Northwestern Debriefing: Noah Brown Destroys Two Men, Malik Hooker Was Everywhere & The Slobs Moved Men

Earlier this week, Urban Meyer called Northwestern "as improved a team as I've ever seen, beginning to now."

To be fair, it's hard not to improve upon a 9-7 loss to an FCS school, but the Wildcats certainly looked the part Saturday. Austin Carr torched the Buckeye secondary, the Northwestern defense kept J.T. Barrett out of the end-zone and held Ohio State to just 24 points.

The game was close from start to finish, but the Buckeyes "nutted up" when it mattered most and pulled out a 24-20 victory.

The Short Story

Ohio State got off to a quick start offensively, scoring their first opening-drive touchdown of the season, but Northwestern kept it close. The Wildcats had success moving the ball against the Buckeyes, particularly through the air, and their defense held the Scarlet and Gray to few big plays and just 24 points. Still, Ohio State was the better team. Urban Meyer's squad never trailed in the game and came away with a 24-20 victory.

Who Earned a Buckeye Leaf?

Offense: Curtis Samuel

At times, it seemed like the only thing the Buckeye offense could do right was get the ball to Curtis Samuel. 

The do-it-all playmaker finished with seven catches for 68 yards coupled with seven rushes for 31 yards and a touchdown.

Samuel was Barrett's most consistent target all night, and consistently made plays out of nothing.

Honorable Mention: Noah Brown. The Buckeye receiver finished with five catches (tying a career high he set earlier this season against Oklahoma) for 51 yards. He also threw a few key blocks including two that sprung J.T. Barrett for a game-sealing first-down.

Defense: Malik Hooker

Malik Hooker was all over the field on Saturday. He had a career-high 14 tackles and contributed to a tackle for a loss.

The Buckeye safety, who usually plays more of a ball-hawking role instead a run stopper, showed off his closing speed and aggressiveness on several occasions.

Another look at Hooker's closing speed. pic.twitter.com/dA9eaGWM2O

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 29, 2016

Malik Hooker covered an absurd amount of ground on that stop

— Ryan Ginn (@rmginn) October 29, 2016

Malik Hooker makes about 3 or 4 plays each game where I have no idea where the hell he came from.

— Marc Givler (@MarcGivlerBG) October 29, 2016

Need like three more Malik Hookers.

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 29, 2016

Having a Malik Hooker on your team is a good thing. Enjoy him, Buckeye fans.

Plays of the Game

Offense

To be clear, the play of the game was probably J.T. Barrett's third-down run with under two-minutes to play in the third quarter. However, I'm going to go a different direction.

Late in the fourth quarter, redshirt freshman receiver K.J. Hill got open on the sideline and J.T. Barrett found him for a 34-yard completion which set up the game-winning touchdown run by Curtis Samuel.

Barrett also had Terry McLaurin open deep in the end-zone, but it's understandable why he chose to go with the simple swing pass for a monster gain.

Defense

Damon Arnette made the play of his young Buckeye career Saturday.

On Northwestern's first drive, Raekwon McMillan tipped a pass and Arnette made an acrobatic catch to give him his first collegiate interception and Ohio State's only forced turnover of the day.

The Silver Bullets as a whole came through in the clutch a number of times, particularly on Northwestern's final offensive drive where Ohio State's defense held the Wildcats to just a field goal, preserving a four-point lead.

Biggest Surprise

The Silver Bullets seemed to have trouble with Northwestern's offense. The secondary got carved-up for 258 yards, the linebackers allowed runs of 35 and 24 yards and the rushmen got very little pressure and tallied just one sack on the night.

Although to be fair, it's hard to be too critical of a defense that allowed just 20 points despite the offense punting the ball away five straight times.

Jim Tressel's Least Favorite Moment

Jim Tressel was unable to watch Saturday's big game, as his Youngstown State Penguins had homecoming festivities he, as president, was expected to attend. No matter – Tressel had faith in his beloved Buckeyes to pull out a win anyway.

Instead, Tressel spent his afternoon driving a custom low-speed vehicle around the Youngstown State campus area with his wife, dog and two cheerleaders.

