Twenty-two straight wins ended on a strip of white paint. No. 4 Ohio State beat No. 5 Indiana 19-15 in Bloomington on Saturday, and the Hoosiers lost it on the last play of the game by the width of a toe.
Fourth-and-4 near the Ohio State 27, just over a minute on the clock, Indiana down four. Josh Hoover put the ball in the back corner of the end zone. Nick Marsh came down with it. His left foot came down on the line. Incomplete, turnover on downs, Buckeyes kneel it out.
The Call Was Correct, and Indiana Has No Grievance
This is already being described as a touchdown that got overturned. That is wrong. Officials ruled the pass incomplete on the field because Marsh’s foot was out, and replays confirmed the ruling by the narrowest possible margin. The system worked exactly as designed.
Hoover’s throw drifted a hair to the left, which is the entire story of the play. Marsh, who transferred in from Michigan State in January and has been Indiana’s best receiver, had to reach and fade toward the sideline to get it. Half a yard of ball placement in the other direction and Indiana is 7-0 with a win over Ohio State on the resume.
Marsh does not deserve a second of grief for this. He had already caught the 19-yard touchdown from Hoover that got Indiana within striking distance, and he put himself in position to win the game on the final snap. Receivers who never get open never get blamed.
Ohio State Won This With Its Defense and a Freshman
Here is what should scare the rest of the Big Ten. Ohio State went into the toughest road environment on its schedule, held the most efficient offense in the country to 15 points, lost its starting quarterback, and still walked out with the win.
Julian Sayin was not good. He went 15-of-29 for 235 yards with two interceptions before leaving with his right arm in a sling, and Ryan Day said afterward that Sayin will miss several weeks. Ohio State’s last real offensive highlight was Sayin’s 38-yard touchdown to Jeremiah Smith on fourth-and-1 early in the fourth quarter, which built a 19-7 lead.
Indiana answered immediately with a 75-yard drive capped by the Marsh touchdown and a two-point conversion pass to Turbo Richard, cutting it to 19-15 with 10:30 left. Then the Buckeye defense held for ten and a half minutes against a team riding the longest active winning streak in the FBS.
Hoover finished 20-of-40 for 296 yards with a touchdown and a lost fumble. Forty attempts for 296 yards and one score. That is a defense dictating terms.
Both Teams Are Still Playoff Teams
Ohio State is 6-1 and 4-0 in the Big Ten, which puts the conference race firmly in Columbus hands even with Sayin out. The caveat is enormous: if freshman Luke Fahey has to start multiple games against this remaining schedule, the Buckeyes ceiling drops fast.
Indiana is 6-1 and 3-1. Curt Cignetti’s team lost by four on the road to a top-five opponent on the final snap of the game, and the committee is going to see that for what it is. The streak is gone. The season is not.
Still, this one will follow Indiana into December. The Hoosiers had the play and they had the catch. They just did not have the inch.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.