Nick Marsh’s Left Foot Landed on the Paint and Indiana’s 22-Game Winning Streak Was Over
Indiana’s 22-game winning streak, the longest in the country, ended because a receiver’s left foot came down on a few inches of white paint.
Ohio State beat Indiana 19-15 in Bloomington on Saturday, and the game turned on one fourth-down throw with the clock under a minute. Nick Marsh caught the ball in the end zone. He also caught it with his foot on the sideline, and the officials ruled it incomplete on the field. The television replays backed them up by the thinnest margin available.
The play that ended 666 days
Indiana had fourth-and-4 at the Ohio State 27 with 1:07 to go. Curt Cignetti burned a timeout to settle the call. Marsh, a junior transfer from Michigan State, beat cornerback Cam Calhoun with a double move and had the sideline to himself. Josh Hoover put the ball a little too far toward the front corner, and Marsh ran out of room.
Incomplete, 1:02 left, turnover on downs. Luke Fahey took two knees and Indiana had lost its first game since December 20, 2024, a span of 666 days.
“Fourth-and-four, we were expecting a house blitz,” Cignetti said. “You never really know. You’re rolling the dice.”
Hoover would not let the throw land on his receiver. “It’s not Nick’s fault at all,” he said.
Indiana beat itself before the paint did
The last play is the one that will live on the internet, and it was not the reason Indiana lost. The Hoosiers came out after halftime and handed Ohio State the third quarter.
Davion Chandler got stripped by Jay Timmons on the opening possession of the second half, and Earl Little Jr. recovered at the Indiana 45. That fumble ended a streak of 1,437 plays from scrimmage without a lost fumble, the longest active run in the FBS. Connor Hawkins turned it into a 29-yard field goal. Seven offensive snaps later, Jaylen McClain strip-sacked Hoover and TJ Alford recovered at the Ohio State 38.
“Offense came out in the third quarter, turned it over the first two series,” Cignetti said.
Nico Radicic also missed from 32 yards late in the first half and from 55 in the third quarter. Hoover threw for 296 yards on 40 attempts without an interception, and Charlie Becker caught nine balls for 165. Indiana outgained Ohio State 369 to 313 and lost anyway.
Both Ohio State touchdowns came on fourth down
Ryan Day’s team went 2-for-2 on fourth down and scored a touchdown each time. Julian Sayin hit Bo Jackson for two yards with seven seconds left in the first half, then found Jeremiah Smith for 38 yards on fourth-and-1 from the Indiana 38 early in the fourth quarter. Smith had this one circled. “We remember what happened Dec. 6,” he said, pointing at the Big Ten title game Indiana won 13-10 last December on its way to a national championship.
The win cost Ohio State something real. Sayin left at 7:38 of the fourth quarter with a right arm injury after going 15-of-29 for 235 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, both of them picked off by Amare Ferrell. “It looks like Julian will be out several weeks,” Day said.
Ohio State is 6-1 and alone atop the Big Ten at 4-0, with an open date before a trip to USC on October 31. Indiana is 6-1 and still in good playoff shape, though its 19-game home winning streak is gone and so is Cignetti’s unbeaten record at Memorial Stadium. The crowd of 54,532 watched the first top-five game ever played in that building.
Cignetti put the season in the right frame afterward: “We can accomplish anything we want, all our goals, except going undefeated.”
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.
