The best sight all night for Nebraska was when Tommy Armstrong came strolling back into Ohio Stadium, hospital scrubs and all.
The team’s star quarterback was knocked out briefly after his head hit the turf hard midway through the second quarter. Armstrong was taken to a local Columbus emergency room but returned to the sidelines to plenty of cheers after being checked out and cleared to rejoin his teammates on the sideline.
That was about the lone bright-spot for the Cornhuskers otherwise, as they were streamrolled by Ohio State 62-3 in an impressive statement from the home team many questioned after a shaky month of October.
J.T. Barrett was once again the catalyst for the offense, throwing for 290 yards and four touchdowns while adding another 39 yards with his legs in just three quarters worth of work. After repeated cries from Buckeyes fans to get Curtis Samuel involved more, he responded with 13 touches for 178 yards and found the end zone twice times.
Tailback Mike Weber also chipped in with several tough runs between the tackles and helped Ohio State starters score on every drive they had. Coordinator Greg Schiano’s defense had equally an impressive outing, returning two interceptions to the house and bottling up (and outscoring) Nebraska’s offense all night.
Ryker Fyfe took over for Armstrong at quarterback but was equally ineffective against the swarming Buckeyes and did well not to get sacked.
The win was undoubtedly an impressive statement by Ohio State to the rest of the Big Ten and to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee in particular. The Buckeyes were already sitting pretty in the top six and are all but certain to be the top one-loss team on Tuesday following Texas A&M’s loss to Mississippi State.
More importantly, they put several questions to rest after that kind of performance after several mediocre performances in the past three weeks and a late loss to Penn State.
As for Nebraska, the Cornhuskers will head home to regroup after back-to-back losses on the road to top 10 teams. They remain tied atop the Big Ten West standings but need some help to reach the conference title game as Wisconsin owns the tie-breaker based on their head-to-head win last Saturday.