My Thoughts.....Northern Illinois

In one of the ugliest wins I have seen, the Ohio State Buckeyes overcome five turnovers to defeat a decent Northern Illinois squad 20-13 on Saturday.  

                In addition to the five turnovers (two fumbles, three interceptions), six penalties, and five times the offense went three-and-out.  Cardale Jones looked tentative when dropping back to pass and only lasted five series ‘ before giving way to J.T. Barrett for the remainder of the game.  The NIU defense put eight in the box, severely limiting the Ohio State power run game.  Despite Ezekiel  Elliott getting around five yards per carry, the Buckeyes went away from him for long stretches.  Their only sustained drive for a touchdown came in the second quarter that ended with a perfect throw from Barrett to Michael Thomas, who did the one-toe tap to stay inbounds much like he did against Alabama.  Although both quarterbacks, at times, stunk up the place, Barrett was by far the more effective of the two.  He finished 11/19 for 97 yards ,a pick, and the TD pass in relief of Jones, who was a paltry 4/9 for 36 yards and two picks.  This was against a Northern Illinois defense which had given up 281 yards through the air and 26 points to Murray State.  The Huskies switched from their standard 4-3 to a 3-4, evidently to put quick linebackers out on the edge to deal with the toss sweep and jet sweeps to Miller and Marshall.  It was obvious the offensive line was struggling to adjust to a look they weren’t used to.  The running lanes were a lot smaller than the ones I saw in the second half against Hawaii.  They didn’t allow any sacks, but the line paved the way for only 162 yards on the ground on 37 attempts, which amounts to 4.4 yards per rush.  Their longest running play from scrimmage was for only 13 yards.  The offensive play calling was also puzzling on the drive in the third quarter that gave the Buckeyes the lead.  After Barrett threw a ball he never should’ve thrown and was lucky to not have it picked, two runs by Elliott netted close to nothing and their longest drive of the day netted only three points.  On their last six possessions of the game, the Ohio State offense gained 20 yards or less on each of them. 

                Fortunately, the Ohio State defense is playing at a championship level and showed they can carry the load.  The obvious star on Saturday was LB Darron Lee with the play of the game in the third quarter.  He jumped a wide screen pass route, grabbed the interception, and outran everybody to the end zone that provided Ohio State with the margin of victory.  Joey Bosa got his first sacks of the season, but I was very impressed with the play of Sam Hubbard at DE.  Hubbard was everywhere and even though he got only two tackles, both were sacks on third down to snuff out NIU scoring threats.  The secondary was also lights-out, taking away any kind of deep threat the Huskies had.  Vonn Bell had one the best games I’ve seen him play, with 10 tackles and he broke up a pass in the end zone, preventing an NIU touchdown and forcing a field goal.  Joshua Perry also continued his steady, high level of play, also garnering ten tackles.  Raekwon McMillan and Tyquan Lewis also continued their solid play with nine and seven tackles respectively.  But the vastly improved secondary over this time a year ago, is helping quite a great deal.  Through the first three games, I’ve seen the Ohio State secondary in a lot of man-to-man coverages, and seem to be comfortable with putting corners Eli Apple and Gareon Conley one-on-one against the other side’s best receiver.  Thus far, it has paid dividends, letting the defensive line and linebackers mix up blitz packages and cover tight ends and running backs out of the backfield.  This helped hold a potent NIU passing game to a paltry 80 yards through the air.  To have a chance at an upset, the Huskies needed to be able to throw downfield, but the Ohio State defense, for the second week in a row, held the opponent to under 100 yards passing.

Obviously, a few question marks and a lot of work needs to be done on the offensive side of the ball, particularly with the line, but the old saying “a win is a win” can apply here and the Buckeyes have now won 16 straight, the longest current winning streak in the country.