When Pat Fitzgerald thinks about the last time Northwestern paid a visit to Ohio Stadium, the first thing that pops in his brain is how quickly he wanted to run back to Evanston, Illinois.
“I wanted to leave at halftime but they wouldn't let me,” Fitgerald recalled at Big Ten Media Days in July. “There was a timeout and a referee came over and I said, 'Can we just go? We're good.' We got our fannies whipped. That was a bad day.”
Jim Tressel's Ohio State Buckeyes roasted Northwestern 58-7 way back in October 2007. Ohio State raced out to a 45-0 advantage in the first 30 minutes against Northwestern, Fitzgerald's second season at the helm. Fitzgerald called Ohio State a "national championship-caliber" football team that season and they were—the Buckeyes made the BCS Championship game that season but lost to LSU.
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4-3, 3-1 B1G ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
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3:30 – SATURDAY, OCT. 29 OHIO STADIUM COLUMBUS, OHIO |
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ESPN WATCHESPN |
The two programs are moving in different directions now, with Urban Meyer leading Ohio State and Fitzgerald's club riding a three-game winning streak following a horrid 1-3 start that included a terrible 9-7 home loss to FCS Illinois State. Northwestern makes a return trip to Columbus for the first time in nine seasons on Saturday.
“That's as improved a team as I've ever seen from beginning to now, outstanding,” Meyer said on Monday of the Wildcats. “Three big wins, two on the road. Defining wins.”
The Buckeyes deal with something they haven't felt all season as they prepare to take on Northwestern—what it's like to practice after a loss. Penn State capitalized on a pair of Ohio State special teams blunders to stun the Buckeyes 24-21 in State College last Saturday night.
All of Ohio State's goals remain attainable, like the Big Ten Championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff. But it won't happen with another loss, so Meyer stamped signs all over the Woody Hayes Athletic Center this week to emphasize the one singular focus of taking care of business against the Wildcats.
“Everything is still left. Beat Northwestern,” Meyer said on Wednesday. “It's a little bit a product of the College Football Playoff and it's a product of ... because it's such attention and great for the sport, great for us. We're such a young team, better focus on playing a young team that's on a roll right now. That's the reason we [post signs]. It's just focus.”
The Buckeyes return home for the first time since beating Indiana 38-17 at Ohio Stadium on Oct. 8. Northwestern is rolling, with road wins over Iowa and Michigan State as well as a 10-point victory against the Hoosiers in Evanston last week. The Wildcats still have a backdoor chance at winning the Big Ten West. Saturday's matchup carries significant weight for both teams.
“This is when the rubber hits the road in the Big Ten. Anybody can start fast but it matters how you finish,” Fitzgerald said. “We've got a heckuva steep mountain to climb these next five weeks. Nobody has a stiffer challenge this week than us when we gotta take on the Buckeyes.”
Northwestern Breakdown
When the Wildcats won 10 games in 2015, their defense carried most of the weight. Fitzgerald's bunch allowed just 18.6 points and 319 yards per game, both the best totals for the program since it went to the Rose Bowl in 1995. That group is not nearly as stout this season but a heavily improved offense has been the catalyst of the team's current three-game winning streak.
Most of the credit for that goes to quarterback Clayton Thorson, who completed 64 percent of his passes and tossed nine touchdowns against just one interception during that stretch.
“Offensively they really struggled earlier in the year. Their quarterback is much better and the offensive line is, they've found a little bit of a rhythm,” Meyer said on Wednesday. “You look earlier in the year, it doesn't look like the same team offensively.”
Thorson's comfort comes with more experience, now a redshirt sophomore and in his second full season as the starter. More of a pocket passer at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, Thorson threw only seven touchdowns and nine picks a year ago. He's doubled that scoring output already this season against only five interceptions.
“He's 20 games into his career and you see him making growth every week and it’s exciting to see,” Fitzgerald said.
“He’s way more confident now,” Ohio State middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan said. “In the last few games, they’re putting up points. He’s more confident in his throws, he’s running the ball, the running back is making plays out there. They’ve made plays against some great defenses so we’ll see what happens.”
