Cats can't finish the job against Ohio State

Northwestern knew it would have to play close to a perfect game to beat No. 4 Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday.

The Wildcats played a near flawless first half and held the lead until late in the third quarter. But three-second half turnovers and more than 300 rushing yards from Trey Sermon proved to be their doom in a 22-10 loss to the Buckeyes.

Northwestern accomplished many of the objectives they thought would lead to a victory over 18.5-point favorite Ohio State, which beat them 52-3 last season.

The defense held a Buckeyes’ offense averaging 46.6 points per game to just 6 points at the half and 13 after three quarters. They harassed Justin Fields all day, sacking him three times as he completed less than 50% of his passes for just 114 yards and two interceptions – only the second multi-interception game of his career.

Offensively, Peyton Ramsey played a brilliant first half as Northwestern led 10-6 at the break. The Wildcats, a second-half team all season, managed to get into the fourth quarter trailing by just three.

But Ohio State outscored them 9-0 in the final period to pull away and post the win behind Sermon.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” said a disappointed head coach Pat Fitzgerald after the game. “We had an opportunity and just didn’t get it done.”

Ramsey finished 24-of-47 passing for 224 yards and had several pinpoint throws on third downs to help the Wildcats move the chains. But he also had two interceptions and a fumble in the second half. Ramaud Chiakhiao-Bowman was Ramsey’s favorite target, catching eight passes for 103 yards, both career highs.

Northwestern ran the ball better than expected, amassing 105 total yards, though just 28 of them after halftime. Cam Porter, often operating as a Wildcat quarterback, led the way with 16 carries for 61 yards and the lone Northwestern touchdown in the first quarter.

While everyone wrote stories this week about containing Fields, the Big Ten’s offensive player of the year, it was Sermon, the grad transfer from Oklahoma, who was the difference for the Buckeyes. He ran 22 times for 271 yards and two touchdowns in the second half alone on his way to an all-time Ohio State single-game rushing record of 331 yards.

“He’s a heck of a player,” said Fitzgerald, noting that he ran through a lot of tackles to gouge the belly of the defense. But he also pointed out a lot of misfit gaps and “guys out of position,” uncharacteristic mistakes for a defense that was No. 6 in the nation against the run all season.

As safety Brandon Joseph said about Sermon’s day, “That’s something that’s not supposed to happen around here.”

Northwestern taking the fight to the Buckeyes wasn’t supposed to happen, either. The Wildcats had their best chances to grab hold of the game in the third quarter. Holding a slim 10-6 lead, the Wildcats had three possessions that failed to extend their lead.

That stretch would come back to haunt them.

On the first drive of the second half, the Wildcats converted a pair of third downs and got down to the Ohio State 9-yard line before Ramsey made his first mistake of the game, underthrowing a fade to John Raine that Justin Hilliard intercepted in the end zone.

The Wildcats got the ball right back after Cameron Mitchell picked off a Fields sideline throw to set NU up near midfield. But the Cats lost nine yards in three plays, including an 8-yard sack, and were forced to punt.

Finally, after Ohio State missed a field goal to blow its own red-zone opportunity, the Wildcats got into Ohio State territory, aided by 30 yards on roughing-the-passer and horse-collar calls against the Buckeyes. Again, the drive stalled, this time at the OSU 28, and Charlie Kuhbander missed a 46-yard field-goal attempt.

From there, the Buckeyes cranked up Sermon and the ground game and put the game away. The Buckeyes scored 16 points on their next four possessions, on Sermon’s two touchdowns and a Blake Haubeil field goal.

The Buckeyes’ first touchdown drive was a seven-play, all-run drive in the third. The second was the dagger – a nine-play drive in which Sermon carried it seven times for 64 yards, including the 3-yard TD that turned out to be the last points of the game.

Northwestern, meanwhile, turned the ball over on consecutive possessions bridging the third and fourth quarters, both in NU territory. The first was a Ramsey interception by Josh Proctor at the NU 41, the other a Ramsey fumble that was recovered by Pete Werner at the NU 35.

Still, after Northwestern’s defense again held Ohio State to a field goal, it was just a one-score game at 16-10, with 12:07 remaining. But another NU punt and the second Sermon touchdown put the game out of reach.

The second half was markedly different than the first, when Northwestern outplayed the Buckeyes to seize the lead.

The Buckeyes opened the scoring on a Haubeil 41-yard field goal, but only after a Fields touchdown was called back because of a holding penalty.

The Wildcats then answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive that put the Ohio State defense on its heels and gave the momentum to the underdogs for the rest of the half. Moving Porter in and out of the Wildcat quarterback position throughout the possession, the Wildcats racked up 63 of those yards on five runs, including a 34-yarder from Ramsey and a 9-yard TD scamper by Porter.

The Wildcats added to their lead in the second quarter, going 65 yards in 14 plays until the drive bogged down and Kuhbander hit a 47-yard field goal to make it 10-3.

Northwestern’s defense, meanwhile, managed to make Fields look like a mere mortal. Defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz use a combination of blitzes and disguised coverages – sometimes blitzing on first down and dropping eight into coverage on third – to make the Big Ten offensive player of the year uncomfortable. They were at the best in the red zone, where the Buckeyes had just three points after three trips in the first half.

Haubeil hit another field goal for the Buckeyes to close the gap to 10-6, and Ohio State was poised to score again near the end of the half, driving inside the Northwestern 10. But on third-and-goal from the 8-yard line, Joseph intercepted fields on the end zone with a spectacular, leaping one-hand grab of a pass intended for Garrett Wilson. The play preserved the Wildcats’ lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

Fitzgerald said after the game that he was very proud of his team, but lamented the self-inflicted mistakes that discounted an otherwise stellar performance.

“We didn't come down here to play hard,” said Fitzgerald, who has now lost both the 2018 and 2020 Big Ten title games to these same Buckeyes. “We came down here to win.”