The Ohio State Twitter universe exploded on Saturday afternoon, as the Buckeyes struggled to defeat Northwestern at home. Sure, social media always has it’s share of offensive coordinators with the exact fix in 140 characters or less.
Yet, Saturday proved to be an even more challenging outcome for the fan base to swallow. Heck, just look at our twitter timeline and our affection for #Warinnfense. It’s the worst hashtag ever, but rather fitting for a performance that will go forgotten in the pantheon of Ohio State football history.
https://twitter.com/The_BBC/status/792491943251050496
If you’re looking for the players to match that heat on the scoville scale, you better grab the Sriracha and pray it’s spicy enough to tickle your fancy. Here’s the outlook from the locker room for Ohio State players following a 24-20 win over Northwestern.
Jalyn Holmes, Ohio State defensive end
On today’s victory vs. Northwestern
“You just have to take it one day and one game at a time. I tell myself that every day. We’re going to enjoy this win, but it’s time to get ready for Nebraska.”
K.J. Hill, Ohio State wide receiver
On recovering from last week’s loss vs. Penn State
“We’ve just been working hard. That’s all we can do is try to get better each and every day in practice.”
Tyquan Lewis, Ohio State defensive line
On the closeness of games vs. Big Ten opponents
“Every week is challenging. That’s why we go to practice and watch film. This is a tough conference and it’s tough to get a win. It requires a lot to get a win.”
J.T. Barrett, Ohio State quarterback
On the involvement of the wide receivers
“We always try to get everyone who’s involved to play, not just Curtis (Samuel) but all of our receivers. We try to make sure they get going and have confidence and I think the way Curtis got going today was good.”
Mike Weber, Ohio State running back
On Ohio State’s offensive play
“Offensively we wanted to come in pound the ball, get in the end zone quick, and hopefully get the ball. That was the goal. Football is football, so we just tried our best and worked hard every quarter.”
Malik Hooker, Ohio State safety
On recent challenges
“We look at it as we have to keep getting better and better throughout every week. At the end of the day [our goal] is that want to be our best at the end of the season.”
Urban Meyer Press Conference Transcript
Opening Statement: Thanks for coming. It’s great to be home and get a W, a hard-fought W against a good team that had a lot of momentum and went — and a lot of respect for Coach Fitzgerald. He’s a good friend of mine for many years, and a good, tough team. And I thought our guys (indiscernible) up when they had to, and the final two drives were big.
The pistol play we ran to K.J. Hill, because they were overplaying the perimeter run game, and then the two third downs in the final drive — J.T. to Noah, they were playing two man, men under coverage, which is a hard-to-execute corner route. And then the Q run, which if you have an athletic quarterback, they play two man, you can make them pay the price. So J.T. was outstanding. And nothing was perfect, but we’re going to enjoy that win and go.
Q. I think most people recognize how good Northwestern’s defense is. But coming off last week and the conversations all week long about your offense, when you walked off the field, how did you feel about 24 points on the board? I know you got the win, but how do you feel about the offense this week?
Meyer: I like the fact we started fast. It seemed like both teams had long drives. We had limited possessions in the first. I want to say just four other the one when we were backed up in the two-minute situations. So very good defense. You can see what they’ve done in the past to teams.
We’re good. We’re not good, we’re going to — we’re a project. We’re in — things are — young players and we’re still working things out. But I’ll tell you what, I promise you I’m going to enjoy this win and so are the players and we’re going to move forward.
Q. Deep crossing route to Curtis Samuel also was a big play and stuff. You guys just seemed to find some things as the game went along. Is that the best way of putting it?
Meyer: Yeah, we found some things early. And they adjusted well. I think they have a very fine coaching staff. We kept motioning the tailback out and creating an empty look for them. And we hurt them.
Then they started dropping defensive linemen underneath some of those patterns. It was a pretty good chess match back and forth. And I just love the way we finished it off. The fact that we had to go score a touchdown and we did. And then we had to hold them to a field goal and we did. And then we had to eat the clock and finish the game on offense which is a sign of a good team and we did.
Q. Were you surprised they went for the field goal instead of going for it. Obviously the holding call hurt them in the situation?
Meyer: That’s why we took it. I think they would have went for it on fourth and five. I was talking to Coach Schiano upstairs, and if you decline it and they go for it, you kick yourself in the teeth and then you take 15 yards. But I have enough confidence in our defense that we forced them to kick that field goal.
