1. Survive and advance. It was downright perplexing at times on the offensive side of the football, but Ohio State WILL be in the college football playoff. The Buckeyes, despite the ups and downs and how choppy this season was, still have every goal in front of them and now have a conference championship to check off the list of goals.
2. The Trey Sermon Game. We saw Sermon getting more and more comfortable in recent games, but this explosion was something else. Yes, the offensive line was mauling people, but Sermon’s vision and leg drive were outstanding. The O-Line set him up to be successful but he maximized the yardage that was available to him with great individual effort. What an amazing performance. Breaking the single-game OSU rushing record against a run defense the quality of Northwestern and when his team needed him the most? What a story.
3. Outstanding performance from Haskell Garrett. Seemed to live in the backfield whether it was blowing up the Northwestern run game or getting pressure on Ramsey. This has been one of the great individual seasons in Ohio State history when you consider what he has gone through to get to this point.
4. Imagine not having Justin Hilliard this season? After years of battling injuries, Hilliard has had moments of brilliance throughout the season. But none bigger than that interception in the end zone on the opening drive of the second half. That was a season saving type of play. Then the forced fumble where he drove the Northwestern lineman into Ramsey and had the awareness to pounce on the loose ball. What a moment for him after all he has been through. He was the best player on the field for Ohio State today and quite honestly that was one of the best single game performances that I’ve seen by an Ohio State linebacker.
5. The defense as a whole started a little slow but was pretty brilliant from the mid-second quarter on. Came up with several big plays to try and change momentum while also getting put into some sudden change situations where they kept the game within reach for the offense. The turnovers were huge in this game both in taking points off the board for Northwestern, in helping OSU score, and in stopping momentum at critical times.
6. Ryan Day is one of the brightest young minds in the sport. He’s going to win a ton of games in his career. But this was by far the worst day he has had as head coach of this program. To not consistently run the football while his backs, particularly Sermon, were gashing Northwestern for 8, 10, 15 yards at a time was inexcusable and cost them a ton of points today. Allowing that delay of game to happen on the 3rd and 2 in Northwestern territory likely cost them a touchdown. Throwing the ball on 2nd and 2 down there instead of continuing to just pound away was inexcusable. Not running the ball at the end of the first half in the red zone with plenty of time and two timeouts was malpractice and likely cost seven more points. Then on 3rd and 4 from the Northwestern five with a chance to take a commanding fourth quarter lead, it should have been four-down territory and two runs. But back to the air and a play that loses yardage and forces you to kick a field goal.
It was like watching Lebron James settle for jump shots and go 4-for-20. It likely won’t happen again, at least not for a very, very long time, but it was bizarre to watch.
7. Josh Proctor. I feel so validated. Was all over the field laying big hits and making big plays. He is just a different level of athlete and needs to get all of the reps, even when everyone else is healthy, to keep developing. This is a future star if he can clean up the occassional poor angle or mental error.
8. Really encouraging stuff from Julian Fleming. After a quiet start to his freshman season, Fleming showed glimpses of why he was ranked the number one receiver in the nation coming out of high school. Made a couple of really nice grabs and was blocking his tail off on the perimeter. Next year’s group of receivers is going to be special and Fleming is going to be a big part of it.
9. Kerry Coombs took a lot of heat for the second half performances of the defense this season. He deserves a lot of praise for the way his unit played in the second half. They were faster and more aggressive in the second half and quickly cooled off a previously red hot Peyton Ramsey.
10. Can Ohio State beat Alabama? I’m not sure. Alabama’s offense is elite, but more importantly, it is set up to exploit some of the defensive issues that Ohio State has had this year and the defense seems to be improving (though we’ll see how it does against Florida tonight). But OSU can definitely beat any other team, and who knows what another couple of weeks of practice could bring given how choppy the lineup has been from week to week. Going to be a fun few weeks for our nation’s most exciting sport.
