No. 2 Ohio State survived its first test of the 2017 season, beating Indiana 49-21 on the road Thursday night in Bloomington. The Hoosiers hosted College GameDay for the first time in school history, and the Indiana crowd was fired up for the school’s biggest opener ever.
Ohio State surges past Indiana in Big Ten opener
The Hoosiers came out strong, but the Buckeyes proved to be too much in the second half.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
The Hoosiers came out strong in the first half, scoring a pair of touchdowns and holding the Buckeyes to just a TD and two field goals to lead 14-13 at halftime. But Ohio State’s offense would get going, scoring a touchdown on its second possession of the second half.
OSU receiver Parris Campbell had a brutal drop at the start of the third quarter on what would have been a touchdown thrown by quarterback J.T. Barrett, but he would redeemed himself. He followed that up later with this 74-yard catch-and-run score that put Ohio State up 27-21 with 4:38 left in the third.
Ohio State then took things over and scored three more unanswered touchdowns, sealing the Buckeyes victory.
Although this game was pretty close in the beginning, the result was as expected: Ohio State took care of business against a pesky, yet overmatched Indiana team on the road. One of the more impressive stars of the night was true freshman running back J.K. Dobbins, who had 181 yards in running back Mike Weber’s absence. Ohio State’s rushing defense was especially dominant, holding the Hoosiers to just 17 yards on the night. Buckeye quarterback J.T. Barrett finished with 304 yards passing and four touchdowns, too.
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The Big Ten football season opened Thursday night, with Ohio State visiting Indiana in Bloomington.
It was the first time Indiana has ever hosted (or even been involved in a game with) ESPN’s College GameDay. It was also the Buckeyes’ first game in a year with huge expectations. It’s the Hoosiers’ first game with new head coach Tom Allen, and their old head coach, Kevin Wilson, is now the offensive coordinator for the team they’re playing.
The Hoosiers had been trying to land GameDay for a while. They famously made a push to host the show in 2015, when they were 4-0 and hosting the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes. It didn’t happen that year, with the show visiting a Notre Dame-Clemson game in Death Valley instead. But the Hoosiers have made two bowls in a row, and this game was on a light Thursday evening, and it got the national spotlight.
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