Noah Brown’s circus catch summed up Ohio State’s victory over Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
Even when Sooners were in the right place, things went the Buckeyes’ way.
In the closing seconds of the first half, Noah Brown reached around Michiah Quick and held onto Quick and a pass from J.T. Barrett while falling out of bounds for a 21-yard touchdown reception.
“I did see it when I caught it,” Brown said. “When I had it behind his back, I was just thinking, ‘Just hold on until I get to the ground and try to make this play,’ and I was able to do it.”
Brown, who entered the game with five catches and one touchdown in his career, tied a school record with four touchdown receptions as No. 3 Ohio State rolled past No. 14 Oklahoma 45-24 on Saturday night.
“Anytime J.T. puts the ball in the air, he’s putting trust in me, and I try to come down with the ball for him,” Brown said. “I have my quarterback’s back. It felt good to be able to make that play and put some points on the board.”
Barrett passed for 152 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 74 yards for the Buckeyes (3-0), a team that lost 16 starters from last year’s squad and was playing in a hostile environment for the first time this season.
“This was the coming-of-age game,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said. “I just made a comment earlier about that, I took a deep breath and as I just watched our guys be on the buses, I thought, ‘My gosh, this is a young team.’ This was for a lot of them their first road experience. I’m very proud of them.”
Mike Weber ran for 123 yards, pacing an attack that pounded out 291 yards rushing in a game that started 90 minutes late because of a storm.
“Our inability to stop the run. … They got us out of a lot of our stuff and made it a physical game, and we didn’t react well to it,” Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said.
Oklahoma (1-2), which lost its opener to Houston, was in desperate need of a big win to keep its hopes of returning to the College Football Playoff alive. Instead, a school-record home crowd of 87,979 watched the Sooners get dominated for most of the night. Ohio State led 35-17 at halftime.
Now, the Sooners turn their focus to Big 12 play.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to win the Big 12,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. “We’ll keep a positive attitude. We’ll keep working to improve and do our best to have a better showing when we get back on the field in a couple of weeks.”
Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield passed for 226 yards and two touchdowns, but he threw two interceptions.
Ohio State’s Curtis Samuel broke loose for a 36-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 to open the scoring. The Buckeyes threatened to break the game open when Jerome Baker scored on a 68-yard interception return, but Oklahoma’s Joe Mixon returned the kickoff 97 yards for a score.
Ohio State seized momentum for good when Marshon Lattimore intercepted a pass by Mayfield, then Brown caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Barrett on the next play to give the Buckeyes a 28-10 lead.
North Dakota State 23, No. 13 Iowa 21: Cam Pedersen kicked a 37-yard field as time expired and North Dakota State pulled off a 23-21 upset of No. 13 Iowa on Saturday in Iowa City for its sixth straight win over an FBS opponent.
The Bison went for a 2-point conversion down 21-20 with 3:41 left, but couldn’t punch it in. North Dakota State’s defense then held, and quarterback Easton Stick’s 29-yard run put the Bison in position for the biggest win in school history.
The loss was just the fourth by an FBS team to an FCS school. North Dakota State isn’t just another Football Championship Subdivision team, though. The Bison have won the last five FCS national titles.
Against the Hawkeyes, they ran for 239 yards and held Iowa to 231 total yards.
Stick had 124 yards passing and a touchdown for the Bison (3-0), who also snapped Iowa’s nine-game home winning streak.
C.J. Beathard had three TD passes for Iowa (2-1). But the Hawkeyes ran for just 34 yards on 25 carries.
Nebraska 35, No. 22 Oregon 32: Tommy Armstrong Jr. scored on a 34-yard quarterback draw with 3:30 left, the Nebraska defense held on Oregon’s final series and the Cornhuskers beat the No. 22 Ducks 35-32 on Saturday.
Armstrong converted a fourth-and-9r with a 14-yard pass to Jordan Westerkamp before taking off on his winning run for the Huskers (3-0).
The Ducks, playing without star running back Royce Freeman since early in the game, made it to midfield on their last possession, failing to convert on fourth down.
Armstrong finished with 95 yards rushing, and completed 17 of 33 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns. Devine Ozigbo also ran for 95 yards.
Kani Benoit rushed six times for 100 yards to lead the Ducks (2-1), and Dakota Prukop passed for 146 yards and ran for 87.
The win was a big one for Nebraska coach Mike Riley, who was 0-7 against Ducks from 2008-14, his last seven years as Oregon State’s coach.
Prukop led a 10-play, 97-yard drive to put the Ducks ahead 32-28 after they had surrendered a 20-7 second-quarter lead. Prukop busted a 22-yard run and Benoit a 46-yarder and Prukop hit Darren Carrington to convert a third-and-12 before Tony Brooks-James scored from the 1.
Freeman went out of the game on the Ducks’ second possession after running five times for 31 yards.
Maryland 30, UCF 24 (2OT): Maryland freshman quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome replaced starter Perry Hills and on his only play of the game raced 24 yards for the game-winning score in a 30-24 double-overtime win for the Terrapins over UCF on Saturday night.
