Ohio State Football: 3 takeaways from tight win over Nebraska

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Nebraska is the best “bad” team in the country. Ohio State football found that out the hard way on Saturday afternoon as the Cornhuskers gave the Buckeyes all they could handle before finally escaping with a win.

Ohio State nearly had some critical mistakes, but a field goal late in the fourth quarter to go ahead by nine and subsequent interception of Adrian Martinez put this game away.

CJ Stroud had a solid game with over 400 yards and two touchdowns, but his mistakes nearly cost the Buckeyes a road win and playoff berth.

What’d we learn from this one?

3. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a budding superstar

When you think of Ohio State receivers, the first two names that immediately come to mind are Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, but that’s slowly starting to change.

While the two aforementioned names are stars and Olave is arguably one of college football’s biggest superstars, Jaxon Smith-Njigba is starting to steal the spotlight a little bit. And he did more of that on Saturday afternoon with a monster game, going for over 200 yards on over 10 catches.

Smith-Njigba recorded just the fifth 200-yard receiving game in Ohio State history and was incredibly clutch for the Buckeyes all afternoon long.

Now when people talk about the Ohio State offense, Smith-Njigba has to be one of the first names mentioned and he has to even be in the Big Ten Receiver of the Year race.