Ohio State spent a month looking for a win and finally played like it on Saturday, November 14, at Ohio Stadium. The No. 20 Buckeyes led Northwestern 28-13 in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, with the ball deep in Wildcats territory and under three minutes to play, according to live reports from Sportradar and Buckeyes Wire (USA Today) — a two-score cushion built on a record-setting afternoon from Jeremiah Smith and a defense that slammed the door when the game tightened in the third quarter.
Both teams came in 6-3 and playing backup quarterbacks, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s live coverage of the game. Freshman Luke Fahey started his third straight game for Ohio State in place of the injured Julian Sayin, the Dispatch reported, while Northwestern was without starter Aidan Chiles for a second straight week and turned to Nicco Marchiol, according to the Dispatch and Buckeyes Wire.
Northwestern scored first. The Columbus Dispatch’s live blog reported that the Wildcats converted three third downs on their opening march before Ohio State’s defense stiffened, sacking Marchiol for a seven-yard loss, and Northwestern settled for a field goal and a 3-0 lead with 4:53 left in the first quarter. Ohio State’s first real drive ended in frustration — Fahey threw a red-zone interception, a costly mistake Heavy reported from the FOX broadcast — but the Buckeyes answered before the quarter turned.
That answer came with history attached. In the final seconds of the first quarter, Smith caught a 22-yard pass from Fahey, and The Columbus Dispatch reported that the catch made Smith the Big Ten’s all-time career receiving yards leader, passing Purdue’s John Standeford’s mark of 3,788 yards and reaching 3,798 yards and counting. NewsForce247 covered the milestone as it happened in Smith’s record-breaking afternoon at the Shoe.
Ohio State took the lead in the second quarter on a short Fahey touchdown pass to Isaiah West, reported by FOX, and Bo Jackson added a two-yard wildcat touchdown run, according to The Columbus Dispatch, sending the Buckeyes to halftime ahead 14-6. It was a lead, but not a comfortable performance — the Dispatch’s halftime account described an offense still searching for rhythm behind its freshman quarterback.
Northwestern made it a game again in the third quarter. Marchiol ran for a two-yard touchdown that cut the margin to 14-13 with 10:01 left in the third, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s live blog and FOX. Ohio State answered with an eight-yard touchdown pass to Devin McCuin, the Dispatch reported, restoring a 21-13 lead by the end of the third quarter — a quarter in which Smith had already piled up nine receptions for 94 yards, according to ClutchPoints’ report of the game.
The fourth quarter belonged to the Buckeyes’ defense and to Smith. Buckeyes Wire reported that Fahey hit Smith on a slant that Smith took ten yards for a touchdown with 6:33 left in the fourth quarter, pushing the lead to 28-13 on a three-play, ten-yard drive set up by the defense. When Northwestern tried to answer, Buckeyes Wire reported at 3:12 p.m. that Ohio State’s defense forced a turnover on downs on a tipped fourth-down pass, and Sportradar’s live feed then showed Ohio State with a first down at the Northwestern 12 with 2:42 left — the Buckeyes salting the game away.
It was not a clean afternoon, and The Columbus Dispatch was blunt about the recurring flaw: its live coverage reported that Ohio State’s punt team struggled again, including a 30-yard Drew Wagner punt return to the Ohio State 44 in the fourth quarter that briefly gave Northwestern life. Special teams had already cost the Buckeyes in their two straight losses, and the Dispatch reported the problem followed them into this game even as the result turned.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: Confirmed, from the live reports credited above: Ohio State led 28-13 late in the fourth quarter with possession deep in Northwestern territory; Smith broke the Big Ten career receiving yards record in the first quarter; both teams played backup quarterbacks; and the scoring sequence ran through West, Jackson, McCuin and Smith for Ohio State and a field goal and Marchiol’s touchdown run for Northwestern. Still waiting on: the official final score and complete final statistics, which the university and the Big Ten publish after the game — this story will be updated in place when those are released, and the score in this story is the live, late-fourth-quarter score reported by two independent live feeds.
The context made the afternoon matter beyond one Saturday. Ohio State had lost two straight — 30-18 to USC and 41-28 to Oregon on November 7, according to reporting on the Buckeyes’ slide — and had not won since October 17. NewsForce247’s game-day preview framed this as a must-stop skid, with the Buckeyes sitting just outside the College Football Playoff picture and needing wins, not style points, to stay in it.
What happens next is the hardest two-week finish in the Big Ten: Ohio State plays at Nebraska on Saturday, November 21, then hosts Michigan in Columbus on Saturday, November 28, according to ClutchPoints’ schedule report. Whatever the official final margin from this Saturday says, the Buckeyes leave the Northwestern game with the losing streak stopped, their freshman quarterback a winner, and their star receiver alone atop the Big Ten record book.
Photo: Lectrician2, CC BY-SA 4.0