UCF freshman quarterback McKenzie Milton, making his first career start, committed his sixth fumble of the night and fourth turnover to begin the second overtime, setting the stage for Pigrome’s heroics.
The Knights tied the game early in the fourth quarter on a 42-yard field goal by Matthew Wright with 12:04 remaining. Neither offense was able to score again in regulation.
Milton started in place of UCF senior Justin Holman, who was injured last week at Michigan.
After struggling early in the first half, Hills and the Maryland offense settled down and began to capitalize on big plays. Hills 51-yard completion to receiver Teldrick Morgan helped set up Adam Greene’s 33-yard field as time expired in the second quarter to give the Terps a 10-7 edge at halftime.
The Knights held a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when Milton found running back Dontravious Wilson for a four-yard touchdown late in the second quarter. But Milton became erratic in the second quarter, committing two of his three first-half turnovers that allowed Maryland to get back into the game.
No. 9 Wisconsin 23, Georgia State 17: Backup quarterback Alex Hornibrook led No. 9 Wisconsin to three scoring drives in the second half, helping the sluggish Badgers avert an embarrassing upset with a 23-17 win on Saturday in Madison over Georgia State.
Hornibrook took over for Bart Houston late in the third quarter with Wisconsin stuck in an offensive malaise. The freshman finished 8 of 12 for 122 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Penniston with 7:25 left to give the Badgers the lead for good, 20-17.
Wisconsin (3-0) heads into Big Ten play next week at No. 12 Michigan State with questions at quarterback. Houston, a senior making his third career start, was 10 of 18 for 91 yards.
Georgia State (0-3) played well after losing its first two games by a combined 79-35.
Conner Manning threw for a career-high 269 yards and a score. Kyler Neal’s 9-yard touchdown run with 11:36 left gave the Panthers a brief lead before the Badgers defense reasserted itself.
No. 4 Michigan 45, Colorado 28: De’Veon Smith gave Michigan the lead with a 42-yard run early in the third quarter and the No. 4 Wolverines pulled away to beat Colorado 45-28 on Saturday.
The Wolverines (3-0) were behind 21-7 in the first quarter and by four points in the opening minute of the second half.
The Buffaloes (2-1) got to midfield on the final possession, but they were more than a Hail Mary away by the end of the matchup, which rekindled memories of Kordell Stewart’s 64-yard pass to Michael Westbrook in 1994 in the same stadium.
It didn’t help that Sefo Liufau was hurt after throwing his third TD pass, a 70-yarder to Shay Fields that put Colorado up 28-24 just after halftime.
Liufau, who was shaken up in the first half, grabbed his right ankle after Ryan Glasgow hit him on the go-ahead score. The senior quarterback limped through Colorado’s next series before being replaced by freshman Steven Montez.
Penn State 34, Temple 27: Trace McSorley completed 18 of 24 passes for 287 yards with one touchdown and an interception and rushed for another score to lead Penn State to a 34-27 win against Temple on Saturday in State College, Pa.
A year after the Nittany Lions (2-1) were embarrassed in a season-opening loss to the Owls, Penn State scored on three of its first five drives to take a 21-10 halftime lead. Although he left the game with a left leg injury on the first play, running back Saquon Barkley returned in the second half and ended Temple’s comeback bid with a 55-yard touchdown run with less than eight minutes to play.
Receiver Chris Godwin caught a 52-yard touchdown pass, Andre Robinson and McSorley added short touchdown runs and Tyler Davis kicked two field goals for Penn State.
Temple running back Jahad Thomas returned after missing the first two games with a dislocated left thumb and scored twice for the Owls (1-2). Quarterback Phillip Walker ran for another touchdown and Austin Jones kicked two field goals.
Penn State also honored Joe Paterno on the 50th anniversary of his first game. The in-game video presentation drew cheers from ardent fans in Beaver Stadium, but also drew criticism from some who said honoring Paterno is insensitive to victims in the school’s sex abuse scandal.
Rutgers 37, New Mexico 28: Wide receiver Janarion Grant threw for a touchdown and had a go-ahead 69 yard punt return for another score as Rutgers rallied from an early 21-point deficit and defeated New Mexico 37-28 on Saturday in Piscataway, N.J.
Halfback Robert Martin rushed for a career-high 169 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown, and Chris Laviano threw a 75-yard scoring pass to Jawuan Harris in helping the Scarlet Knights (2-1) overcome a big deficit for the second straight week.
David Bonagura kicked three second-half field goals, including two in the final 5:30, in keeping new coach Chris Ash unbeaten at home.
Daryl Chestnut scored on a 19-yard run, Austin Apodaca threw a 36-yard TD pass to Patrick Reed and Lamar Jordan scored on a 52-yard run in giving the Lobos (1-2) a 21-0 lead late in the first quarter. Richard McQuarley scored on a 22-yard fourth-quarter run to get New Mexico within 31-28, but Bonagura added two field goals to put the game out of reach.
This was the second straight game that Grant was the difference. He had three touchdowns in rallying the Scarlet Knights against Howard, and he had a hand in three scores against the Lobos, with a late 33-yard punt return setting up the final field goal.
Associated Press
