Ohio State's Top 15 Plays of the 2020 Season

By Dan Hope on February 1, 2021 at 8:35 am
Jaxon Smith-Njigba's catch against Nebraska
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Even though Ohio State played only eight games in 2020, there were still plenty of spectacular plays along the way.

Now that a few weeks have passed since the Buckeyes’ season came to an end, we’re taking a look back at 15 of the best plays from the shortened 2020 season.

From spectacular plays by Justin Fields, Trey Sermon, Chris Olave and others on offense to a trio of defensive touchdowns and some big moments on special teams, the Buckeyes produced highlights to remember in all three phases of the game this past season.

In compiling our list of the year’s best plays, we considered the degree of difficulty and uniqueness of each play and the significance of each play to the games in which they happened and the season as a whole, while also making an effort to represent a wide variety of Ohio State players and play types.

Our selections for Ohio State’s most impressive and memorable plays of 2020 are as follows.

15. Steele Chambers takes a fake punt 38 yards

The most memorable part of Ohio State’s 49-27 win over Rutgers were all the trick plays, and while most of those came from Greg Schiano’s feisty Scarlet Knights, Ohio State also made a big play on some trickery of its own.

Facing 4th-and-8 on Ohio State’s own side of the field, Ryan Day rolled the dice and called a fake punt. Steele Chambers caught the direct snap, Tuf Borland and Xavier Johnson opened up a big hole with blocks on the left side of the formation and Chambers exploded through it for a 38-yard run, ultimately leading to a touchdown that gave Ohio State a 21-3 lead.

The only true trick play Ohio State ran on special teams in 2020 was also the biggest moment of the year for Chambers, who finished the season with 86 rushing yards on nine total carries.

14. Drue Chrisman’s 74-yard punt

Spartan Stadium always seemed to bring out the best in Drue Chrisman, who had spectacular performances in both of his games at Michigan State, and his final game in East Lansing included the longest punt of his Ohio State career.

Punting from well inside Ohio State’s territory, Chrisman hit a picture-perfect punt that traveled more than 65 yards through the air before rolling to a stop at the 2-yard line. Officially, it was a 74-yard punt, the eighth-longest punt in Ohio State history.

That punt helped Chrisman earn Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors and allowed Ohio State to maintain control of the field position battle in a game it dominated for a 52-12 win.

13. Justin Fields makes a block 60 yards downfield

For all the spectacular throws Fields made as a Buckeye, one of his most-talked-about plays of the season was neither a pass nor a run, but a block.

In an impressive display of both speed and effort, Fields nearly outran his teammate Trey Sermon down the sideline and stuck a block on a Michigan State defender around the 5-yard line to help Sermon finish off a 64-yard run for the first touchdown of Sermon’s Ohio State career.

This play wasn’t really necessary – Sermon had a step on the Michigan State defender and likely would have scored without the block – and was nearly counterproductive, as it was close to a block in the back, yet it will be one of the enduring highlights that Ohio State fans remember from Fields’ two years as a Buckeye because it showed just how much of a competitor Fields is. 

12. Chris Olave snags a deep ball in Happy Valley

Olave has been known for making big plays throughout his Ohio State career, and 2020 was no exception as Mr. Clutch scored seven touchdowns in just seven games.

In particular, Olave has proven over the past three years that he has tremendous ability to track the deep ball, and one of his best demonstrations of that came in Ohio State’s second game of the 2020 season against Penn State. The play started with Fields confidently launching a deep pass 50 yards through the air down the left sideline over three Penn State defenders, and culminated with Olave pulling the ball in with his fingertips and letting his momentum carry him into the end zone for a 49-yard touchdown.

That touchdown, Olave’s second of the game, gave Ohio State a 28-13 lead in a game it would ultimately win 38-25.

11. Shaun Wade makes a diving one-handed interception

One of Ohio State’s most acrobatic catches of the 2020 season came from cornerback Shaun Wade on his second interception of the season against Michigan State.

Playing off of Michigan State wide receiver Jalen Nailor on a slant about 15 yards downfield, Wade ended up in position to make a play when Payton Thorne overshot his pass out of Nailor’s reach. Wade still had to dive to actually catch the ball, though, and he artfully secured the ball with one hand without letting it hit the ground as he crashed to the Spartan Stadium grass.