That running back is Justin Jackson, an excellent talent and one of the most underrated players in the entire country. Jackson currently leads the Big Ten with 792 rushing yards, is a factor in Northwestern's passing game (one of seven players with at least 100 yards receiving) and is in his third year as a starter.
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| OFFENSE | ||||
| 45.3 | 5th | POINTS FOR | 25.9 | 86th |
| 281.6 | 8th | RUSHING OFFENSE | 137.4 | 106th |
| 220.1 | 80th | PASSING OFFENSE | 241.1 | 52nd |
| 501.7 | 13th | TOTAL OFFENSE | 378.6 | 93rd |
| .486 | 14th | 3rd DOWNS | .381 | 81st |
| .892 | 39th | RED ZONE | .706 | 125th |
| DEFENSE | ||||
| 14.4 | 4th | POINTS ALLOWED | 21.9 | 32nd |
| 121.0 | 23rd | RUSH DEFENSE | 132.0 | 32nd |
| 158.7 | 5th | PASS DEFENSE | 282.4 | 111th |
| 91.2 | 5th | PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE | 126.2 | 56th |
| 279.7 | 5th | TOTAL DEFENSE | 414.4 | 72nd |
| .288 | 10th | 3rd DOWNS | .333 | 27th |
| .650 | 2nd | RED ZONE | .793 | 41st |
| SPECIAL TEAMS | ||||
| 5.6 | 84th | PUNT RETURN | 8.5 | 55th |
| 23.8 | 28th | KICKOFF RETURN | 28.1 | 5th |
| 44.4 | 3rd | NET PUNTING | 35.3 | 104th |
| MISCELLANEOUS | ||||
| + 1.3 | 4th | TURNOVER MARGIN | + 0.6 | 31st |
| 8.0 | 105th | PENALTIES | 4.0 | 6th |
| 14 | EDGE | 4 | ||
“JJ has been a mainstay here for us. Came in here, was an instant impact player as a freshman. Already over 3,000 yards in his career,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s a complete back. He runs well, he protects well, runs good routes, got really good hands. He's a terrific competitor and a terrific leader.”
Jackson teams up with an improving offensive line that returned two starters but a bunch of players that have significant experience before suffering injuries last year. On the outside, Thorson finally has a few guys that can make plays at receiver. Austin Carr leads the Big Ten with 50 (!) receptions for 720 yards and nine touchdowns. The next-highest tallies in each of those statistics in the Big Ten are 37 catches, 563 yards and six scores.
Carr's production is something Fitzgerald waited for after injuries and a lack of development led to running back Dan Vitale being the team's leading receiver in 2015. He finished with 355 yards and four touchdowns in 13 games. In 2016, a handful of players are on pace to at least match those totals. The production in the passing game is as big a reason as any for Northwestern's three straight wins.
“We weren’t performing consistently and we were playing a lot of first-time starters that quite frankly we didn't do a good enough job getting them to take the steps they needed to take obviously with the way that we started,” Fitzgerald said. “You can either keep pounding your head and think that things are going to change or you can adjust. We needed to accelerate the growth of that younger group mentally, physically and emotionally.
“The only way you were going to do that was take an offseason approach to practice. Take a spring ball approach to practice.”
Fitzgerald's defense is near the bottom of the conference in yards per game allowed, sitting 12th at 414.1. Stud linebacker and 2015 third-team All-American Anthony Walker leads a strong rushing defense, a monster in the middle with the second-most tackles for loss on the team at 5.5.
Centerville, Ohio, native and defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo is having an All-Big Ten-caliber season. He leads the conference with 8.0 sacks and is sixth with 9.0 tackles for loss.
“He's an excellent player and one of the top players on their team,” Meyer said of Odenigbo. “They're a very big defensive line, very physical guys and because of that they just cave in the guards and they let the linebackers run. [Jackson's] a helluva player but it's a very schematic, very heavy alignment, so there's not much movement and that gives linebackers a chance to roll on you a little bit. He's very good.”
