Nebraska running back Dante Dowdell, top, scores a touchdown against Ohio State during the second half Saturday in Columbus. (AP Photo | Jay LaPrete)
By Jim Naveau
COLUMBUS – If Ohio State’s loss to Oregon two weeks ago was a wake-up call for its defense, then maybe its 21-17 win over Nebraska on Saturday delivered the same kind of message to its offense.
The No. 4-ranked Buckeyes came into Saturday’s game averaging 43.5 points and 208.7 yards rushing per game.
But it took a fourth-quarter comeback to put away an opponent which lost 56-7 to Indiana a week ago. And the Buckeyes ran for only 64 yards against the same defense which was torched by the Hoosiers.
If the 104,830 fans at Ohio Stadium would have been polled on their way into the stadium, probably around 0.01 percent would have predicted that OSU wouldn’t finally lock up a win in this game until Jordan Hancock’s interception with 1:16 left to play.
“I think today will wake us up and remind us that we’ve got to continue to grind every single day, every week and not ever get complacent because you never know,” quarterback Will Howard said.
“It wasn’t perfect but a win is a win. Our defense did an unbelievable job of getting some stops and making some really big plays in the fourth quarter and getting us a chance to put that last one in and give us the lead,” he said.
Howard completed 13 of 16 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.
His connected with Carnell Tate on a 40-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter for the first score by OSU (6-1, 3-1 Big Ten), then gave the Buckeyes a 14-3 lead around the midpoint of the second quarter on a 60-yard bomb to Jeremiah Smith.
But that lead slowly eroded then disappeared when Nebraska (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten) got two long field goals and took the lead on a touchdown by Dante Dowdell with 10:47 left in the game.
Ohio State did not get a first down in four possessions in the third quarter which played a role in Nebraska’s comeback.
But a 9-yard touchdown pass from Howard to running back Quinshon Judkins broke the Buckeyes’ second-half offensive drought with 6:04 to play.
“We played angry and played possessed on defense. We won a game on defense, which is great,” OSU coach Ryan Day said.
“We’re going to look back and say we should not be in games like this. Quite honestly that’s the way we look at it. But give Nebraska and Matt (Nebraska coach Matt Rhule) credit for the job they did. We knew they had a tough game last week, we knew they were going to come out and play us really hard,” he said.
“I really like the way the defense played. We played with energy, we played with fire. We kept fighting even though we were in some tough spots early in the game.”
The most glaring shortcoming in Ohio State’s offense was gaining only 64 yards rushing on 31 carries.
Judkins was OSU’s leading rusher with 29 yards on 10 carries and TreVeyon Henderson gained 25 yards on 13 carries.
“We didn’t run the football. We ran it 64 yards. That’s not close to good enough. We averaged under three yards a carry from Quinshon and TreVeyon. That’s not getting it done. We’ve got to do better than that,” Day said.
Part of that issue might have been Ohio State having to playing without starting left tackle Josh Simmons, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against Oregon.
He was replaced by Zen Michalski, who made his first start and played the whole game until suffering an injury of his own and being helped off the field late in the fourth quarter.
“I have all the trust in the world in Zen or whoever is out there. You’ve got to have full faith in that guy. I hope Zen is all right. I’m praying for him. But definitely when you lose a tackle with first round potential (Simmons) it’s tough. That’s a dude we’re going to miss,” Howard said.