After an Olave fumble just one play earlier gave Michigan State the ball in Ohio State territory and a chance to score back-to-back touchdowns, Wade’s interception quickly snuffed out the Spartans’ momentum and kept the Buckeyes on track for a blowout win.

10. Julian Fleming channels Clarett with forced fumble

Julian Fleming didn’t do a lot as a receiver in his first season at Ohio State, catching just seven passes for 74 yards, but he made one tremendous hustle play that ended up being crucial in the Buckeyes’ 42-35 win over Indiana.

After an uncharacteristically turnover-prone Fields threw his third interception of the game early in the third quarter, the Hoosiers were set to have prime field position in Ohio State territory. During Jamar Johnson’s interception return, however, Fleming chased Johnson down from behind and used a textbook “Peanut Punch” – the fumble-forcing move made famous by former NFL cornerback Charles Tillman – to knock the ball out of Johnson’s hands, allowing Thayer Munford to fall on the loose ball and retain possession for the Buckeyes.

That’s the kind of effort play that can often jump-start a young Ohio State player’s career, and no matter what Fleming goes on to accomplish over the next two to three years as a receiver, that play – similarly to Maurice Clarett’s forced fumble on Sean Taylor’s interception in the 2003 national championship game – will have a permanent place on his Ohio State highlight reel.

9. Jeremy Ruckert needs only one hand

While there weren’t a lot of highlights for Ohio State fans to celebrate from the Buckeyes’ national championship game loss to Alabama, Jeremy Ruckert’s 36-yard catch in the first quarter certainly deserves its due as one of the Buckeyes’ best plays of the year.

On another beautifully thrown deep ball by Fields (you might sense a theme here), Ruckert – whose one-handed catch in the Big Ten Championship Game was one of the best plays of 2019 – did it again, gracefully hauling in the pass with one hand after beating Alabama linebacker Christian Harris deep.

That catch got Ohio State inside the red zone and led to an 8-yard Master Teague touchdown run to tie the game at 7-7 one play later. That momentum wouldn’t last for the Buckeyes, who ultimately lost 52-24, but that play was no less a reminder that Ruckert is one of the most talented tight ends in college football, even though the ball isn’t thrown his way all that often.

8. Sevyn Banks scoops and scores

Ohio State’s first defensive touchdown of the season came in its season opener against Nebraska when Sevyn Banks scooped up a fumble and ran it 55 yards to the end zone for a score.

As Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez attempted to scramble for yardage, Pete Werner came in from his backside and knocked the ball out of Martinez’s hand. The ball bounced right toward Banks, who adeptly scooped it up, maintained his balance after Nebraska wide receiver Kade Warner nearly tripped him up and outran a cavalry of Cornhuskers.

That touchdown served as the metaphorical dagger in the Buckeyes’ season-opening win, as it extended their third-quarter lead to 38-14. It was the second Ohio State touchdown for Banks, who also returned a blocked punt for a touchdown against Michigan in 2018.

7. Zach Harrison tackles two Nittany Lions at once

For the third time in seven years, an Ohio State defensive end made one of the most impressive plays of the season by simultaneously tackling both the quarterback and the running back in a game against Penn State.

Joey Bosa did it first, in 2014, driving Akeel Lynch backward into Christian Hackenberg for a walk-off sack. Sam Hubbard did it in 2017, wrapping up both Saquon Barkley and Trace McSorley as McSorley handed the ball to Barkley for an important fourth-quarter tackle for loss. Harrison’s play was eerily similar, blowing up a Penn State read-option for a two-yard loss by taking down both Devyn Ford and Sean Clifford at the same time.

Harrison hasn’t yet become as consistently productive a player as Bosa or even Hubbard was for the Buckeyes, but that play should serve as a reminder of why Harrison still has the potential to be a game-changer for Ohio State’s defensive line.

RELATED Is This the Year Zach Harrison and Tyreke Smith Break Out? Ohio State Needs Them in 2021

6. Shaun Wade makes a crucial pick-six

On a day where Indiana’s passing offense mostly did what it wanted to do against Ohio State’s defense, the Buckeyes might not have beat the Hoosiers if not for this play by Wade.

