Ohio State survives scare from Northern Illinois, 20-13
No. 1 Ohio State managed to pull out a win at home against Northern Illinois on Saturday, but it wasn’t pretty.
The Buckeyes overcame five turnovers and the benching of quarterback Cardale Jones to win 20-13 behind a tremendous defensive effort. Jones was pulled after his two early interceptions allowed the Huskies to jump out to a 10-3 lead.
J.T. Barrett came in and was able to right the ship somewhat. His 23-yard touchdown pass to Michael Thomas tied things up heading into halftime, but it was Darron Lee’s third quarter pick-six that proved to be the game-winning score for the Buckeyes.
Lee’s clutch play came late in the third with the Buckeyes leading 13-10 on the play that followed a J.T. Barrett interception. The Huskies dialed up a wide receiver screen and Lee fought through traffic, stepped in front of a Drew Hare pass and took it 41 yards to the house.
Lee’s big play increased OSU’s lead to 20-10, but NIU still had plenty of chances to pull off the upset.
The Ohio State defense stymied the Huskies inside the 10 midway through the fourth, forcing a 31-yard Christian Hagen field goal to cut OSU’s lead to 20-13 with 7:46 to play.
As the NIU defense continued to stuff Barrett, running back Ezekiel Elliott (23 carries, 108 yards) and the rest of the Buckeye offense, the Huskies had three opportunities to tie the ballgame – but each attempt failed as they accumulated -6 yards on those three possessions combined. Ohio State was subsequently able to take a knee and win the game.
A performance like this from Ohio State raises quite a few questions.
First of all, the quarterback position may not be quite the embarrassment of riches the nation thought it was coming into the season. Jones played pretty well in the season opener against Virginia Tech, but has looked lost since. Meyer made the right move by pulling Jones (who finished 4-for-9 for 36 yards and 2 INTs), but aside from his touchdown pass, Barrett (11-for-19, 97 yards) didn’t look a whole lot better.
Ohio State has another MAC opponent, Western Michigan, to get its quarterback situation worked out before the Big Ten schedule begins at Indiana on Oct. 3. And despite the weekly chatter about the Buckeyes’ perceived weak schedule, losses will come if they play like this offensively against Big Ten opponents.
While the Ohio State offense was a disaster, the Buckeyes’ array of defensive playmakers came up big. In addition to Lee and his pick-six, the entire front seven was consistently in the backfield and wreaked havoc on NIU’s offensive line, limiting the Huskies to only 190 yards of offense.
If the offense can emerge from its perplexing slump, Ohio State should be fine in the long run – especially with its defense playing at such a high level.
For more Ohio State news, visit BuckeyeGrove.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
