CHICAGO-Northwestern was feeling good late in the second quarter against No. 2 Ohio State.

Yes, Buckeye fans outnumbered Wildcat fans about 10-to-1 in the stands at Wrigley Field, but the Wildcats were holding their own on the field in this Homecoming-away-from-home matchup with an Ohio State program that had beaten them 34 times in their last 35 meetings.

The game was tied at 7 with just over four minutes left in the half and, to that point, everything had gone according to script for Northwestern, especially offensively. They had two drives of more than 10 plays and had eaten up 12:26 of game clock. Ohio State had been limited to just two possessions.

Then, disaster struck with less than five minutes left in the second quarter. In punt formation deep in their own end, long snapper Will Halkyard sailed his snap over Hunter Renner’s head. Renner eventually picked it up inside his own 5 and tried to kick the ball, but it was blocked and went out of bounds at the NU 1.

Quinshon Judkins scored on the next play to make it 14-7 with 4:19 left in the first half, and all the air that Northwestern had worked so hard to put in their balloon rushed out.

Ohio State (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten) then started doing Ohio State things and controlled the rest of the game. By halftime, it was 21-7. By the end of the third it was 31-7 and fans started making plans to meet up post-game at the bars and restaurants around Wrigleyville.

A team like Northwestern (4-6, 2-5), a 28.5-point underdog, had to be just about perfect to have a shot at knocking off the Buckeyes. If they took away two self-inflicted wounds – that bad snap and an earlier fumble by quarterback Jack Lausch in the Ohio State red zone – they could have easily held the lead going into halftime.

Football, unfortunately, doesn’t work like that.

Lausch, who had completed seven of his first 10 throws, cooled off after the heady first couple drives. He still wound up 21-of-35 for 201 yards passing, with a rushing touchdown and a fumble. The Wildcat offense that had churned out 151 yards on their first two drives wound up with just 100 total yards the rest of the way.

For Ohio State, it was just another day at the office as they prepare to face No. 5 Indiana next week in a de-facto Big Ten title semifinal. Howard was not sensational, but he was deadly efficient, finishing 15-of-24 for 247 yards and two touchdowns. The Buckeyes’ running back tandem of Judkins and Treveyon Henderson combined for 150 yards rushing.

Still, the Wildcats made things interesting early. Northwestern’s beleaguered offense, ranked 131st in the nation coming into the game, used their bye week wisely according to what they showed on their first two drives against Ohio State’s No. 1 defense. Both drives reached the Ohio State red zone, with the second one capped by a touchdown.

No one looked sharper than Lausch. On the first drive, he had a 20-yard strike to Bryce Kirtz and a 15-yarder to Lang. The drive ended in disappointment when Lausch committed a cardinal sin by fumbling the ball away at the Ohio State 16-yard line on a run. But the Wildcats ate almost 7 minutes while the Buckeyes’ high-powered offense idled on the sideline.

Then the Wildcats’ defense caught a break on the ensuing drive. They got Ohio State into a third-and-9 only to give up a 37-yard pass from Howard to Jeremiah Smith for what was called a touchdown on the field. But officials ruled it an incomplete pass on review, so Ohio State had to punt the ball away.

What did Northwestern do on their second drive? They went 92 yards in 13 plays for a touchdown. Lausch had a back-shoulder throw to Kirtz and a 23-yarder to AJ Henning. Then he ran in a quarterback draw for an 8-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead that raised eyebrows on televisions and online scoreboards across the country.

But Ohio State found their groove offensively, with Howard completing five of six throws, including a 20-yarder to Emeka Egbuka. Judkins punched it in for a touchdown on a 1-yard run to tie the game at 7-7 with 6:59 left in the second quarter. It was the first of five straight scoring drives and 31 unanswered points.

It was on the ensuing possession when Halkyard’s snap sailed over Renner’s head. It was actually the second straight bad snap; on the play before, on third down, center Jackson Carsello delivered a bad snap that Lausch fumbled for a loss.

After a Northwestern three-and-out, Ohio State got the ball back. Howard threw a 25-yard touchdown pass down the sideline to Carnell Tate, and, just like that, the score was 21-7 Buckeyes with 47 seconds left in the first half. That was the backbreaker, but it was by no means the last straw.

On the first drive of the second half, Howard hit Smith on a short cross he caught at the Ohio State 29, and he rumbled down the sideline all the way to the Northwestern 17. The 68-yard play set up another touchdown pass to Tate to make it 28-7.

Northwestern mounted another drive that reached the Ohio State red zone, but on a fourth-and-10 at the Ohio State 21, Lausch threw a little behind an open Kirtz and the Wildcats gave it up on downs.

Ohio State added a field goal in the third and that was that.

The Wildcats, who have lost three of their last four games, travel to Michigan next weekend, and then come back to Wrigley for a date with rival Illinois on Nov. 30. A win in one of those games could be enough for them to get a bowl bid by virtue of Academic Progress Rate.