What they're saying about Michigan's upcoming opponents Northwestern and Ohio State
The Michigan Wolverines were off this Saturday in the second of its two bye weeks this season, but was granted a look at their next two opponents in Northwestern and Ohio State. The Buckeyes went to Wrigley Field and dominated the Wildcats 31-7.
Here is a recap of what some outlets said after the two programs met on the field on Saturday afternoon on the North side of Chicago.
Spencer Holbrook, Letterman Row
Ohio State must clean up defensive miscues
Northwestern opened the day’s scoring with a 92-yard drive on 13 plays for a touchdown. The Wildcats gashed Ohio State on third down in the first half and put pressure on Jim Knowles’ defense. That shouldn’t happen, especially for a Buckeyes defense that was going against one of the five worst offenses in the country. The scoreboard shows a dominant effort with just one scoring drive allowed, but the eye test said otherwise: the Buckeyes have issues to clean up.
Oh, and Ohio State also had a couple of key penalties on defense. Ty Hamilton was flagged for an obvious facemask penalty. Of course, Davison Igbinosun was dinged for his weekly defensive pass interference call, too. Those gaffs can’t happen against better teams.
This wasn’t a sound defensive effort. Ohio State was fortunate to be playing such a dreadful offense on Saturday, because better offensive attacks — the one one it’ll see next week — can take better advantage of those miscues.
Cameron Teague Robinson, The Athletic
Ohio State rolls over Northwestern as it readies for yet another top-5 matchup
This might’ve been Howard’s best game as a thrower.
The stats aren’t going to tell the entire story — he completed 15 of 24 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns. He’s had games like that before, and his Oregon game was a better statistical performance. But the praise for Howard comes with his ability to throw at every level on Saturday. He’s been extremely accurate this season, with a 74 percent completion rate, but most of that has been on short-to-medium throws.
On Saturday, he made some nice throws downfield. He had a 34-yard pass to tight end Gee Scott that was put in the perfect spot, with a defender draped all over Scott down the middle of the field.
He hit Jeremiah Smith for what looked like a 37-yard touchdown in the first quarter, but it was overturned because the ball hit the ground in Smith’s hands. Still, it might go down as one of Howard’s best passes of the season.
Earlier this week, Day and Howard both said the misses downfield for Howard come down to his footwork and that was a focus over the past few weeks.
That extra time showed up on Saturday.
“It was better this week, so we’ll keep working on it,” Day said.
Saturday was a good time for Howard to find success throwing downfield, because Northwestern wanted to load the box and stop the run. The Wildcats have been good in that area this season, giving up just 108 yards per game, so Ohio State had to stretch the field to open things up.
“If they’re going to put that many people in the box, you have to stretch them vertically,” Day said.
Ohio State has gotten the good version of Howard more often than not this season, but if he can consistently hit the deep ball, to pair with his legs and underneath accuracy, the Buckeyes offense can be deadly.
Ralph D. Russo, The Athletic
What we learned about the CFP in Week 12: Georgia’s still alive, an SEC-Big Ten debate looms
For No. 2 Ohio State, next week’s game against No. 5 Indiana could be its third top-five matchup of the season, unless the rankings change on Tuesday.
The Buckeyes are 1-1 on the road against Oregon and Penn State. They’ll host the Hoosiers on Saturday. For Indiana, a top-five matchup in the regular season would be a program first.
The Hoosiers (10-0) celebrated their off week by giving coach Curt Cignetti an eight-year contract that pays $8 million per year. Meanwhile, Ohio State (9-1) took care of business at Wrigley Field against Northwestern.
Oregon (10-0) slogged through a spotty offensive performance against Wisconsin, and Penn State (9-1) showcased talented tight end Tyler Warren in a lopsided win against Purdue.
That’s four teams with a combined two losses, but because of the SEC’s logjam, the Big Ten’s big four have little room for error.
