory over Navy. But redshirt sophomore quarterback did a whole lot of growing up in four quarters.
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“Better at the end than when it started,” J.T. Barrett said about his performance.
It was a coming of age tale in fast forward. Barrett threw an interception in the first half, followed by two touchdowns in the second half. Helped by a defensive touchdown, OSU defeated Navy, 34-17. Barrett wasn’t the only player who was inexperienced on the field. Urban Meyer commented on the general inexperience of his team from quarterback to offensive line to the defensive backfield.
“Every new player is going to have a certain amount of mistakes,” Meyer said.
OSU seemed to lose the most ground in the trenches, where Navy appeared simply to be trying harder than OSU. The offensive line struggled considerably in the first half, and they were partially responsible for Barrett’s inability to settle in early in the game. But the defensive line let up 370 yards rushing to Navy’s triple option attack.
“Navy’s not a pushover team, and they run the triple-option to perfection,” Buckeyes defensive tackle Michael Bennett said. “It was frustrating, but good to see guys fight through it.”
The tipping point came when Barrett hit Devin Smith for an 80-yard touchdown. There wasn’t a lot Meyer was proud of, however.
Most important, they got the win — and it’s over with.
“The best thing about this game was that we won and it’s in the rear-view mirror,” Meyer said.