MY THOUGHTS.....Nebraska

 

The Ohio State Buckeyes survived some red-zone sputters and rode the leg of Noah Ruggles and a record-setting day by Jaxson Smith-Njigba to put away a feisty Nebraska squad 26-17.

                Part of that was due to Nebraska’s defense. This is a defense that has held Oklahoma to under 30 points and has kept them in the game in close losses to Michigan and Michigan State. This nine-point game is the worst of Nebraska’s seven losses this year. Despite that, Jaxson Smith-Njigba set a new school record for receptions in a game, but the offense continued to sputter in the red zone and have a few untimely penalties. Fortunately, Noah Ruggles, who is starting to remind people of Mike Nugent, is a Lou Groza Award semifinalist, and was able to bail out the sputtering offense. TreVeyon Henderson had trouble getting started but managed 92 yards in his 21 carries. Penalties hurt, especially in the second half when they were dinged eight times for 65 yards. It is clear, Ohio State’s offense needs to solve the red-zone issues with the big games coming up.

                The Ohio State defense, on the other hand, looked solid most of the day. Despite giving up a couple of big plays, they held Nebraska to converting a mere two of 13 third-down conversions, sacked Adrian Martinez five times, had eight TFLs, forced a fumble and an interception. Cody Simon turned in his best game, with eight tackles to lead the way. Also playing well was Ronnie Hickman with seven tackles and a sack, and Steele Chambers, with his interception that ended Nebraska’s last possession. Tyreke Smith had on of everything: a sack, a tackle for loss, a pass break-up, and a QB hurry. He was causing problems in the Nebraska backfield all game long.

                Center Luke Wypler was a late-game hero when he fell on the ball after Stroud was stripped late in the game, preventing Nebraska from having a chance at a go-ahead score. This also called in to question the play calling at that point in the game. Having Stroud roll out, without protection, attempting to throw, in a situation where running the clock is priority, was almost disastrous.

                For the second game in a row, we witnessed obviously poor officiating. Nebraska was screwed on a third quarter “kick catch interference” call where the Nebraska defender no way impeded Jaxson Smith-Njigba’s fielding of the punt. Some obvious holding calls against Nebraska went uncalled as well as well as a catch by Chris Olave near the sideline that he was screwed out of.

                The stakes for Ohio State only get higher as Purdue comes into the ‘Shoe next week. The Boilers are known for upsetting higher-ranked teams, as they did to Ohio State in 2018 and to Iowa and Michigan State this year. The Ohio State offense needs more touchdowns in the red zone if they expect to come through this last stretch of the regular season unscathed.