COLUMBUS — Ohio State finds itself in a precarious position Friday. Or does it?
The past two seasons have been derailed by an inexplicable blowout to an average Big Ten West team on the road. One glance at the schedule reveals what the Buckeyes face — a night game at Northwestern.
The Wildcats (1-4, 0-3 Big Ten) hung with Wisconsin in September, they’re only 10 months removed from the Big Ten championship game, and look what else is on No. 4 OSU’s schedule — a showdown in Ohio Stadium against the sixth-ranked Badgers next week. Might the Buckeyes be looking ahead?
“All you’re worried about is this game right here, and we all know what happens if you start to lose focus,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “We cannot do that. So this week we’ve talked about having a white belt mentality, which is a mentality that you're starting right from scratch and that you don't take anything for granted. You don’t make any assumptions, and if we do that, then we’ll be fine. If we start to look ahead or start to let our egos get in the way, then we’re in trouble.”
There are two problems with comparing the Northwestern game to 2017’s 55-24 implosion at Iowa and last year’s 49-20 disaster at Purdue: the Wildcats are not average, and Ohio State’s defense is not a sieve.
Northwestern entered 2019 riding high after a Big Ten West division championship and a Holiday Bowl victory over Utah. Its last division loss came Sept, 30, 2017, a streak of 11 games. Hunter Johnson, a former five-star quarterback transfer from Clemson, infused juice into the offense, and the Wildcats were on track to continue their ascendance.
Instead, the season hasn’t lifted off the runway.
Johnson has battled injuries and paltry play, completing 48.3 percent of his passes for 367 yards, one touchdown, and four interceptions. He was passed over for Aidan Smith in Northwestern’s most recent loss at Nebraska, not that it provided a boost to the offense.
The Wildcats rank 125th in total offense (292.8 yards per game), 123rd in passing offense (140.4 yards) 80th in rushing offense (152.4 yards), and 128th in scoring offense (14.4 points).
Coach Pat Fitzgerald’s frustration has spilled out with several curt exchanges with reporters.
“I go into every game plan expecting it to work,” Fitzgerald said last month. “To be quite honest with you, I understand there are 40,000 experts on Twitter that can call plays for me. My email address is #Idon’tcare. So shoot that out.”
Defensively, Northwestern has been good enough to win games. In three of four losses, opponents scored a combined 54 points. Northwestern limited Wisconsin to 24 points and 243 total yards — Jonathan Taylor was responsible for 134. The Wildcats rank in the top 30 nationally in total defense, scoring defense, and passing defense, leading to some consternation.
“They’re getting annoyed with our offense and the lack of production,” Fitzgerald said.
Equating Friday’s game to Iowa and Purdue of years past can be viewed as flawed, because the big plays Ohio State’s defense was prone to giving up have disappeared and Northwestern doesn’t have two first-round tight ends or Rondale Moore.
“Pat is as good a coach as there is in the country. That’s documented,” Day said. “It’s hard to find a yard against them. I mean, they’re good.”
Not nearly good enough, though.
First Published October 16, 2019, 3:27 p.m.
