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Ohio State Football: 3 takeaways from 2020 Big Ten title win over Northwestern

By James Costanz

Dec 19, 2020; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes running back Trey Sermon (middle left) holds the Big 10 Conference championship trophy as quarterback Justin Fields (middle) and head coach Ryan Day (right) look on after defeating the Northwestern Wildcats at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 19, 2020; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes running back Trey Sermon (middle left) holds the Big 10 Conference championship trophy as quarterback Justin Fields (middle) and head coach Ryan Day (right) look on after defeating the Northwestern Wildcats at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /
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Ohio State football was able to fend off a scrappy Northwestern team en route to its fourth consecutive Big Ten title. Where do the Buckeyes go from here?

This year’s Big Ten title game came on the heels of an abbreviated season and some late rule changes for the conference. At the end of the day, we ended up at Lucas Oil Stadium with Northwestern and Ohio State. Both teams battled tooth and nail in a sloppy, tightly contested game.

Ohio State got off to a very slow start offensively. They kicked off the game with a 16-play drive but were only able to get three points out of it.

Northwestern’s offense on the other hand was pushing the ball effectively led by Peyton Ramsey who was great early on. The Wildcats were able to pick up a 10-6 lead going into half time using their quick strike offense and a sensational pick by Brandon Joseph (who leads the FBS with six interceptions).

The second half showed sloppy play by both plays and started with an interception by each quarterback on their opening drive. Northwestern had another great drive going for 66 yards on 10 plays, but ended in disaster as Ramsey threw his first pick of the day in the end zone.

Justin Fields would then throw his second pick of the day to erase some of the momentum they built up and continued his rough afternoon.

Ohio State would take the lead late in the third quarter on the back of Trey Sermon who was phenomenal when they needed him most. Sermon had the greatest rushing performance in Ohio State history and even that title may not do his performance justice.

Northwestern had two problems that stopped them from pulling off this upset.  One was not being able to finish off productive drives with points. The other was Ramsey having three turnovers in the second half. The Wildcats battled hard and gave the Buckeyes a scare, but were not able to pull off the upset in the end.

The Buckeyes were able to finish strong and win their fourth straight Big Ten title. What did we learn?

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