The Wildcats list 20 other players in addition to Odenigbo on their roster from the state of Ohio. Though Odenigbo is a strong performer in his own right, the best one is arguably strong safety Godwin Igwebuike. A redshirt junior and the former high school teammate of Ohio State's Pat Elflein at Pickerington North High School, Igwebuike is an NFL prospect and leads Northwestern with 61 tackles this season.
“Just trying to beat Northwestern. We'll reflect some other time. Good young team that is getting better. We just gotta keep pushing and grinding and fight through a little adversity.”– Urban Meyer
“[He] takes great angles, tackles well. Got great cover skills,” Fitzgerald said. “I think he's a complete package as a player and he's growing into becoming a leader here in his fourth year. Along with keeping his play at a high level.”
For as great as Igwebuike is, however, the Wildcats rank dead last in pass defense allowing 282.1 yards per game. Much of that is due to the absence of senior and multi-year starting cornerback Matthew Harris. An All-Big Ten performer, Harris left Northwestern's loss to Illinois State in Week 2 with a concussion and did not play in the last five games. He announced his retirement from football on Monday due to multiple past concussions.
That leaves a significant hole but one that Fitzgerald continues to try and fill with young talent like Trae Williams and Alonzo Mayo, a pair of redshirt freshmen. Williams missed last week's game against Indiana with an unspecified injury, however, and is listed as out for Saturday at Ohio State. Another redshirt freshman, Montre Hartage, is set to start in Williams' place as he did against the Hoosiers.
That shift in personnel allowed Michigan State to throw for 424 yards and four touchdowns two games ago in a wild 54-40 Northwestern win at Spartan Stadium. Indiana racked up 317 yards through the air last week.
The Wildcat offense is rolling enough to mask the struggling pass defense, though, with Thorson finding a rhythm, Jackson doing his thing and receivers making plays.
“They have great receivers, a quarterback that runs the show, a great defense,” McMillan said. “They’ve got a great offensive attack and we’ll see what happens Saturday.”
Buckeye Breakdown
The majority of the talk in Columbus this week circled around the game the Buckeyes just played, not the one that is next on the schedule. That's how things go when the team loses for just the fifth time in the last five seasons, especially when that defeat came mostly due to brain farts on special teams.
“One of the captains made the comment after the game that every detail counts and that's a great football team, great players and every little detail does count,” Meyer said. “Just trying to laser in on this game.”
The majority of questions Meyer and his players answered revolved around a struggling offense, play calling, wide receiver play and everything in between that resulted in just 21 points—by far Ohio State's lowest output this season—against the Nittany Lions. Meyer wants an anger to flood back through the veins of his players but recognizes every goal is still in front of the Buckeyes despite the loss. Above all, he wants his team to focus on playing well enough to win on Saturday.
“Just trying to beat Northwestern. We'll reflect some other time,” Meyer said. “Good young team that is getting better. We just gotta keep pushing and grinding and fight through a little adversity.”
The Buckeyes are scheduled to play at home for the first time in three weeks and coming off back-to-back road night games where they faced an opponent that had an extra week to prepare. Camp Randall Stadium and Beaver Stadium are two of the toughest venues to play in college football. A home game is just what Ohio State needs.
“Just get back in a little bit of a routine,” Meyer said. “That kind of blew up on us, getting home at 5:30 a.m. and then the next week 3:30 a.m. so we're getting back in our routine. Players love routine. Coaches love routine. It does feel good to be back home the next two weeks.”
Playing in front of a home crowd will certainly help but Ohio State's inconsistencies on offense proved fatal against Penn State last weekend. The offensive line couldn't protect J.T. Barrett or create room for Mike Weber, the wide receivers continued to struggle to get open and a lack of creativity in play calling resulted in a bevy of three-and-outs.
“We have to do a better job of definitely keeping teams off balance and [the Nittany Lions] were attacking us and coming after us pretty aggressively. Playing to win,” offensive coordinator Ed Warinner said on Wednesday. “They were behind and they were playing to win and they were playing aggressive and they did a nice job in the second half.”
