EVANSTON, Ill. — Junior quarterback Justin Fields threw four touchdown passes for the Buckeyes (7-0, 4-0) in Ohio State’s 52-3 win at Northwestern Friday night. He completed 18-of-23 passes for 194 yards with no interceptions.
Fields was accompanied on offense by junior running back JK Dobbins, who rushed for 121 yards on 18 carries, which included a 68-yard run. Dobbins’ 68-yarder was one of three rushes of at least 50 yards for Ohio State on the night. Redshirt freshman Master Teague went 73 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, and true freshman Marcus Crowley went 53 yards a few minutes later.
The Buckeyes’ first drive was a screaming indicator of what was to come in this game, as the Buckeyes went 70 yards in 10 plays for a touchdown to open the game. The drive ended when Fields found sophomore receiver Chris Olave for a 20-yard touchdown down the middle of the field.
Northwestern provided a semblance of an answer a couple of drives later, thanks to a 33-yard field goal from Charlie Kuhbander.
That answer fell on deaf ears, however, as for the second game in a row, the Buckeyes would go on to score 24 points in the second quarter.
The first score came from a 19-yard pass from Fields to Dobbins, capping a 12-play, 75-yard drive.
On OSU’s next possession, Dobbins took a hand-off through the front line of the Northwestern defense and skated down the field for 67 yards, getting tackled at the 5-yard line. He got the ball on the next snap and went wide to the left untouched for the touchdown to make it 21-3.
With under five minutes to play in the half, the Wildcats went three-and-out, but the snap on the ensuing punt hit an up-man and was recovered at Northwestern’s 15-yard line. Two plays later and Fields found Olave from eight yards out for the score to make it 28-3.
Ohio State’s 22nd, 23rd, and 24th points of the quarter came via a 55-yard field goal at the end of the half by Blake Haubeil.
The Buckeye offense opened the third quarter just as they closed the second. Justin Fields was outstanding, completing all five of his pass attempts, culminating in a 23-yard touchdown pass to Austin Mack down the left sideline.
At 38-3, things almost began to slow down for the Buckeye offense. They certainly slowed down for the Wildcats, who tried to run the clock out as best as they could.
Fifth-year senior quarterback Chris Chugunov added a 7-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Jeremy Ruckert. Teague’s 73-yard touchdown run ended the Buckeyes’ scoring on the day.
Ohio State put up 480 yards of total offense, becoming the first team this season to manage more than 400 yards of offense against the Northwestern defense.
Junior linebacker Malik Harrison led the Ohio State defense with nine tackles. Junior defensive end Chase Young had a sack for the ninth-consecutive game.
Northwestern managed 199 yards of total offense for the game. The Wildcat quarterbacks completed just 6-of-21 passes for 42 yards, throwing a pair of interceptions.
Andrew- can you believe Wisky today? Way to take the air out of next week’s game, cheeseheads!
What a game though…. maybe the best of the year so far.
What shocked me about it was how lassez faire Chryst was about it. Even as sloppily as the Bad-gers played they could’ve won it with even competent coaching.
Pretty sure the Buckeyes were also the 1st team to get more than 300 total yards vs. NW’s D? Conversely, nobody’s gotten more than 285 yards (Sparty, I believe?) vs. The Silver Bullets this year.