Jim Tressel in his swaggerwagon.

Is this his normal means of transportation? Does Ellen always take the dog to games? Why are there cheerleaders? Where did the cheerleaders come from? Where is the rest of the squad?

To these questions, I do not know the answer. But I do know Jim was extremely disappointed to learn that he missed a game in which Urban Meyer elected to punt from inside his opponent's territory (and once from their 36!) twice.

Biggest Blunder

Nobody wanted to cover Austin Carr. The Northwestern receiver had eight receptions for  a staggering 158 yards. To put that in perspective, nine Buckeyes combined for 223 receiving yards.

His night was reminiscent of the games Jared Abbrederis (10 catches for 207 yards) and Sammy Watkins (16 catches for 227 yards) had against the 2013 Ohio State secondary. The only difference was this season, the secondary is a source of pride for the Silver Bullets.

Spectator Quote-Book

Full Disclosure: Some of the individuals nearest to me spoke exclusively Spanish the entire game. I speak less Spanish than D.J. does French, so I could not translate. I do apologize.

First Quarter

• "This feels like a spring game except there's no lacrosse and I'm less excited."
• "It must be nice being Northwestern and knowing that you don't have to defend half the receivers on the field."
• "Who the hell is wearing No. 44? That's gotta be the biggest No. 44 I've ever seen."

Second Quarter

• "I'm significantly more offended by people wearing Cubs hats to this game than the people sitting in the student section in Northwestern gear."
• "At least once a game, Dontre Wilson almost scores a touchdown."
• "I'm just going to go to my grandma's house now."

Third Quarter

• "Northwestern legitimately ran the exact same coverage every play that drive."
• "We should shoot off fireworks after every completion of over 20 yards. Positive reinforcement."
• *Something very angry in Spanish with sporadic profanity I could understand*

Fourth Quarter

• "I've spent $40 on beer and I'm still nowhere near drunk enough to watch Northwestern beat Ohio State at home."
• "Noah Brown should just play fullback on obvious running downs. It's for the best for everyone involved."
• "I'm kind of surprised Urban Meyer isn't going to kick a last-second field goal to try to get style points," said one student. "Did you watch last week's game, or did you miss that one?" retorted another.

Underrated Things

Blocking is almost always underrated, so we're going to talk about that.

Late in the second quarter, the slobs did some fine work all-around to spring Mike Weber for a 23-yard touchdown.

Obviously, you have the lead block by Pat Elflein, but there's even more people-moving to appreciate.

The addition of offensive-tackle Branden Bowen (Curiously wearing No. 44 this week) to the tight end position to the left of the line allowed Jamarco Jones to pull as a lead blocker and handle a Wildcat safety, and right-tackle Isaiah Prince got to the second level almost immediately with Marcus Baugh and Noah Brown providing excellent seal-blocks on the outside.

Speaking of Brown, he had an Evan Spencer-esque moment at a crucial time for the Buckeyes. Ohio State faced a 3rd-and-10 on their own end of the field with just under two minutes to play. Failure to get the first-down would give Northwestern a chance to win the game.

Enter Noah Brown.

Ohio State called a designed run for quarterback J.T. Barrett, but Brown was nearly solely responsible for the first-down. He used one hand to push a corner to the turf before decleating the only defender in Barrett's path, springing the Buckeye signal-caller for a huge gain.

He knew exactly what he did and how huge it was, too. Immediately after the block, before the play even finished, Brown began to celebrate – and rightfully so. 

It Was Over When

J.T. Barrett scampered past the first-down sticks on a crucial 3rd-and-10 with just under two minutes remaining in the game. From that point, Ohio State was able to run the clock and preserve a four-point victory.

Biggest Question Going Forward

There are still serious concerns with the wide-receiving corps. As noted football-knower Kyle Jones wrote this week in his film study last week, Zone-6 is struggling to do uh... anything. Route running is unspectacular, they aren't using their hands to create separation and general field awareness seems to be an issue. Most of these things are developmental problems and aren't easy fixes, but it will be interesting to see how/if Ohio State addresses these problems midseason.