OSU’s Fields makes time count

The Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS

Little-used Ohio State junior receiver Chris Fields helped save the Buckeyes with a sliding touchdown catch with three seconds to play in regulation Saturday.

But first he had to pick a punt off the ground to preserve valuable seconds. Before that, he had to work hard enough in practice to earn some playing time halfway through the season.

But first he had to pick a punt off the ground to preserve valuable seconds. Before that, he had to work hard enough in practice to earn some playing time halfway through the season.

Before that had to decide he still wanted to be a Buckeye.

After all that, maybe a touchdown catch in Ohio State’s 29-22 win over Purdue wasn’t so hard.

First, Fields stayed. In the battle for playing time at receiver, Fields had been an afterthought, barely mentioned by Urban Meyer, until he got in for a few plays last week. He had no catches before Saturday. In the midst of that battle, Fields, a Harvey grad, said he started thinking about his future, but he never thought about leaving Ohio State.

“I would never leave,” Fields said. “I would be dumb to leave this wonderful university. I was just thinking about some plans after football.

“I just worked, and worked with the special teams and was hustling my butt off every day, and just waiting on my moment. I really kept a positive mindset and had a little bit of faith and it all paid off.”

“Chris Fields is a product of our program,” Meyer said. “Three weeks ago he wouldn’t have been on the field. But he just changed his whole dynamic, the way he works, his practice habits and his performance.”

So Fields earned the right to lead the Buckeyes with three catches for 44 yards against Purdue, even after dropping a big throw in the middle of the field on third down. He was there in the end to get his hands under Kenny Guiton’s low throw in the final seconds.

“I knew I caught it. I had it, no question,” Fields said.

Before that, he helped make the final 61-yard tying drive in the final 47 seconds possible. Back as the punt returner with Philly Brown injured, Fields picked the ball off the ground and returned it nine yards with defenders right on him. Had he let it go, another 10 seconds might have ticked off the clock before Purdue downed it.