Even a baseball fan knows that when you’re squared off against a college football superpower such as No. 2-ranked Ohio State, you don’t fumble away a prime scoring opportunity on your very opening possession.
And perhaps the very last thing you do is what Northwestern did Saturday with 5:55 left in the first half of what, to that point, had been a surprisingly competitive 7-7 game at Wrigley Field. In punt formation from the Wildcats’ 31-yard line, long snapper Will Halkyard sailed the ball through the fingertips of leaping punter Hunter Renner, who raced back to retrieve the ball at the goal line, made one Buckeye miss and — instead of taking a safety, which would’ve been the right play — tried to boot the ball away. David Adolph easily blocked the kick, and running back Quinshon Judkins plunged in from the 1-yard line two plays later for a seven-point lead that would balloon into a final score of 31-7.
The Buckeyes (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten) — owners of the nation’s top-ranked defense coming in — then forced a three-and-out, making way for their offense to drive 77 yards for a touchdown that made it 21-7 with 47 seconds left in the half. That quickly, a highly promising start during which the Wildcats (4-6, 2-5 Big Ten) built a 151-30 edge in yardage over their first two possessions turned into a blowout the other way.
The Wildcats never reawakened on offense. Perhaps in homage to a Cubs team that couldn’t buy a run in May or June, they were outgained 390-100 and shut out after those first two possessions.
Things heat up from here for the Buckeyes, who get unbeaten Indiana next before heading to Michigan and, they hope, the Big Ten championship game and the College Football Playoff after that.
Ohio State has won 11 straight against Northwestern, with the last Widcats win coming in 2004.