Northwestern headed into Ohio State with an overwhelming losing streak in Columbus. The last time the Wildcats won in Columbus was 1971, when Woody Hayes was at the height of his terrifying powers, able to infiltrate his players' subconscious and force them to do hamburger drills in their dreams. Since then, Ohio State has remained on a more or less continuous rampage through the Big Ten while Northwestern's football team spent the late 70s and 80s aerating their and their opponents' fields by getting repeatedly pile-driven through it.
unorthodox tactic of punting enormous, blimp-sized
footballs at opponents and then tackling them in the
ensuing confusion
The Wildcats came into the game as heavy underdogs, but this is not the same team that got the Fatal Doink from Illinois State.