The winner of next week’s game in Columbus will have the inside track to the Big Ten Championship Game heading into being a big favorite in a rivalry game (Purdue for Indiana and Michigan for Ohio State). The loser of next week’s unlikely marquee matchup probably will find itself compared to at least one or two of those 10-2 SEC teams come selection weekend. The Big Ten’s mushy middle, with no other ranked teams and nonconference schedules with no Power 4 opponents, could be a problem for the Hoosiers or Buckeyes.
Patrick Winograd, Inside NU
Stock up, stock down for Northwestern’s 31-7 loss against No. 2 Ohio State
While giving Ohio State’s defense a lot of credit in this game, Northwestern’s offensive line faltered after the first few drives of the game. Northwestern was forced to alter its play-calling to adapt to the lack of protection, but even when the ‘Cats tried to shift the pocket or run to the outside, it wasn’t enough.
If Northwestern is going to pull of an upset in either of the final two games of the season, the offensive line has to give Jack Lausch more opportunities to throw from a clean pocket, as Lausch was sacked four times in today’s game. Beyond protecting Lausch, 1.7 yards per carry with six tackles for loss for the Ohio State defense is an absolutely dismal performance on the ground, and one the ‘Cats will have to improve on going forward.
Joey Kaufman, Columbus Dispatch
Here are 5 things we learned from the Ohio State Buckeyes’ 31-7 win over Northwestern
Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel picked on Burke last month making him look like a liability in pass coverage. And since Burke’s struggles in Eugene, other passers have shown little hesitation to attack him downfield.
It was late in the first quarter when Northwestern quarterback Jack Lausch saw Bryce Kirtz draw single coverage from Burke, prompting him to loft a pass down the sideline. Kirtz outjumped Burke to pull in the ball for a 21-yard completion.
The Wildcats moved the chains again early in the second quarter as Kirtz beat Burke on a crossing route over the middle of the field for a 12-yard grab.
Kirtz, the Wildcats’ second-leading receiver who had been out the past two weeks with an unspecified injury, pulled in three passes against him.
As the schedule again ramps up, the Buckeyes need Burke, a senior cornerback who has started for them since 2021, to snap out of his slump or they’ll need to look to spell him more with Jermaine Mathews Jr., who rotated for him in the second quarter. Hiding him will be a challenge.
Davis Hale, ESPN.com
College football Week 12 highlights: Top plays, games, takeaways
Ohio State fans are frustrated with so many noon kickoffs this year, noting that only farmers and nerds wake up before 11 a.m. As it turned out Saturday, it was Northwestern who was still asleep at kickoff.
Northwestern somehow held the ball for 32 minutes but managed just 251 yards, spending most of its time on offense working out the details of this year’s team Secret Santa program. Thankfully, the game was played at Wrigley Field, and the Cubs’ bullpen coughed up 31 points in the middle quarters, with Carnell Tate starring. He hauled in four catches for 52 yards and two touchdowns.
Northwestern is the sixth opponent this season Ohio State has held to single digits. Only Oregon has topped 20 against the Buckeyes.
Marcus Hartman, Journal-News.com
ANALYSIS: 5 takeaways from Ohio State’s win over Northwestern
- Northwestern dominated the early part of the game
The Wildcats drove into the Ohio State red zone on their first two possessions, though they only came away with seven points because of a fumble forced by Jack Sawyer and recovered by Davison Igbinosun on the opening drive.
Northwestern had 151 yards after two drives but only 100 the rest of the game, including 48 on the final drive against the Buckeyes’ second-team defense.
“Overall I thought we settled down once those first couple of drives hit,” Day said.
- A couple of Northwestern miscues turned the momentum
The Wildcats’ third drive ended in disaster as a botched snap on a third down forced them to punt for the first time, then the long snap went over punter Hunter Renner’s head on fourth down.
He recovered the ball and tried to get it off, but David Adolph deflected the kick out of bounds at the Northwestern 1, and Ohio State capitalized with a 1-yard touchdown run by Quinshon Judkins.
That gave the Buckeyes a 21-7 lead and all the momentum they would need to take control of the game.
“I thought we did a nice job at the end of the first half going in at the in the third quarter, and that’s very, very important to play that way, but a couple of those turnovers certainly helped us in the first half,” Day said.
