Nearing the end of an incredibly uplifting season, Northwestern came up just short against Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game. After a fantastic first half in which Pat Fitzgerald’s team led 10-6, the NU offense fell apart and Ryan Day and the OSU offense made adjustments — sort of. Though the ground game was certainly humming behind a record-breaking 331-yard performance from Trey Sermon, the Justin Fields-led passing game underwhelmed.
While the future top-10 draft pick looked more in stride as the game progressed, the sheer brilliance that Fields exhibited with Ohio State throughout the 2019 and 2020 seasons did not exist inside Lucas Oil Stadium.