Ohio State’s sleepy win over Northwestern: Cause for concern or lookahead game?

If you spent the early part of your Saturday afternoon grabbing brunch and just took a peek at the box score of Ohio State's win over Northwestern at Wrigley Field, chances are you wouldn't think much of it. The Wildcats scored first, but the Buckeyes quickly threw up three straight touchdowns, leading 21-7 at the half and cruising to a 31-7 win that never felt seriously in doubt.

On paper, this was as ho-hum as it gets. Ohio State outgained Northwestern by 170 total yards and nearly four yards per play. Will Howard averaged over 10 yards per attempt, while both Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson averaged over five yards per carry. Jeremiah Smith put up 100 more yards, the defense racked up four sacks, an easy business trip. Right?

Unfortunately, they don't play these games on paper. And to anyone who actually watched the Buckeyes slog through a 4-6 opponent, it's hard not to feel very concerned ahead of a season-defining matchup against undefeated Indiana next weekend.

Ohio State looks shaky ahead of showdown with Indiana

For starters, it's not hard to imagine this game being interesting into the second half — if not a whole lot longer — had Northwestern not handed it to Ohio State on a silver platter. The Wildcats marched all over the Buckeyes defense early, only for Northwestern QB Jack Lausch to fumble deep in Buckeye territory on his team's first drive. Then, in the second quarter, the Wildcats saw a snap fly over the punter's head to set up an easy Ohio State TD, followed by another fumble that set up another score. What could very well have been a Northwestern lead at the half instead was 21-7 Ohio State, allowing the Buckeyes to shift things into second gear and cruise to the finish.

Ohio State's defense eventually figured things out, cranking up the pressure once they had a two-possession lead. But don't be mistaken: This was another troubling performance for Jim Knowles' unit, both up front and in the secondary. The vaunted Buckeye defensive line again seemed oddly passive for much of the first half, while cornerback Denzel Burke was Moss'd repeatedly en route to a big day from Northwestern wideout Bryce Kirtz. Any question marks you had about this unit after it got fileted by Dillon Gabriel, chances are they reared their heads on Saturday afternoon.

Which is a problem, considering that the other elite offense on Ohio State's schedule is set to come to Columbus a week from now. Kurtis Rourke and the Indiana Hoosiers have been lighting up scoreboards all season long, and while they were slowed a bit by Michigan last weekend, they're not an offense that the Buckeyes can afford to sleepwalk their way through. The Wolverines were able to throttlet Indiana by controlling the line of scrimmage; if Ohio State struggled to do that against Northwestern (and several other teams on their schedule), what makes anyone think they can do it against a top-five team?

Day's ability to avoid the sorts of upsets that plagued the latter years of the Urban Meyer era is commendable, and likely the single biggest reason he's still the coach at Ohio State. But eventually, floor isn't enough; you need to show a higher ceiling to get where Day and the Buckeyes want to go, and this is yet another instance in which the Buckeyes fell short of that mark. Maybe they were simply looking ahead a week, figuring they didn't have to get out of third gear and could prioritize staying healthy and getting back home. But this is yet another week in which Ohio State to physically overwhelm an inferior opponent, and it's hard not to think that it'll eventually cost them.