Dirty tackle by Northwestern defender on Ohio State football player angers fans

The Ohio State football team started off slowly, but was able to beat Northwestern pretty easily on Saturday at Wrigley Field. It was good to see the Buckeyes be able to make adjustments and recapture the dominant form we've seen them have for most of the season.

One of the players who helped them do that was receiver Jeremiah Smith. He is the best player the Buckeyes have and was awesome again in this one. He had 100 yards receiving yet again. While he had an insane attempt at a touchdown catch overturned, he was still a huge factor in this game.

One of the big plays he had was a play on the first drive the Ohio State Buckeyes had coming out of halftime. On third-and-five, he caught a pass over the middle and took it for 68 yards. It was the end of that play that had Ohio State football fans angry.

Northwestern defender twists Ohio State football player Jeremiah Smith's ankle after a tackle

At the end of the play, after Smith was already tackled, a Northwestern defender had a very dirty play. Robert Fitzgerald twisted Smith's ankle in what looked like an attempt to hurt him. Take a look at the play below and make your own judgment on what happened.

That is a completely unnecessary play from Fitzgerald. Smith is already down and the play is over. He just twists his ankle in a blatant attempt to cause injury. Smith did have to leave the game and get his ankle taped up after that, so his attempt to hurt him worked.

It was good to see Smith come back into the game the following drive, so he clearly wasn't injured. Still, that is a dirty play, and the Big Ten needs to do something about it. Fitzgerald needs to be suspended for at least a half after trying to hurt Ohio State's best player.

Since Smith went back out there, I would assume he'll be good to go next week against the Hoosiers. That's good because we know the Buckeyes will need him. He's their best player.