Ohio State faced its toughest test this season without head coach Urban Meyer. In their last game without Meyer, the Buckeyes beat TCU 40-28 in a thrilling game in Dallas.

With College Gameday being in Fort Worth and the actual game being played in AT&T Stadium in Dallas, excitement was running high between all players and fans, showing signs this was going to be an exciting game, which it in fact was. A back and forth battle between the Buckeyes and Horned Frogs was going to be a test of who would get tired first. TCU lost that battle, but don’t count the Horned Frogs out. Even though they lost, TCU showed they can stay competitive against a top 5 team.

TCU had a one-point lead going into halftime. In their second possession of the second half, Darius Anderson had a 16 yard rushing touchdown to increase TCU’s lead to 21-13 with 10:43 left to play in the third quarter. With 6:58 minutes remaining, the momentum changed. Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins threw a 63 yard pass to Parris Campbell for a touchdown (two-point conversion failed) to be within a field goal of the Horned Frogs. It was all Ohio State after that. TCU’s next possession was cut short with Shawn Robinson pass intercepted by Dre’Mont Jones for a pick 6. The 268-pound defensive tackle ran through several TCU players for Ohio State’s second defensive touchdown of the game. Ohio State was leading the game once again and wouldn’t be behind again. TCU started to make a comeback and brought Ohio State’s lead down to five in the third quarter with a 51 yard pass from Robinson to TreVontae Hights. But the comeback fell short and was shut down with Ohio State scoring on their next possession by a five yard run by Dwayne Haskins to make the score 40-28. The Buckeyes win was officially secured when Malik Harrison intercepted TCU’s Shawn Robinson’s pass with 2:36 left in the game.

In the beginning of the third quarter, Ohio State’s all-star defensive end Nick Bosa was injured and would not return. Even without him, the Buckeyes were able to take control and beat TCU, which brought hope to the rest of the Buckeye defense considering Bosa might not return for a while. Bosa is projected to be a first round draft pick this year. He has already had four sacks this season in the less than three games he has played. He will not return for Ohio State’s upcoming game against Tulane, but no other information about the injury has been released yet.