Fans should have known it was not going to be Northwestern’s day after Ohio State University’s opening drive. After stopping Chris Wells for a loss of ten to set up a third and sixteen, Buckeyes receiver Brian Hartline somehow got past the NU secondary. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor found the wide open Hartline for a 44 yard gain, Wells punched the ball in for a touchdown on the next play and OSU had an early 7–0 lead.
The rest of the day was equally frustrating. After the Wells touchdown, Northwestern started a drive of its own and tied up the game on a Mike Kafka rushing touchdown. The two teams played themselves to a standstill for the rest of the quarter and as the clock wound down NU fans gave their team a standing ovation.
But things would quickly unravel. On a first and fifteen from the Ohio State 45 early in the second quarter, Pryor handed off to Chris Wells, who broke several tackles en route to a 55 yard touchdown. Wells’s knees were very close to touching the ground but he was somehow able to maintain his balance. The score gave the Buckeyes the lead for good at 14–7.
The Buckeyes kept up the pressure on the ensuing drive. Receiver Erik Peterman fumbled the ball near the NU sideline. The Buckeyes recovered and converted the turnover into a field goal.
As the game wore on the OSU offense began to dominate the game and scored points after long sustained drives that ate away at the clock. To close the half, Pryor led the Bucks on a 80 yard touchdown drive that took more than five minutes. The scoring play came on a fifteen yard pass to Brian Robiskie. OSU converted three separate third downs on the drive, including a twenty one yard run by Pryor and a third and sixteen. Instead of only being down ten points, the ‘Cats entered the locker room down by seventeen and likely demoralized as a result of their inability to stop the OSU quarterback on third and long.
In the second half, Northwestern only seriously threatened once. The ‘Cats did make a field goal to open the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter had a chance to close the OSU lead to just a touchdown. Several Mike Kafka passes — who finished 18/27 for 177 yards — got NU all the way down to the Buckeyes’s twelve yard line. Unfortunately, he was then sacked twice and Fitzgerald was forced to send out the punting unit.
The real gap in the two teams was in the running game. While Chris Wells rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns, Northwestern running back Stephen Simmons, filling in for the injured Omar Conteh, managed just 32 yards on thirteen carries. Unlike last week, Kafka was unable to overcome for the running back’s shortcomings. On a staggering 29 rushing attempts Kafka managed just 83 yards. More times than not, Kafka found himself surrounded by white jerseys even before he reached the line of scrimmage.
Next week the ‘Cats, now 7-3 and 3-3 in Big Ten play, will travel to Ann Arbor to face off against the Michigan Wolverines. Ohio State, 8-2 and 5-1, will return to Illinois and face off against the Illini.