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Last year, the Ohio State Buckeyes came into their game against Nebraska licking their wounds.
The game before, unranked Purdue smoked then-No. 2 OSU 49-20, a result which wound up costing the Buckeyes a shot at the College Football Playoff.
The Buckeyes then had an off week to think about things before facing the Cornhuskers at Ohio Stadium on Nov. 3. But Nebraska was going through its worst season in just about anybody’s memory so at least the Buckeyes were welcoming an opponent that they would blow out, right?
Eh, not so much.
Turns out the Cornhuskers, who came into the game 2-6 (with one of those wins over FCS program Bethune-Cookman), brought the fight to the Buckeyes.
Adrian Martinez (pictured), a true freshman starting at quarterback, ran for two touchdowns and threw for another and Nebraska stayed with OSU all the way before the scarlet and gray prevailed 36-31. The Huskers led 21-16 at halftime.
One game after looking completely unprepared against the Boilermakers, OSU didn’t look to be in any better shape to face the rigors of Big Ten life against a Nebraska team that was headed for its second consecutive 4-8 season. OSU won, but it hardly looked like a team which would go on to capture the conference championship a month later.
And this year’s version of the Cornhuskers, who host the Buckeyes this Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC), look to be better than last year.
Of course, so far, this year’s Buckeyes seem much better prepared.
After an easy, but somehow not totally convincing, 45-21 victory over Florida Atlantic in the opener, OSU has put a hurting on its past three overmatched opponents by an average of 56-5.
The Buckeyes always bring a ton of talented athletes. But what they seem to have this year, which was often missing last year, is the tenacity and discipline to back it up.
Last year OSU allowed 450 yards to Nebraska, 184 rushing and 266 passing. That type of performance was not atypical of the 2018 Buckeyes, who ranked 69th in the FBS in total defense after that game. That type of effort, seen often in 2018, was just barely good enough to win each week — until that night in West Lafayette when it totally wasn’t.
For all of OSU’s talent and all of the records that Dwayne Haskins and the offense set, those mediocre defensive efforts were hard to ignore.
This season seems different in Columbus. Sure, the opposition has not been impressive — three nonconference teams from the Group of 5 and an Indiana program which has not defeated OSU since the late 1980s.
But even against those types of teams last year, OSU often looked lethargic. Giving up 450 yards to a mediocre Nebraska team, at home, sounds pretty bad until you realize that there were four other games when OSU allowed more yards. Allowing 31 points to the Cornhuskers? Heck, that was nothing compared to the 49 allowed against Purdue or the 51 surrendered to Maryland.
There have been no such lapses this year for the Buckeyes defense, at least through four games. OSU is second in the nation in total defense, allowing 222 yards a game (B1G rival Wisconsin is first at 171.3 ypg).
Hard-hitting, high-energy players such as lineman Chase Young and linebacker Malik Harrison have become the personification of the OSU defense. The tackling is surer, the pass coverage better, the effort more apparent on defense in 2019.
So yes, Nebraska will bring a better team to face the Buckeyes than last year. The Cornhuskers already own three victories, one short of last season (and the year before) after just four weeks. Martinez is still a dangerous dual-threat quarterback, the defense has forced 10 turnovers (only four teams in the nation have forced more) and the program seems to be headed in the right direction under second-year coach Scott Frost.
The Buckeyes will be aware of all of this. If they remember 2018 at all, they will be eager to prove just how aware of Nebraska they are.
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.