After the Hoosiers had scored on each of their last two possessions to cut Ohio State’s lead to 35-21, momentum was firmly in Indiana’s favor after a missed field goal attempt by Ohio State’s Jake Seibert. On the very next play after that missed field goal, however, Wade extended the Buckeyes’ lead back to three scores by breaking in front of a 10-yard out, intercepting a pass by Michael Penix Jr. and returning it 36 yards for a touchdown.

In a half where not much else went right for Ohio State’s passing defense while the Buckeyes’ offense also sputtered, those seven points ultimately made the difference to keep them from a loss that would have prevented them from making the Big Ten Championship Game and making the College Football Playoff.

5. Justin Hilliard steals a jump ball in the end zone

This interception by Justin Hilliard was also one of Ohio State’s most important defensive plays of the entire season, as it prevented Northwestern – up 10-6 and inside Ohio State’s 10-yard line – from taking a two-score lead in the third quarter of the Big Ten Championship Game.

With Hilliard starting in place of unavailable Baron Browning at Sam linebacker, and out wide in a one-on-one matchup with Northwestern tight end John Raine, Peyton Ramsey decided to put his coverage skills to the test by throwing a 50/50 ball to them. Hilliard made Ramsey pay for that decision, out-leaping Raine and making a perfect play on the ball to come down with an interception in the end zone.

After that, the second interception of Hilliard’s Ohio State career, Northwestern wouldn’t get back to the red zone and the Buckeyes would score the final 16 points of the game to earn a 22-10 win and their fourth straight Big Ten title.

4. Trey Sermon breaks three tackles and a record

Sermon had no shortage of fantastic runs in the Big Ten Championship Game, in which he broke Eddie George’s school record by rushing for 331 yards, but the run on which he broke the record was the best of them all.

Sermon ran through one tackle just a couple yards past the line of scrimmage, managing to maintain his balance before stiff-arming another defender and hurdling another defender en route to a 23-yard gain, simultaneously breaking George’s previous record of 314 yards while icing Ohio State’s victory with just 1:30 left to play in the game.

That run would have been impressive in any circumstance, but the historic significance of the run made it one of Ohio State’s best and most memorable plays of 2020.

3. Haskell Garrett deflects pass to himself for a pick-six

Defensive tackles don’t usually make interceptions, let alone pick-sixes, but that’s exactly what Haskell Garrett did in the final game of Ohio State’s truncated five-game regular season.

After tipping Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi’s pass in the Spartans’ own end zone, Garrett grabbed the deflected ball like a rebound for both the first interception and first touchdown of his Ohio State career.

That play was the highlight of an altogether remarkable season for Garrett, who was shot in the face in August yet recovered to play in all eight of Ohio State’s games and earn All-American honors as a breakout star on the Buckeyes’ interior defensive line.

2. Jaxon Smith-Njigba toe-taps for a touchdown

If we evaluated all these plays in a vacuum and simply picked the most jaw-dropping play regardless of the stage or game situation, this would have been No. 1. 

In his very first game as a Buckeye, true freshman wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba made one of college football’s catches of the year, somehow tapping one foot down in the back of the end zone when it appeared almost certain he would land out of bounds, for a 5-yard touchdown and the first points of his Ohio State career.

Smith-Njigba finished the 2020 season with only 10 catches for 49 yards, but that one touchdown catch was enough for the Texas native to make a name for himself and get Ohio State fans excited about his future going into his sophomore season.

1. Justin Fields finds Chris Olave for redemption

There were truly five or six different plays from Fields’ iconic six-touchdown performance against Clemson that could have been included on this list, but none were better than this.

In a play that should go right at the top of his NFL draft highlight reel, Fields delivered an absolutely perfect deep ball more than 60 yards through the air to Olave, extending Ohio State’s lead to 42-21 in a game it would ultimately win 49-28.

One year after a route-running mistake by Olave led to Fields throwing a game-losing interception in the College Football Playoff semifinals against Clemson, they got redemption in spectacular fashion on the same stage one year later. And it’s that which propels this play above all the others as the greatest play of Ohio State’s 2020 season.

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