By Jon Spencer
Mansfield News Journal

COLUMBUS - While an entire Buckeye Nation tossed and turned in its sleep, Ohio State placekicker Mike Nugent talked confidently of starting new streaks.

It was 1 a.m. Sunday, and Nugent was the first player to come out of the locker room to meet with reporters after the Buckeyes' prime-time collapse at Northwestern.

The senior co-captain had made all seven of his field-goal attempts inside the 50 this season before missing a 40-yarder in overtime that would have put the Buckeyes in front. Northwestern responded with a one-yard touchdown run by Noah Herron for a 33-27 victory, snapping a 24-game losing streak to the Buckeyes.

"I hope everyone can throw it out the door like I can," Nugent said. "I don't care who you lose to. One thing coach (Jim) Tressel says a lot is that life is more how you react to things. We faced a lot of adversity (Saturday), and we're going to have to do everything we can to make up for it these next couple of weeks."

The Buckeyes (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) host 5-0 Wisconsin on Saturday and then face a rough test at Iowa, winner of 14 straight home games. OSU is hoping to avoid its first 0-3 start in the league since 1988.

The Badgers celebrated the return of tailback Anthony Davis (eye injury) with a 24-7 win over Illinois, holding their fifth straight opponent to a touchdown or less. Davis rushed for 213 yards and three touchdowns, helping No. 15 Wisconsin leapfrog 18th-ranked OSU in the Associated Press poll.

The Buckeyes are 15th in the coaches' poll, one spot in front of the Badgers.

"We've got a good team," linebacker Bobby Carpenter said. "We're going to respond to this and come out next week and play hard. We played hard. We just didn't get the job done."

That was a colossal understatement.

The Ohio State offense was held to 10 points for the first 3 1/2 quarters by a defense yielding 35 points and 450 yards a game. OSU's defense wasn't any better as Northwestern amassed 444 yards, an output eclipsed in the last two-plus seasons only by Michigan's 448 in last year's Big Ten title-clinching 35-21 victory over the Buckeyes.

Ohio State's general malaise rubbed off on Nugent, who was 10 of 11 on field goal tries - the only miss from 53 yards - before his errant boot in overtime wasted a 10-point, fourth-quarter comeback by the Buckeyes.

"We shouldn't have put ourselves in a position to have to come back," said quarterback Justin Zwick, who shook off an end zone interception and costly fumble to bring the Buckeyes back.

"We had been in a lot of close games and had always come out on top. We knew we weren't going to be able to do that someday. We'll have to learn from that and work hard to get better."

Nugent had been Superman for Ohio State, so when he failed in a clutch situation it was almost as if his teammates sensed there wouldn't be a fairy tale finish this time. It took Northwestern only four plays to capitalize, the clock striking midnight - actually 12:38 a.m. - on Herron's short burst after a painfully-easy 21-yard pickup by quarterback Brett Basanez.

"I could care less about (my) reputation," Nugent said. "I felt I let my team down. People say it doesn't matter because they scored a touchdown anyway. But I think if we had kicked that field goal, we would have built on that momentum."

Carpenter rejected the notion that Nugent's miss deflated the defense.

"I'll take Mike Nugent on my team any day," he said. "He's going to miss a kick now and then, but he's a great kicker."

Carpenter, like Nugent, talked about this being a character-building week for the Buckeyes.

"You really see how good a team is by how they bounce back after a loss," Carpenter said. "We're going to prepare hard and come out fighting against Wisconsin."

It's going to take more than tough talk. It's going to take the kind of resolve the offense showed in the fourth quarter. In rallying the Buckeyes from a 27-17 deficit, Zwick scrambled four times for 22 yards and completed four-of-five passes for 69 yards on the game-tying touchdown march. The payoff was a leaping 21-yard grab by Santonio Holmes, who scored in the second quarter on a 63-yard punt return and finished with 99 yards on 10 receptions.

"There will be some things where we'll look at the film and say, You know what? We got better at some things,' " Tressel said. "I think we'll see some things to build on. That's when you find out a little about yourself. It's easy to build on wins. Are you willing to build on (games) that aren't wins?"