Indiana football earned the perfect opportunity to snatch the soul from Ohio State. OSU quarterback Julian Sayin exited on a sling. Then, IU wideout Nick Marsh caught a 27-yarder all alone in the end zone.
Except officials ruled that end zone catch incomplete, creating a turnover on downs as IU faced a fourth-and-four.
Why? Because Marsh's foot stepped out of bounds, causing the refs to wave off the reception.
Ohio State, losers of the Big Ten title to this same Hoosiers team, escaped 19-15 in Bloomington. But Indiana's 22-game winning streak officially died on the sidelines. The botched touchdown attempt fired off a flurry of social media reactions after the incomplete pass.
“It feels like Ohio State has been on the receiving end of a lot of bad luck over the last few years. This time, the Buckeyes are the beneficiaries of some,” posted Ari Wasserman of On3 via the social media website X, formerly Twitter.
“My goodness Ohio State got so dang lucky!” added host of The Pivot Podcast Ryan Clark.
Andrew Jerrell Jones of the Bleav Network added a more unique take that would've perhaps prevented the incompletion.
“If Curt Cignetti allowed Nick Marsh to wear gold cleats today, Marsh would have had a game winning TD and another incredible Cignetti-Indiana win over Ohio State,” Jones posted.
Marsh would have finished with four receptions for 84 yards and two scores had the last touchdown counted. Indiana turned to Marsh to escape a possible meltdown against Nebraska just one week ago, scoring twice in under 12 minutes. But this time the Buckeyes grabbed the soul of the Hoosiers by inches.