Northwestern is no match in rematch with Ohio State

EVANSTON-Last December, Northwestern and Ohio State met in the Big Ten championship game.

What a difference nine months makes.

The No. 4 Buckeyes looked well on their way to Indianapolis again after destroying Northwestern 52-3 on Friday night at Ryan Field to hand the Wildcats their worst loss since a 58-7 defeat to – you guessed it, Ohio State – in 2007. Ohio State outclassed Northwestern in all three phases in a tour-de-force performance that cemented their place among College Football Playoff contenders.

The hapless Wildcats, meanwhile, look like they will have to fight to make it out of the Big Ten West basement. They helped the heavily favored Buckeyes with a horrendous offensive performance and several blunders that showed why they are now 1-5, the worst mark in head coach Pat Fitzgerald’s 14-year tenure in Evanston.

Here are five takeaways from an ugly night in Evanston that left the Wildcats with an 0-4 Big Ten mark.

The Cats were far from perfect: Northwestern knew it had to play flawless football for 60 minutes to even hang around with the Buckeyes, who were favored by 28.5 points. Instead, they turned in their worst performance of the year, making several of what Fitzgerald likes to call “self-inflicted wounds.”

The Wildcats committed mistake after mistake to set the table for a rout. There were dropped passes by wide receivers, a botched snap on a punt, blown fits by the defense and several costly penalties.

It began on the opening kickoff, when the Wildcats were called for illegal procedure when a player lined up more than five yards behind the kicking line to get a running start. The normally sure-handed Riley Lees had a couple drops in the first half, including one that caused him to pound the turf in frustration.

There were several egregious mistakes by Northwestern’s punt team, too. Long snapper Tyler Gillikin dribbled a snap in front of the upbacks that Daniel Kubiuk had to fall on to give OSU the ball at the NU 15-yard line in the second quarter – though Fitzgerald blamed that on a cadence call, and not Gillikin. There were also two blatant penalties in punt coverage: one on Joe Bergin for plowing a Buckeye who called for a fair catch and another an obvious block in the back by Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman right in front of an official.

The one was over early in the second quarter: Northwestern’s defense kept the Wildcats in the game for a little while, but the Buckeyes put this one out of reach in the second quarter.

The first quarter ended with Northwestern trailing 7-3. The Buckeyes quickly added a touchdown to make it 14-3 early in the second. On NU’s ensuing drive, a high pass slipped through Lees fingers on the sideline on third down; instead of a first down, the Wildcats were forced to punt.

The Buckeyes made them pay immediately: on first down, J.K. Dobbins popped through the middle and raced 68 yards down to the NU 5-yard line. One play later, Dobbins took it in from the five and it was 21-3. Game over. There was no way this Northwestern offense would ever catch the Buckeyes. OSU wound up outscoring the Wildcats 24-0 in that fateful second period.

Northwestern’s offense had no pulse: The offense – or lack thereof – has been the thorn in the Wildcats’ side all season. Tonight, it was more like a machete.

The Wildcats’ biggest play of the first half was a 15-yard hands-to-the-face penalty against the Buckeyes. For the game, NU failed to crack 200 yards, generating just 199 on 68 plays, for an average of 2.8 yards per play.

The passing game was almost non-existent, managing just 42 yards on 21 passes (2 yards per attempt) and producing two interceptions. Aidan Smith got the start at quarterback and was ineffective, finishing 6 of 20 for just 42 yards, with one interception – terrible numbers, even if his receivers didn’t do him any favors. Andrew Marty, and not Hunter Johnson, came in late in the fourth quarter in relief of Smith and threw an interception on his only pass. The running game was considerably better, producing 157 total yards, led by Bowser’s 65.

The Wildcats’ field-goal drive in the first quarter was the only bright spot, when they found success running Bowser up the middle behind a wham block by superback Trent Goens. Bowser had four runs for 29 yards to set up Charlie Kuhbander’s 33-yard field goal.

Unfortunately, the rest of Northwestern’s drives resulted in eight punts, two interceptions and two turnovers on downs.

Justin Fields is the real deal: Ohio State’s transfer quarterback from Georgia showed why he is in the mix for the Big Ten Silver Football, as well as the Heisman Trophy. The sophomore was 18 of 23 for 194 yards and four touchdowns, with no interceptions, before being pulled in the fourth quarter with the Buckeyes up 38-3.

Fields opened the game impressively, going 3-for-5 for 47 yards and a TD passing on the Buckeyes’ game-opening touchdown drive. He added one run for 10 yards to account for 57 of Ohio State’s 70 total yards.

He had time to throw throughout the game and threw the ball on the money. On his most impressive play, he weaved his way through two Northwestern rushers in the backfield and then threw a dart on the run to K.J. Hill on the sideline for 20 yards on last play of first quarter.

Fields’ play was a stark contrast to Northwestern’s former five-star Clemson transfer, Johnson, who was healthy but was beaten out by Smith for the starting job.

Ohio State showed no mercy: Not only are the Buckeyes a powerhouse in all phases, but they have a mean streak, as well. They kept the hammer down against Northwestern and showed their ruthlessness at the end of the first half.

Leading 28-3 with 1:50 left in the half, the Buckeyes went deep on a play-action pass on their first play m. Field didn’t connect and they were eventually forced to punt, but they pinned Northwestern at its own 1-yard line with less than a minute left.

What did the big, bad Buckeyes do? They called three straight timeouts to force Northwestern to punt from the shadow of its own goal post. After getting the ball back, they kicked a 55-yard field goal on the last play of the half to make the score 31-3.

For Ohio State, this was a business trip, and they took care of business.