Five Things: Ohio State Chews Up Northwestern at Wrigley Field, Sets Up Top-5 Showdown With Indiana

By Chris Lauderback on November 17, 2024 at 10:10 am
Carnell Tate
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch-USA TODAY NETWORK
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Playing in what was truly the Friendly Confines as Wrigley Field was comprised of roughly 80% Buckeye fans, Ohio State started slow (on defense) but found its footing over the final 2.5 quarters to bury Northwestern by a score of 31-7 in the historic baseball cathedral. 

The Buckeyes again dominated the line of scrimmage for the vast majority of the afternoon, winning the rushing yardage battle 173-50 despite Northwestern possessing a stout front while the OSU defense posted four sacks compared to just one for the Wildcats. 

It was a sweet homecoming for Carnell Tate - more on him in a minute - and Jeremiah Smith did his thing with four catches for 100 yards. He was also the victim of what looked like a dirty play from Northwestern's Robert Fitzgerald who twisted Smith's ankle at the end of a 68-yard catch and go. 

Quarterback Will Howard turned in another turnover-free game while throwing for 247 yards and two scores as part of Ohio State's modest 420 yards of total offense.

The win improved Ohio State to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in conference play, setting up a top-5 showdown with Indiana in Ohio Stadium next Saturday at noon. 

Yours truly attended the game with our fearless leader which made it difficult to take notes. As such, Five Things will be a bit abbreviated today which I'm sure you're more than fine with. 

With that let's get to it. 

SALUTING CARNELL TATE

Imagine the emotions sophomore wide receiver Carnell Tate must have been experiencing as he played his first game in Chicago since his mother was senselessly killed in July of 2023. Tate commented earlier in the week he expected to have dozens of family in attendance and boy did he deliver. 

Tate caught four balls for 52 yards including two touchdowns in a big time performance. 

After an early 5-yard catch, he turned in three-straight highlight reel plays. The first was a 14-yarder over the middle featuring amazing body control, hands and vision giving Ohio State 1st-and-Goal from the 1. Quinshon Judkins scored on the next play to tie the game at 7. 

Just before halftime, Tate went back to work catching a go ball for a 25-yard touchdown giving the Buckeyes a 21-7 cushion. Watching from our perch along the right field line, I got goose bumps on this one. 

On the ensuing possession, Ohio State's first of the second half, Tate hauled a quick hitter from Howard for an 8-yard score putting the Buckeyes in front 28-7. 

Just an awesome performance from a kid who deserves everything he gets. Leading up to the game you likely read quotes from Day gushing over Tate's maturity and resilience and for Carnell to go out there and perform like that, props to him. 

But yeah, Day summed it up best in his post presser. "Carnell is not someone who talks about himself or would even want me talking about him right now and everything that he's been through, but we all know that he lost his mom. He does not show that every day when he's here. We say all the time that the game doesn't care what you've been through. When you cross that line, when you go on the field, the game doesn't really care, but we do. His teammates do. His coaches do. The people who know Carnell care a lot about him. The way that he's handled himself has been an example for everybody. We care a lot about him. To see him catch two touchdown passes in his hometown in front of – I think he had over 25 people here watching him. I know it means a lot to him. It also means a lot to us. I'm really happy for him today."

Hell yeah. Cheers, 17. 

DEFENSE STIFFENS AFTER SLOW START

Even after the week of press conferences leading up to Saturday weren't as ripe with commentary about laser focus on Northwestern like we heard leading up to Purdue, watching OSU go through pregame warmups and such, it seemed like the team was fired up to be in Wrigley and ready to put on a show. 

It didn't immediately unfold that way however as the defense allowed Northwestern to chew up 151 yards of total offense across the first two possessions on 6.3 yards per play. A forced fumble at the OSU 18 kept the first Northwestern possession from turning into points but the second saw the Wildcats drive 92 yards on 13 plays to take a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. 

From there however, it was mostly lights out as Ohio State held Northwestern to zero points and 117 yards on 2.8 yards per play across seven possessions. Four of those seven ended in 3-and-outs as the Buckeyes racked up four sacks. 

Sonny Styles was in the mix all day but it's also noteworthy that Jack Sawyer posted a second-straight disruptive performance with the forced fumble, a career-high seven tackles and three hurries. 

We all know Northwestern is not a good team but it was still good to see a few of the individual performances and the overall unit's corrections after the poor start. 

THE NEW STYLE(S)

I've said many times that while Sonny Styles has had his fair share of rough moments this year, it's also worth remembering the dude is young and has been asked to play no less than three positions over his first two years in Columbus. 

And I know the competition hasn't been stellar over the last few weeks in particular but I do get the feeling Styles is improving as he continues gaining experience at his Will linebacker spot. 

Yesterday he might've played his most impactful game as a Buckeye with six tackles (five solo), two sacks and two pass breakups. 

He was ferocious on the blitz and he seems to be eliminating some of the over-pursuit and/or bad angles that showed up more frequently in September and October. 

He continues to lead OSU in stops (63), he's third in TFLs with 5.5 and tied for 4th with three PBUs. 

Next week we'll get a much better gauge of how he's improved as Indiana's high-powered offense invades the Shoe but for now, I feel like he's gaining confidence with good reason. Or more likely, he's always had the confidence and now more fans are starting to feel the same way? 

SMASH AND DASH

Tailbacks TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins did work against a solid Wildcats front posting a combined 177 total yards on 6.1 per touch including 150 on the ground via a 5.8 average. 

Henderson, who had his best game of the season last weekend versus Purdue, was again the more productive back yesterday posting 74 rushing yards on 6.7 per and two catches for 19 yards. He again looked light on his feet as he darted through holes (and even jumped over a dude) before flashing power finishes on most of his runs. 

Q was indeed solid with 76 yards on 5.1 per try and he found the end zone twice, pushing his season's rushing touchdowns total to a team-leading 8. 

With those two doing their thing, Ohio State finished with 173 rushing yards on 5.2 per carry marking the third-straight game OSU tallied at least 173 yards on the ground. 

DOWN ON THE CORNER

As much as I've been encouraged by the play of guys like Styles and Sawyer over the last few weeks, I have to say I'm slightly angsty about how cornerbacks Davison Igbinosun and Denzel Burke might fare next weekend against Kurtis Rourke and the rest of Indiana's aerial attack. Definitely more so about Burke. 

Igbinosun came up huge against Penn State and has been pretty solid overall but it still feels like he's good for at least one penalty per game and should be busy next weekend. 

More importantly, Burke hasn't had the type of season most folks expected and even Northwestern's dismal passing attack had some success throwing in his direction yesterday. 

I'm not out here trying to call guys out, I'm just expressing some uncertainly about if Burke in particular and the two corners overall are prepared to come up big next weekend. 

My hope is those guys will indeed step up but also that the pass rush will be disruptive again and of course the rest of the secondary that has proven more reliable, at least in my eyes, will shine in what should be a fun matchup to watch. And hey, there's certainly every possibility that Burke will shine too. 

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