INDIANAPOLIS — With Alabama taking care of business in SEC as they knocked off Georgia and Oklahoma being impressive in their win against Texas. The Ohio State Buckeyes has some serious explaining to do to the committee to convince them that they were worthy of getting into the Playoff. Well playas…it was only one way to make that statement and that was to beat the brakes off of Northwestern. When the smoke cleared they had done just that with a final score of 45-24. However, it wasn’t as easy as the final score indicated.
Ohio State jumps right out of the ride and goes to work on Northwestern. They didn’t even wait for them to tie their shoes and pull their socks up. By the time Big Momma bit into her hot dog they were up 7-0 as Dwayne Haskins hits Terry McLaurin on a 16-yard touchdown pass after marching 10 plays for 77 yards. I know the Buckeyes watched the Sooners get loose on Texas earlier in the day and saw Bama take care of Georgia just before their game started. So it was a Po Pimp “Do or Die” situation for them to beat the brakes off of Northwestern for cosmetic purposes.
The only problem with that theory was that the boyz from Evanston didn’t get the memo. After a couple of three and outs Northwestern wasn’t about to give up their sneakers up that easily as John Moten IV went 77 yards down the sideline to knot it up 7-7 with 6:27 left in the first quarter.
On the ensuing drive Haskins dials into the Northwestern defense and methodically moves the ball down the field on an 8 play drive for 65 yards as JK Dobbins scores from 2-yards out to go up 14-7 with 3:29 left in the first quarter. Midway through the second quarter JK Dobbins became the only Ohio State player to ever rush for 1,000 yards as a freshman and a sophomore.
Northwestern holds it’s own for several series before allowing the Buckeyes to connect on a 42-yard Blake Haubeil field goal as Ohio State extended the lead to 17-7.
Haskins and McLaurin continued to connect on big plays. Just before the half they connected on a 42-yard touchdown pass to go up 24-7 at the break. That’s the cosmetic butt whooping that I was talking about earlier. They needed to dive all over Northwestern to have any possibility to leap frog the Oklahoma Sooners to get into the Playoff and boy were they turning up the music.
However, Northwestern was not trying to go out like some suckers as they came out of the break with the ball. They marched it right down the field 5 plays for 75 yards to pop it in on an 18-yard rushing touchdown by quarterback Clayton Thorson to trim the Buckeye lead to 24-14.
Whatever Pat Fitzgerald told the Wildcats at the half worked because they came out, grabbed momentum by the hand and danced with her right back down the field on their ensuing possession as Thorson hits Cameron Green for the 2-yard pass to Lewis to close the gap 24-21. It was no beauty contest for the Buckeyes because the Wildcats wouldn’t let them put the makeup on just yet. Northwestern came to play.
It was a battle royale with both teams fighting for every little thing they could get during the course of the third quarter. With 1:21 left in the third Haskins hits Chris Olave on a 29-yard touchdown pass to extend their lead to 31-21. At that moment Momentum jumped back in the ride with the Buckeyes.
The Wildcats got jealous and came storming back to fight for her love as they connected on a 21-yard Charlie Kuhbander field goal to cut it to an 8-point lead, 31-24 Ohio State with 10:34 left to play. That’s the closet they got because all of a sudden Ohio State exploded and by the time the smoke cleared it was 45-24 and Dwayne Haskins finished going 34 of 41 for 499 yards and 5 touchdowns with one dull pick.
Was it enough for then to get into the Playoff? We’ll find out on Sunday when the committee works it’s magic. However, either way they vote the Big Ten Championship was a blast and the Ohio State Buckeyes are back to back Champs!! Stop me when I start lyin’!