Minnesota played almost exactly the game it wanted to play against Ohio State. The Gophers were methodical. They handed the ball to Mo Ibrahim over and over. They bled the clock.
And Ohio State rendered it all meaningless with a handful of big plays in a 45-31 win to open the season on Thursday night at Huntington Bank Stadium.
All the elements were there for the Buckeyes to fall victim to an upset and lose their first game of the season in 22 years. The redshirt freshman quarterback looked a little nervous and off-target at times. The Gophers were playing keep away on offense. There were turnovers and penalties (one that even negated a turnover) and a rabid home crowd. They’re all the ingredients that end up in games like this going to the underdog.
But the Buckeyes just had too much firepower.
Miyan Wilson got Ohio State on the scoreboard first with a 71-yard run down the right sideline on which he outran the entire Gopher defense. After a series of unfortunate events (a C.J. Stroud interception, a gutsy fourth-down conversion for Minnesota from its own 29 and an Ibrahim touchdown), Minnesota had a 14-10 lead at halftime.
It took Ohio State exactly two minutes and 17 seconds to get that lead back. Chris Olave, who had been held to one catch for seven yards in the first half, caught two for 49 on the opening drive of the third quarter, including a 38-yard touchdown grab that put the Buckeyes back in front.
After another Ibrahim touchdown, the Buckeyes really broke out the big plays. Garrett Wilson—who had four catches for 24 yards up until that point—broke wide open down the middle and hauled in what might have been Stroud’s best pass of the night for a 56-yard touchdown.
At that point, it looked like it might be a back and forth battle. Minnesota would chart its way down the field a few yards at a time. Ohio State would get it back and score in a lightning strike. And so it would go.
But that’s when the Ohio State defense got in on the big play fun. Zach Harrison hit Gopher quarterback Tanner Morgan and raked the ball loose with his right arm. Haskell Garrett plucked the ball at the Gophers’ 32-yard line, never broke stride and rumbled into the end zone for a 31-21 lead.
The Gophers never had a chance to tie or take the lead again. They did claw back within seven at 31-24 and force Ohio State into third down and five. And true freshman TreVeyon Henderson promptly took a screen pass 70 yards for a touchdown. Minnesota made it a seven-point game again. And Olave tiptoed the sideline, cut back and went 61 yards for yet another big play TD.
With seven minutes left in the game, Minnesota had held the ball for more than 35 minutes and had better than a two-to-one edge in football’s most meaningless stat, time of possession. The Gophers ended up playing offense for 39 of the game's 60 minutes. Of course Ohio State scored six touchdowns on six plays that covered 328 yards, including one on defense. Ballgame. In a flash. Slow and steady can’t win a race against that.
Thus is the issue for the rest of the Big Ten. The Buckeyes have now won 19 straight conference games and have taken the first step toward their fifth consecutive conference title. They did it on a night when they were less than their best, when their opponent played more or less the game it wanted to, on the road in front of a rabid crowd. The ingredients were all there and still the Buckeyes withstood the upset bid. If it’s not going to happen on a night like this, when is it going to happen?
The truth is, it probably isn’t. Ohio State is a prohibitive favorite to win the league again and very well could do it without a loss. But that doesn’t mean the season is without its challenges. The first one came Thursday night. The second comes to Ohio Stadium in the form of the 11th-ranked Oregon Ducks a week from Saturday. And when you get everyone’s best shot, when you’re the biggest game on every opponent’s schedule, it’s tough to predict from exactly where the challenges will come.
Ohio State did not show it was invincible on Thursday night. It simply showed it doesn’t have to be near its best to win. It needs to make a few plays here and there. That’s usually more than enough. It certainly was on Thursday.
