Justin Fields just answered a key early question in his first year as a starter

The last time that Justin Fields took a snap in a non-home game, it was the most embarrassing moment of his college career.

Ironically enough, the 4th-and-11 fake punt debacle in the 2018 SEC Championship might’ve been at the root of Fields’ decision to leave Georgia for Ryan Day’s pass-happy system at Ohio State. In his lone year in Athens, Fields attempted just one pass in a true road atmosphere.

(It went for 8 yards on 3rd and 3 … in a game that Georgia was up 41-17 in the fourth quarter.)

So despite Fields’ insane start — his 9 total touchdowns and 561 total yards in 2 games matched Dwayne Haskins’ first 2 starts last year — the Buckeye quarterback still had to answer a key question in his first career road start.

It’s one thing to light up a pair of Group of 5 schools with 105,000 Ohio State fans in the house. It’s another to go to a B1G road game and drop the hammer.

Fields already did the former. On Saturday, he did the latter.

And sure, it was only Indiana. In terms of “hostile road venues,” let’s be honest. It ain’t Penn State.

But in unfamiliar territory, Fields still had to settle into a game, not give an upset-hungry crowd any reason to come alive and do one other big thing. Roll. His 210 total yards and 4 touchdowns was plenty for the Buckeyes.

After some early overthrows, Fields made that look easy. He certainly made it look easier than Cardale Jones did in 2015 when OSU needed Ezekiel Elliott to go off to hold onto a down-to-the-wire game in Bloomington. Fields made it look easier than J.T. Barrett did in the 2017 opener when the Buckeyes trailed in the third quarter and they needed J.K. Dobbins to go off to pull away late.

Dobbins went off again on Saturday. His 207 yards from scrimmage and 2 scores prevented OSU from avoiding a slow start.

It also allowed Fields to see favorable situations. Running lanes were open, receivers were open downfield and a gassed Indiana defense couldn’t get off the field or get in the face of the Ohio State quarterback. As a result, Fields could step into downfield throws and flash the 5-star arm that was kept on ice last year at Georgia.

Justin Fields ➡️ Chris Olave@OhioStateFB takes the 14-3 lead thanks to this 37-yard TD 🙌 pic.twitter.com/wxZrrn6Kke

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 14, 2019

By the way, if Dobbins and Fields aren’t best friends, Fields and Olave are probably at that level already.

It was easy to forget watching Fields on Saturday that he’s still someone experiencing a lot of “firsts.” As Joel Klatt pointed out on the FOX broadcast, Fields still hasn’t attempted a pass in a one-score game in the second half.

With how well he played in the first half, there was no chance Fields was going to check that box on Saturday. The Ohio State defense had a lot to do with that, too. That combination prompted Gus Johnson to say on the broadcast that “the way Ohio State is playing, I can’t see anyone in the B1G beating this team.”

It was hard to disagree with that Saturday. It was also hard to disagree with the notion that Fields will be in the Heisman conversation until further notice.

That’s the strange thing about Fields. He was a preseason Heisman candidate because of the high-profile start to his career (former 5-star recruit, played well in limited packages at Georgia, starting in Ryan Day’s offense, etc.). The opposition to that was, “can we wait for this kid to start a game before we send him to New York?”

That’s logical, but that’s not always the way college football works. And in 2019, that’s not the way the quarterback position works. Redshirt freshmen like Jameis Winston and Johnny Manziel showed us why first-time starters can burst onto the scene. Freshmen like Trevor Lawrence, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa and Jake Fromm showed us why true freshmen can shine on the big stage.

All of that is in front of Fields. Or rather, all of that is expected of Fields. Well, he’s not a true freshman anymore so I guess that’s technically behind him, but you get the picture.

Saturday was crucial because as easy as it is to jump ahead to those things, we still needed to make sure that Fields was going to be able to handle doing something we take for granted at places like Ohio State — dominate a team you’re supposed to dominate in unfamiliar territory.

Plenty of people will wait to buy into Fields until they see him win on the road against a B1G contender. Remember last year, that’s the treatment Haskins got. It wasn’t until that comeback at Penn State that Haskins started to get that respect nationally.

Maybe for Fields that’ll be in 2 weeks when Ohio State travels to Nebraska. Fields will have a chance to go in front of 90,000 people and take the air out of another stadium. Time will tell if he can make that happen.

In the meantime, Ohio State fans should sleep well knowing that Fields passed a key early test.

With flying colors.