The Buckeyes were entirely too conservative as the game wore on, but a lack of execution prevented the staff from feeling comfortable at taking more shots downfield. Meyer said he doesn't see any change in personnel on the offensive line or at wide receiver happening, or even further, with the play calling structure.
“I feel OK. I'm not going to change it,” Meyer said. “We've just got to get a little better.”
Ohio State desperately needs more from these players on the outside.
Barrett threw 43 times on Saturday, a career-high. Many went to Mike Weber and Marcus Baugh either in the flat or short over the middle. The quarterback said Penn State's defense dictated that, as it took away some downfield throws. But he did confess that the passing game is not where it could be right now.
“It could be better, absolutely, but as far as Saturday night, we’re going to throw an incompletion every now and then. That’s a real thing,” Barrett said. “Did we have miscommunication a couple times? Yeah. Can we clean that up? Absolutely. When I watched it, it wasn’t like I was pulling my teeth.”
Ohio State is set to get Corey Smith back in the lineup, though he will play with a cast on his wrist. Meyer praised Smith's presence on special teams and as a potential deep threat in the offense this week. But how much he can do in terms of catching the ball remains to be seen with the cast.
That leaves the pressure on the other wide receivers to get open and for Barrett to find them, particularly because Meyer didn't offer any indication true freshmen Austin Mack and Binjimen Victor will see more time.
“Man coverage is where you have to be able to win,” Warinner said. “You have to be able to win in man coverage and when people press you up and play tighter, you have to be able to get open. That's something we always work on. We're always pushing that, our defense plays a lot of man coverage and we see that every day.
“That's the challenge we have is how to separate, how to execute the throw game and get J.T. enough time to do that.”
All eyes will be on the way Ohio State starts the game on offense and if it appears as disjointed and out of sync as it did last week. Meyer also said he isn't going to take drastic measures to get star H-back Curtis Samuel the ball more in the running game, even though that is one guy who must touch it more.
“I'm kind of moving away from that because that disrupts the flow of a game a little bit. I think he did 10 or 12 times he touched the ball,” Meyer said. “I do that. That's one of my responsibilities ... Early in the game, I understood we played a bunch of plays before he got it. That shouldn't happen.”
How that all meshes together will show not only if Ohio State has enough to beat Northwestern but if it can get back to playing the way it did at Oklahoma where it won by 21.
But Meyer wants his team moving past the loss and pour all of its energy into beating the Wildcats.
“That game's gone, let's game plan, let's work and do everything we can to get ready for the next one,” Meyer said.
How It Plays Out
Justin Jackson is a problem for defenses. via Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
The last time Northwestern beat Ohio State in football came in 2004, when Randy Walker's Wildcats stood toe-to-toe with Jim Tressel's Buckeyes for four quarters and Noah Herron's 1-yard touchdown run in overtime gave them a 33-27 victory. In 2013, Urban Meyer's second team outlasted the Wildcats due mostly to the sheer brilliance of Carlos Hyde, who scored three times and racked up 206 total yards of offense. The Wildcats lost their next six games that year and finished 5-7.
Ohio State owns a 60-14-1 lead in the all-time series between the two schools, including 29 victories in the last 30 meetings. Pat Fitzgerald's team is hot but should face a motivated Ohio State squad in what he calls "a cathedral of college football," Ohio Stadium.
Fitzgerald is hunting for a signature victory. Meyer wants to get his team back on track and see positive steps taken from his offense. Northwestern is hunting for a bowl berth and Ohio State is attempting to again look like a College Football Playoff contender.
The Buckeyes are more talented too, which doesn't help Fitzgerald's cause. Nor does the fact Ohio State lost last week for the first time all year. Northwestern will try and replicate what Penn State did—hang around and make a couple plays late to steal a win.
For Ohio State, national pundits and the college football world will shift its attention to Columbus on Saturday afternoon. The Buckeyes need to perform.
“You lose a game, you're not a loser. If you lose a game, you accept it,” Meyer said. “That's the message to our players. We work so hard so that doesn't happen. It happened; move on. Get ready for a very good team coming in here.”
ELEVEN WARRIORS STAFF PREDICTION: Ohio State 40, Northwestern 14
