It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t easy. It was a win. After a loss at Penn State last week, a win should have been enough but Ohio State’s 24-20 win against Northwestern at Ohio Stadium doesn’t feel like it was.
Ohio State’s defense looked shaky from the start. Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson threw 2 passes on the first two plays and picked up 30 yards. The defense held on the next three plays and forced a Northwestern punt.
The most anticipated offensive possession by Ohio State since the first drive of the season of the season ensued. Every Ohio State fan was anxious to see what would happen after witnessing the floundering of the past few weeks. Joe Thomas Barrett orchestrated a 9-play, 94 yard drive to score the game’s first touchdown only 4 minutes and 26 seconds into the game.
It looked like the Buckeyes were going to roll after picking off Thorson and getting the ball at their own 49. Unfortunately, the offense stalled and was held to a 35 yard field goal from Tyler Durbin. 10-0 Buckeyes with only 8:34 off the clock.
Thorson and Northwestern went to work at picking apart the Ohio State defense and went 75 yards to bring the game to within 3 at 10-7. Ohio State answered on the next drive and took back a ten point lead. The drive was a nice mix offensively, capped by a 23 yard run for Mike Weber’s 2nd TD of the game.
Northwestern got the ball back and proceeded again to find holes in the Ohio State defense and, bolstered by a 35 yard scramble by Thorson, drove down to the Ohio State 9 yard line. Northwestern continued their season-long red zone woes and ended up with a field goal to cut the Ohio State lead to 7.
With 1:43 left in the 1st half, Ohio State got the ball with hopes of getting a score before the break. Unfortunately, they did what they have done best the last few weeks and went 3 and out. What followed the Buckeyes’ punt was a very B1G exchange of timeouts and punts before Northwestern gave in and let the clock expire.
Ohio State started the 2nd half of the game with a couple of a couple of single digit play drives before punting. Northwestern was able to move the ball down the field on Thorson’s arm and draw even with the Buckeyes at the 3:49 mark of the 3rd quarter.
Immediately, Ohio State fans across the country reached for the antacids, scotch, bourbon, or beer of their choice.
It looked like absolutely nothing that has plagued this team for weeks had even been discussed, let alone fixed. With their next possession, Ohio State looked like they were going to march the 75 yards to take the lead. A couple of nice passes from J.T. moved the Buckeyes down the field until the drive absolutely fell apart and the Buckeyes punted from the Northwestern 36. The punt was beautiful but the coverage was not. The ball broke the plane of the goal line and Northwestern got the ball on the 20 with a chance to take the lead.
The Silver Bullets forced Northwestern to go 3 and out and the Buckeyes got the ball back at their own 37 with 12:12 to go in the game. The offense was finally able to put together a drive similar to their first of the game. A J.T. 34 yard pass to K.J. Hill was the key play before Curtis Samuel capped the drive with a 3 yard TD run. Buckeyes had the lead back at 24-17.
Northwestern got the ball back at their own 25 yard line and immediately went back to picking apart the Ohio State secondary as they drove down to the Ohio State 3 yard line with 4:28 left in the game. The Buckeyes’ secondary was able to lock down the Northwestern receivers and the defensive line was able to get a good push. The Wildcats got another shot at 3rd down after a holding penalty moved them back to the 15 but were unable to score on 3rd and goal. On 4th down, with 3:31 left and down 7, Pat Fitzgerald did exactly what Pat Fitzgerald would do in that situation and kicked a field goal to cut the Ohio State lead to 4-yard line.
Ohio State got the ball back at their own 25 with 3:31 of clock to kill to win the game.
Northwestern had all 3 timeouts left in case Ohio State just ran the ball up the middle as everyone expected them to do. So, of course, the play-call was to throw the ball towards the sideline on first down.
More passing calls followed and fortunately, Ohio State’s offense was able to move the ball down the field and force Northwestern to exhaust all their timeouts before J.T.went to the victory formation twice to end the game.
Ohio State has problems. I have opinions on what those are.
But you’re not here for that.
Ohio State’s chance at the CFB Playoff isn’t dead, but it could be if the issues on both sides of the ball are not addressed before next week.
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