A 52-17 score usually means that the winners didn’t have a lot of problems in the game.
Sometimes the numbers can be misleading.
The Buckeyes dominated Nebraska on the scoreboard but had some issues, especially early in the game. Most of the issues surrounded the running game on both offense and defense.
Nebraska rushed for 217 net yards against a revamped OSU defense. Most of those yards came from the quarterback position where Luke McCaffery rushed for 87 net yards and Adrian Martinez added 77 net yard for a total of 164 on the ground from the Nebraska quarterbacks.
The Buckeyes had their problems with a running quarterback, but defensively they had little trouble with anything else the Huskers did on offense. Cornhusker running backs produced a total of 55 net yards and the Nebraska passing game mustered only 160 total yards on 20 pass attempts.
Still, Nebraska moved the ball via the quarterback run, but couldn’t turn that production into a lot of scoring, which once again means that sometimes the numbers can be misleading.
Offensively the Buckeyes had problems establishing a tailback running game of their own. Master Teague and Trey Sermon got most the carries in the absence of the now-graduated J.K. Dobbins and to say that the sledding was tough would be kind, particularly early in the game. They did, however, have an answer in their own quarterback running game where Justin Fields regularly found ground yardage when the Buckeyes needed it. In the air, however, OSU dominated. Fields was an incredible 20-21 passing for 276 yards and two touchdowns for a 237.1 quarterback rating.
The game was relatively close until the Buckeyes went on a scoring binge late in the first half and early in the second half to put the game away.
Nebraska scored a touchdown with 8:24 remaining in the first half to tie the game at 14. The Buckeyes answered with a field goal with 3:12 remaining to make it 17-14. The OSU defense then rose up and got a stop and Garrett Wilson gave the offense favorable field position with his punt return. OSU quickly went 46 yards in five plays to put another touchdown on the board with just 1:10 left in the half. Teague went the final six yards on the drive to put OSU up 24-14. OSU took the second-half kickoff and and went 75 yards in five plays with fields going the last 17 on the ground to score. That made it 31-14 OSU and 17-straight points for the Buckeyes. They put the dagger in Nebraska on the Huskers following possession. Sevyn Banks scooped up a Nebraska fumble and returned it 55 yards for a score to make it 24 unanswered points and 38-14 on the scoreboard.
From that point on the OSU defense seemed to finally find its stride and shut out the Huskers the rest of the way. OSU’s running game also came to life with Steele Chambers getting four carries for 32 yards. His numbers weren’t huge, but his yardage came after OSU was backed up in the shadow of their own goal post inside the 10-yard line after a Nebraska punt. Chambers got them out of the hole with his running and helped keep the Huskers at bay.
OSU sophomore wide receiver Garrett Wilson had a great day receiving with seven catches for 129 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 18.4 yards per catch. He also added 23 yards on four punt returns.
Perhaps the most spectacular catch of the day was made by true freshman Jackson Smith-Njingba who snared a pass from fields in the back of the endzone and somehow managed to get a toe down in bounds to score the touchdown. The photo at the top of this page is that catch.
PHOTO COURTESY OF OSU ATHLETICS