Buckeyes Barely Beat Huskers as Blackshirts Battle Back and Baffle the Bettors

ThotDoc's Brain Droppings on the Nebraska-Ohio State football game.

Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback Dylan Raiola (15) looks to hand off during the second half of the NCAA football game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. Ohio State won 21-17. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On another beautiful fall afternoon in the Horseshoe the #4 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes came from behind in the fourth quarter to edge the Nebraska Cornhuskers 21-17. The Buckeyes were 25 ½ point favorites over the visitors who were blown out in Bloomington a week ago 56-7. But the Huskers played with tremendous heart and effort and had several opportunities to get their first road win against a Top Ten ranked opponent since 1997 (Washington).

Unfortunately, with the loss, a few sad streaks were extended. The Huskers have now lost 27 straight games against ranked opponents, including 18 of those on the road. They are also 0-6 in games played to clinch bowl eligibility in the Matt Rhule era. Four more chances remain as the Huskers head into November with the same 5-3 record they had last season.

But this game stood in stark contrast to the effort last week as the team rebounded to regain some necessary confidence for the stretch run as well as some respect from a highly regarded opponent. I’m not sure too many pundits saw this coming. I had hoped that the team could manage to stay at least within a few points of the spread when I predicted a 38-14 OSU win. However, Matt Rhule said in his postgame presser that it was the first time since he's been here that he’d felt a championship mindset in the locker room. "I thought they grew up. I challenged them, 'It better look this way next week.'" As 19th century American novelist James Lane Allen is said to have quipped, “Adversity does not build character; it reveals it.” The Huskers responded to last week’s embarrassment and revealed what they are made of.

This was another game in which the defense kept Nebraska in the contest. OSU reloads annually with a bevy of future NFL receivers and their freshman WR Jeremiah Smith scored on a 60-yard touchdown reception and Carnell Tate had 4 catches for 102 yards and a 40-yard TD play. Their final score was a well-executed 9-yard TD toss to running back Quinshon Judkins out of the backfield for the game-winner. Rhule remarked that those three plays were the exception on an afternoon that the Blackshirts were probably the more dominant defense. Of Ohio State’s 11 drives, they had the three scores, but six drives were halted with a 3 and out and a turnover on downs, one resulted in a missed field goal, and one was a 1-play drive that ended with an interception. Ohio State was 1 for 10 on third down conversions. Ohio State managed just 23 yards in the third quarter, and the Nebraska defense held Ohio state to season lows of 64 rushing yards, 285 total yards and 21 points. The Buckeyes’ previous lows had been 141 rushing yards (at Oregon), 412 total yards (vs. Iowa) and 31 points (at Oregon).

Quinshon Judkins came into the game averaging nearly seven yards a carry and Co-starter TreVeyon Henderson was averaging more than eight. Judkins averaged 2.9 yards on 10 carries and Henderson averaged 2.5 yards on his ten totes. The Buckeyes averaged just 2.1 yards rushing as a team. The Blackshirts recorded two sacks, tying for the most allowed by Ohio State in a game this season as they had only allowed five sacks in the previous six games. The defense also had seven tackles for loss, the most allowed by Ohio State in a game this season.

DeShon Singleton led the defense with 10 stops and three of Jimari Butler’s five tackles were tackles for loss (a career high) including a sack and four solo stops. Butler ran all over the Buckeyes reserve left tackle. MJ Sherman also had a career high two tackles for loss including a sack. Malcolm Hartzog Jr. got burned on one of the Buckeyes scores but redeemed himself with his team-leading fourth interception of the season in the third quarter where he returned it to the OSU 7-yard line. The offense failed to turn that opportunity into a score and that may have been the difference in the final tally.

Amazingly, the Ohio State offense was not called for a single penalty. Please allow a brief rant on the officiating. How hard is it to spot the ball? Emmett Johnson had a first down by nearly two yards at the end of the first half and the ball was marked a yard short costing the Huskers at least 18 seconds off the clock. Then in the third quarter after Hartzog’s pick, on third and goal Jaylen Lloyd got inside the 1-yard line and the ball was marked back at the two. The play sent in was based on the ball at the one and Dante Dowdell came up less than a yard short on fourth down. The offensive interference calls were almost criminal and Buckeye coach Ryan Day slams his headset to the ground and touches an official and gets a sideline warning. Someone far more objective than me might assume that the Big Ten was trying to ensure that the Buckeyes make the playoffs and their officials ruled accordingly. But it’s not a one-game thing. The refs are bad every week.

On offense, Dylan Raiola finished 21-for-32 for 152 yards, with no touchdowns and an interception on a badly thrown ball on the Huskers last possession. He missed some open receivers, but plays with courage and continues to function as a surprising 19-year-old team leader. He also found out that he can take advantage of a defense playing man-to man by scrambling more than normal. He finished with nine carries for a career best 31 yards rushing and his 38-yard run in the second quarter to set up a Nebraska field goal was the longest by Nebraska in a Big Ten game this season. With Rahmir Johnson not suited up, Dante Dowdell led all rushers with 60 yards on 14 carries including a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to give Nebraska the lead. Emmett Johnson added 30 yards on 8 carries as the Huskers totaled 121 yards on the ground versus the 70 last week against Indiana. I tend to believe the Buckeye defense is better than the Hoosiers so that is a step in the right direction.

Jacory Barney Jr. had seven catches for 49 yards to increase his total to 34 receptions this season He is just the fifth Husker freshman and second true freshman to catch 30 passes in a season. Tight end Thomas Fidone II caught four passes for 55 yards, including a 33-yard catch in the fourth quarter. With his four receptions today, Fidone has 49 career receptions and is one catch from becoming the 11th tight end in program history with 50 career receptions. Jamal Banks added 2 catches for 31 yards but continues to struggle greatly with blocking on the perimeter.

Play-calling continued to be a bit of a mystery as six of Raiola’s 21 completed passes were screens or flat passes that lost a total of 9 yards. Inexplicably, two of those calls came on the Huskers final drive, hardly putting the Huskers in a position to secure the winning score. When a play doesn’t work all game, why does one think it will work with the game on the line?

Special teams were a mixed blessing but at least were not all bad this week. The highlight was the place-kicking of John Hohl who connected on field goals of 39 and 54 yards in the second quarter, and a 47-yard field goal in the third quarter.  Those are the three longest field goals of the season by Nebraska. Hohl was previously just 1 for 5 kicking with just a 21-yarder to his credit. It’s amazing what can happen when the snap can get to the holder without all the drama. Punter Brian Buschini was more inconsistent than normal as he averaged 40.8 yards on six kicks with a long of 52 yards. The return game produced a total of 3 yards, not to mention Kwinten Ives muffing the initial kickoff and recovering at the 9-yard line. Place-kicking may prove important in the remaining games and Hohl’s prowess today was encouraging.

After back-to back road losses to ranked opponents, the Huskers return home to face a 2-5 UCLA squad that beat Rutgers 35-32 in Piscataway last weekend. The Bruins will be coming off a bye week as will all five of our opponents from Indiana to Wisconsin. Something seems a bit rotten with that kind of Big Ten scheduling. Beating the Bruins to become bowl-eligible seems a lot more doable after today than it did after last week’s humiliation. The defense has the chops to keep us in every game left on the schedule. If the offense can figure out how to gain any kind of consistency and develop an identity, the Huskers can garner a few more wins and make this season a positive sign of development. Let’s see if the Husker faithful can develop some of the character displayed by our guys on the field. Go Big Red!!

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