Ohio State football: 3 takeaways from ugly win over Northwestern

As they say, a win is a win. However, I’m sure that the Ohio State football faithful would’ve preferred to not have a one-score game in the fourth quarter against 1-7 Northwestern.

The Buckeyes played well enough to win, but not by much, which is concerning going into the home stretch.

Today we’ll break down those concerns, and what we can take away from them going forward.

3. Ohio State needs TreVeyon Henderson healthy

The injury that’s been on everyone’s mind for the Buckeyes has been Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The star receiver has been banged up since the opening game against Notre Dame and hasn’t seen much action this season. Ohio State’s stable of five-star receivers has picked up the slack though, as Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, and Julian Fleming have all stepped in and played well.

The run game has not had that luxury. With an injury that has been deemed “not severe” by Ryan Day, TreVeyon Henderson has seen limited action since OSU’s game against Michigan State.

Miyan Williams has been seeing a lot more action and hasn’t really matched Henderson’s production. This continued on Saturday when he had 26 carries for 111 yards, but failed to really get things going until later in the game. He also struggled to pick up yards when they really needed them, failing to gain anything on a few third and fourth-and-short situations.

On days like today where the weather made it hard to throw the football, the rushing attack needs to be there in order to be successful. Without Henderson, it was a struggle for Ohio State, and they need him back as soon as possible.