Holding on to just a three-point lead in the second half, Ohio State needed someone to make a play.
Mike Weber popped a few runs for more than 10 yards in the third quarter. Dwayne Haskins hit Terry McLaurin for a pair of 15-plus-yard passes that quarter. Still, the Buckeyes couldn’t put together any lengthy drive or reach the end zone. They had ample opportunities, with Drue Chrisman flipping the field and giving them a field position advantage, but the offense couldn’t seem to find the end zone.
Ohio State had trouble finding the end zone on offense, going nearly two full quarters between touchdowns, but the Silver Bullets were there to pitch in.
Trailing by three points with 14:12 remaining in the fourth quarter, Michigan State took the field at its own 2-yard line. It turns out, it would’ve been better for the Spartans to have the center sail the ball over the quarterback’s head and out of the end zone – similarly to what the team’s long snapper did in the third quarter. That didn’t happen, of course, and Ohio State finally found its touchdown.
The shotgun snap never reached the hands of quarterback Rocky Lombardi, and the ball fell to the ground. Dre’Mont Jones jumped on top of it for a touchdown, which gave the Buckeyes a much needed touchdown that gave them a 16-6 lead en route to a 26-10 victory.
“You kind of had a feeling a little bit. The coaches kept emphasizing a lot more than usual, just like our moment's going to come, we're going to create a turnover, we're going to create a turnover. On what seemed to be like a pass, option, read type of thing, he dropped it and we kind of wrestled for it a little bit, and I came up with it.
Jones already had a touchdown this season. In the third week of the season against TCU, he ran back an interception for a 28-yard touchdown.
“I'm not going to lie,” Jones said. “No, I did not (expect multiple touchdowns). Maybe a couple sacks, couple TFLs. But, two touchdowns?”
“They both felt equally as good because they changed the momentum of the game,” Jones said. “I got the touchdowns, but like, our team took over the drive and just capitalized.”
After allowing 49 points to Purdue and 31 points to Nebraska, Ohio State’s defense couldn’t hide from the critics. They were everywhere.
Therefore, it felt even better for them to hold the Spartans to just six points and 274 total yards.
“It's just a momentum driver,” Jones said. “I mean, whether we like it or not, we hear the stuff in the background. We don't want to hear it, but it happens. This was a big momentum for us. We came out there and we played with swag and a lot of enthusiasm.”
“It just shows our defense, we have confidence in that everything we've been doing since the beginning of the season, it's going to work,” Jonathon Cooper said. “We've been practicing hard. We've been going hard. Even though with everybody kind of telling us to do this or do that, we just stuck with the plan and it pays off, as you can see. We went out there and we actually showed that we are the defense, we are Ohio State, we are the Bullets.”
“A game like this when we held a team to only six points, a talented team in their house to only six points, this was a tremendous, tremendous feeling,” Jones said. “It's a definite confidence booster.”
“We played a great game,” Jones said. “Regardless of what happened in the past couple games, I think our defense has still been at the same level we've always been. It's always those one or two thing that we had to get over. Like, guys not tackling well or us not being smart when one play is called. That felt like today was our complete game of just listening to the calls and making those important tackles.”
As Jones referenced, Ohio State has struggled to bring down ball-carries in recent weeks. Greg Schiano lamented 20 missed tackles against Purdue, which he said was the most the Buckeyes had missed since he arrived as defensive coordinator.
They didn’t miss 20 last week, but tackling remained a problem against Nebraska. It was not, however, an area of concern on Saturday.
“We were more physical this week,” Brendon White said. “We had more tackling drills this week. We really focused on that after missing 15 last week and 20 the week before that. We really narrowed down doing scout work. We definitely worked on tackling more, running them back. When the running backs would try to run through, instead of tagging hips, we would run through them. That definitely helped a lot. We've been doing more tackling drills. It showed there today.”
After tying for the team lead with 13 tackles last week, White earned his first career start. He didn’t rack up double-digit tackles or lead the team in stops, but he played well with five tackles and a pass break-up. He also busted a Michigan State double reverse.
“It's starting to become more real now,” White said. “I'm starting to be a big part of the gameplan now. I'm having to lock in more. Stay prepared, stay ready, stay focused and don't get side-tracked.”
“Hard work definitely pays off,” White said. “Being pushed by my coach and my teammates not allowing me to give up and staying focused and staying prepared, it all was worthwhile.”
White earned the start, but it wasn’t an easy opponent to get it against.
“I would say that it just being November always gives you that push,” Cooper said. “The fact that it's Michigan State and every time we go against Michigan State it's always going to be a game, it's always going to be about toughness and how physical we are, how hard we go out there and play. Whether they're ranked or not ranked or anything, it's Michigan State, and we take them very seriously.”
“They gave us a tough time, but it wasn't supposed to be easy,” Dwayne Haskins said.
On offense, the Buckeyes simply worse the Spartans down. The had 85 plays, while Michigan State mustered 66 plays on offense.
“You know they had 85 plays and 45 rushes, that will wear on you a little bit,” Michigan State defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said. “That's the game of football, and I am very proud of the guys. I think they played until the last second. I don't think that there was ever a point in there where they started to soften or started to give up. I'm real proud of those guys playing 60 minutes.”
It took some times for the Buckeyes’ offense to get used to the weather. None of their first four drives of the game went for more than 12 yards.
“We just had to figure out how we were going to be able to throw and catch them in the cold,” Haskins said. “It's our first game all year we played in the cold like that. I didn't think it was too bad.”
Though it was certainly cold and windy, the weather wasn’t completely unbearable. It didn’t affect the pass game too much, Urban Meyer and Haskins said.
“I think OK. I think we missed a couple, but it really wasn't that bad,” Meyer said. “I thought it was going to be much worse.”
“Probably the one I threw to K.J. on third down,” Haskins said. “I feel like the wind got that one a little bit.”