Q. Looks like today you guys made a pretty big effort to get Curtis the ball. I was wondering, it seemed like you guys have a lot of success when you hand it directly to him out of the backfield. We asked you about that Monday. It seems like he’s kind of become way more of an H-back than an H-back/running back. I’m wondering why you guys have made it that way, and do you like the way he runs the ball?
Meyer: I love the way he runs the ball. And he had seven catches and seven rushes. What was the question? He’s more of an H-back. Do you know what an H-back is.
Q. Just seems like he’s outside as a receiving option more. And when —
Meyer: No, he’s — that’s what we want — 50/50, seven, I wouldn’t mind eight each. Eight catches, eight handoffs. We’ve got to block a little better for him. He should have more yards than that. No, if you’re wondering what that position is, that’s it. That’s what the hybrid H does — he carries the ball in the backfield and he also catches the ball.
Q. Update on Parris Campbell?
Meyer: Sprained ankle. And it’s not fractured. They took an X-ray already. We’ve got to get him back.
Q. Is the deep passing game a work in progress? That it’s got to be something — what’s happening there or not happening?
Meyer: It’s a combination — and we’re not hitting it. I don’t know if we’re separating. I see the same thing everyone else that watches us. And I just think we’re going to get that figured out.
Q. You’re now heading into November, which is the time of year you want to be (indiscernible). How far away are you from being that team that it needs to be in November?
Meyer: We’re long — we’re just going to go try to find a way to beat Nebraska.
Q. You had few scores in the beginning, then the five punts in a row. Anything you can put your finger on as to why the offense struggled for that long period?
Meyer: I’ll let you know more afterwards. I can’t tell you right now off the top of my head.
Q. Do you expect every week to be a dogfight down the stretch here?
Meyer: Yeah. We’re kind of a dogfight team, I guess. That’s fine. It builds a little character, I guess. Age is your coach, builds character for your players.
Q. I feel like maybe it’s been hard to get a read on this team because we knew you were so young, right, so young coming into this year. Then you beat up Oklahoma and you looked so good, people started looking at you, oh, man, you guys are a great team again. Do you still feel like this is sort of a team in transition a little bit, that you’re still working some things out, that you still are young in a lot of ways?
Meyer: What this team has done so far, I love scheduling. I don’t bother with schedules. Our team went on the road to play in three ridiculous, really tough environments. They grew up. They got tougher. They went and played a team that just beat Michigan State, Indiana and Iowa, two of them on the road and they were in a street fight and they end up winning. Very proud of them. I love these guys. They’re very young. That’s fine. That’s no more excuses about that.
But we’re going to continue to get better. Is this team whatever everybody wants them to be? Probably not yet, but they’re working very hard to get to that point.
Q. When we watched the team, you guys on offense, you have a lot of skilled guys. You have talented guys. And just sometimes looks like maybe they’re not being used to the utmost. We know what the offense is that you want to run when you’re running it best. Are you frustrated? Do you feel like it’s unfair? Are we talking about this team or asking questions about this team in a way that you think isn’t fair because you won a game, you’re a good team you have a good record and that’s enough or is it okay to question it?
Meyer: I think it’s my 15th year as a head coach. What goes on in here — the questions, I’m good. I answer very honestly. Do I think you’re unfair? I would never say that — first of all, I don’t know what you say. I’ve just — I’ve got a team to coach, and we’re getting better. We’re 7-1 with a bunch of new players that I love to death right now and enjoy coaching them.
Q. Your offensive feel right now is pretty good?
Meyer: Pretty good. You had very balanced, ran for 200 and threw for 230. Most places that’s a pretty good day. I understand here it’s a little off a little bit. We’ve got to get that 500 number, I guess. But I’m very happy with it. I’ll enjoy myself tonight.
Northwestern Wildcats
Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern head coach
On his decision to kick a field goal down seven points
“It was a long fourth and goal first. But I had three options, either I go for it and don’t get it, kick a field goal or go for it and score a touchdown. I chose the decision in the middle. We had two chances to get stops on long third downs and we didn’t get it done. That’s on us as a coaching staff.”
Clayton Thorson, Northwestern quarterback
On the close loss to Ohio State
“Well, we would have liked to win obviously but there are no moral victories. We felt like we should have won but we didn’t make one play here and there. We want to win though – there are no moral victories and no one cares how close you come to winning.”
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